Bubba Wallace (fifth) led Toyota at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with his career-best road course finish. It is Wallace’s third consecutive top-10 finish, which is a career-best. Christopher Bell also had a strong day – leading 17 laps and earning a stage win, before suffering damage due to a flat tire late in the event. Bell battled all the way back to finish 12th.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
Race 22 of 36 – 200 miles, 82 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Tyler Reddick*
2nd, Austin Cindric*
3rd, Harrison Burton*
4th, Todd Gilliland*
5th, BUBBA WALLACE
11th, KYLE BUSCH
12th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
14th, DENNY HAMLIN
17th, TY GIBBS
21st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
36th, DANIIL KVYAT
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 Embrace Home Loans Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
Three top-10 finishes in a row and now a top-five on a road course. How did that happen?
“Luck. I don’t know where we stacked up – top-20 all day. I’ve made improvements on road courses, but out there I feel like I’m busting out qualifying laps and it’s just good enough to get that position. I got to figure out where to gain speed. I’ve got a great team behind me. Everybody at 23XI, I appreciate it. They gave me a decent car – a decent car to go out and learn with and survive. A good day for Embrace – in their first race for us with our Toyota Camry TRD. It was a good day. Good day to come out of Indy with a surprising top-five.”
What does a top-five mean at Indianapolis?
“It’s a really cool place. The last couple of races on the oval we were top-10, so it’s good come back and be competitive somewhat today. I still have to do a lot of learning on these road courses, but surviving, staying in the game. Crew chief (Bootie Barker), crew, everyone at 23XI kept us in the game to have a finish like this, so it’s good.”
Can you talk me through those last few restarts?
“It wasn’t pretty. I closed my eyes on the at last one and I picked off four or five guys and the next thing you know, we were sixth. It just so happened to work out. I’m getting better slowly and slowly at these things. I want to be the best at these things, and I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m frustrated with myself, but happy with the luck finally changing around. It seems like we’ve been beat down so much over this year. We’ve got four races to go to continue to climb. I’m proud of this team. I’m proud of everyone on this Embrace Toyota Camry TRD. Just have to keep going. We’ve got Michigan coming up. I’m really strong there so I’m looking forward to that. Richmond and Daytona and Watkins Glen – have to survive there.”
Toyota racing PR
