Three Toyota Supras finished in the top-10 in the season-opening NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at Daytona International Speedway.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Daytona International Speedway
Race 1 of 33 – 300 miles, 120 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Austin Cindric*
2nd, Brett Moffitt*
3rd, HARRISON BURTON
4th, Jeb Burton*
5th, AJ Allmendinger*
8th, BRANDON GDOVIC
9th, DANIEL HEMRIC
14th, TY DILLON
25th, ROBBY LYONS
38th, BRANDON JONES
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
HARRISON BURTON, No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
What were you trying to do on the last lap to try to get to the win?
“I was trying to break my high school classmate’s ankles (Austin Cindric). I was trying to fake low and go high. It didn’t work out for me. I thought the 02 (Brett Moffitt) – I don’t know if he wasn’t clear or not – but I thought if I drug down, he would come with me. I’ve got a lot to learn and I learned a lot really quickly. That was fun. That was probably my best plate race that I’ve driven in a while and that’s exciting. I’m excited to work with this DEX Imaging Toyota team. My spotter, Tyler Green, did an amazing job. What a great first race for us. We battled some adversity and I think our team is coming together nice, so we should be able to win some races.”
BRANDON GDOVIC, No. 26 Toyota Racing Toyota Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
How was your race tonight?
“Sam (Sam Hunt, team owner) and his guys needed the points here, so we really wanted to make sure that we had could get through some of the initial wrecks and have some cars to fall out there to guarantee him some more points. This was our plan from the beginning. First and second stages were total cruise mode and kind of learn. The first part of the second half of the race we were picking it up a little bit trying to choose where we wanted to cruise a little bit more just to try to be there at the end to battle. There was two or three more cautions there, all in front of me, leading into those last 20 laps that picked us up some spots. From there, we were just hammer down trying to go to the front. I’m pretty happy for a good finish for this Sam Hunt Racing Toyota team. A clean car at Daytona is a rare thing to say with a decent finish, so I’m pretty happy with that.”
Can you talk about driving through all of those wrecks with a clean car?
“Some of it is luck. One of the things I’ve always been good at is avoiding crashes and just predicting them before they happen. I just really focused on when they started spinning not be erratic, just try to hold my line, be hard on the brakes, grab gears, just try to woe it down as much as I can and manuever through it. I had Chris Lambert (spotter) on the tower. He was a big help. He was talking me through them as well. I think if you make it through four, there is definitely some luck invovled to survive all four, but it was interesting for sure. I wasn’t planning on avoiding that mant, but glad we made it through them all.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Bounced back for a solid finish after a tough wreck. How was your race as a whole?
“It was a day to learn how far we could push ourselves. I’m proud of Dave Rogers (crew chief). The adversity we had to overcome as a group tonight in the Poppy Bank Toyota Supra – we were able to bounce back and make a solid day out of it. That’s what you’ve got to do in these moments. We’ve got several months to keep building toward our ultimate goal.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/Jeld-Wen Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 38th
That was a couple of hard hits out there. What started it?
“First off, we had a Supra that was capable of winning the race. Early on, that was one of my best races I’ve run on a superspeedway. I was doing my job. I was trying to block that lane. We were getting close to that stage end and I’m assuming the teammates were wanting to break off for that reason and try to get to the front. We were getting kind of left, so I was trying to make some last minute moves to try to protect myself as best as I could. It just didn’t work out, but I have so much condfidence after this race to go onto the next superspeedway, when we come back — I’m looking forward to it. I learned a bunch today. I just want to say thanks to Menards, Jeld-Wen. They do so much for my career and this race team. I’m looking forward to this year. It’s going to be a really good one for us.”
Toyota Racing PR
