Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) teammates Brandon Jones (second) and Chandler Smith (third) tallied top-five finishes at Arizona’s one-mile ISM Raceway during Friday night’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series
ISM Raceway
Race 22 of 23 – 150 Laps, 150 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Stewart Freisen*
2nd, BRANDON JONES
3rd, CHANDLER SMITH
4th, Ben Rhodes*
5th, Grant Enfinger*
7th, HARRISON BURTON
13th, AUSTIN HILL
14th, TODD GILLILAND
16th, DYLAN LUPTON
17th, TANNER GRAY
22nd, NATALIE DECKER
24th, ANTHONY ALFREDO
26th, TYLER ANKRUM
31st, DEREK KRAUS
*non-Toyota driver
• Brandon Jones (second) was the highest finishing Toyota Tundra driver in Friday night’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Arizona’s ISM Raceway.
• Chandler Smith (third) earned his fourth top-five finish in five starts this season.
• Harrison Burton (seventh) also finished in the top at the one-mile Arizona oval.
TOYOTA QUOTES
BRANDON JONES, No. 51 DuPont Air Filtration Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 2nd
What more did you need in the closing laps?
“We were close. I hate it for these guys. I wanted to win a Truck race. Who knows, I may have an opportunity in the future to do it again. These guys build awesome trucks and I’ve neer been able to run for a team quite like this, and it’s been fun this year. They’re going to go for a championship at Homestead, hopefully they can pull it off. Good luck to Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and all those guys. DuPont came on board this weekend. I should have hit him maybe in turns three and four, but I don’t know, that comes back around, too. Maybe it will help me out in the future, but I doubt it.”
CHANDLER SMITH, No. 46 iBUYPOWER/828 Logistics Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 3rd
How does it feel to finish third in Phoenix?
“Finished top three and it’s the second top three for me this year. Overall these guys gave me a heck of an 828 Logistics iBUYPOWER Toyota Tundra tonight. We ended up third, and the type of truck we had tonight was just a third-place truck. It was a little too snug there at the end there to catch the 52 (Stewart Friesen), but hats off to them. Hats off for a really good season, we’re going to go give them hell next year.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 7th
How was your race?
“We started in the back, which didn’t help us any. We had to find our way through a lot of traffic and a lot of crazy moments. Air is really big here, bigger than it was here last year. We really struggled with getting tighter behind people. I don’t know if that’s something we did different, or something that is different about the package. The splitters are a little different. It was a tough race. We were really, really good in practice and I thought we were going to have a shot at the pole, and a shot to win and lady luck just had other ideas.”
AUSTIN HILL, No. 16 AISIN Group Toyota Tundra, Hattori Racing Enterprises
Finishing Position: 13th
What was the ailment to the truck late in the race?
“We just didn’t have any short run speed. I hate it for my guys. I just couldn’t do anything on the restarts. The front end would slide, the rear would slide and during that last long green flag run, it was terrible. I was sliding the front end really bad and just couldn’t put the throttle down and really had to wait on it a lot. I hate that we finished where we did, especially after qualifying from the pole. I definitely had high hopes for the race after qualifying on the pole and showing speed in second practice. We’ll move on to Homestead and regroup for next year.”
Did you make big changes to the truck for the final run?
“We made very minor changes. The changes were actually to free up the truck. I don’t know if the track went through a change or what on the last run, but we were the tightest we had been all night. Just couldn’t ever pass. I was faster than the three or four guys that were in front of me. Every time I got close to them, I would get tighter. Just a bummer.”
How much were you made aware of where Matt Crafton was running during the race?
“Never was made aware of it, not once. That’s what I told the guys before the race started, that’s the way I wanted it. I just wanted to go out there and finish the best I possibly could and wherever we ended up, we ended up. If we made it, we made it and if we didn’t, we didn’t.”
Do you feel this season made a statement in your career?
“I definitely felt like I made somewhat of a statement, but I really wanted to bring back a championship back-to-back for these guys. That’s the only thing that’s really frustrating about it is I feel like I didn’t achieve that this year. I marked off all the other boxes except for at least giving us a shot at Homestead and we didn’t do that.”
Did you learn anything from this Playoff run that you can take with you for next season?
“A little bit. Obviously that stage points are huge. Stage points can make the next round or not make the next round. The 88 (Matt Crafton) hasn’t won a race all year and he’s in the final four so if that tells you anything about how stage points work.”
TYLER ANKRUM, No. 17 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra, DGR-Crosley
Finishing Position: 26th
What will you take away from the 2019 season and getting to the Round of 6?
“Obviously, not the night we wanted. A lot of things didn’t go our way and we ended up getting with the 98 (Grant Enfinger) and just didn’t happen the way we wanted it to. It was just one of those deals. We had the right front tire towed out a lot and that just pretty much ruined our night. I was limping it around from there.”
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