Ryan Truex drove a stellar race – leading six times for 28 laps – and made the right decisions on the final, overtime restart to score his second win of the season – in just his eighth start. Truex, who won earlier in the year at Dover, added to the accolades of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, who have won six races with four different drivers (Truex, Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell and John Hunter Nemechek).
Chandler Smith, who earlier in the day won the first pole for Toyota in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona since 2016, had a strong race as the Georgia-native led 15 laps and finished second. Joe Gibbs Racing had three Toyota GR Supras finish in the top-10 as Sheldon Creed was scored eighth – his fourth straight top-10 finish.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Daytona International Speedway
Race 22 of 33 – 250 Miles, 100 Laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, RYAN TRUEX
2nd, CHANDLER SMITH
3rd, Parker Kligerman*
4th, Riley Herbst*
5th, Ryan Sieg*
8th, SHELDON CREED
12th, JOE GRAF JR.
28th, JEFFREY EARNHARDT
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
RYAN TRUEX, No. 20 Certified Collision Center Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What was the plan there on the final restart?
“I didn’t really have one to be honest. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted the top or the bottom. I restarted on both lanes and felt like neither of them were great, but I fell back in 2018 – I had the lead, and I took the top and I lost the race and I didn’t want to do that again, so I figured I would try the opposite of that and go to the bottom. Riley (Herbst) gave me a crazy push, so shout out to him. He didn’t wreck me – just straight up pushed me. Once the restart shook out, I was just listening to Tyler (Green, spotter) telling me where to block. AJ (Allmendinger) – I knew he had a run coming to the white. I knew he was going to go for it going into (turn) one and I got lucky, and all of those guys hit each other, and the caution came out. Here we are.”
What does this show to the racing world with how few races you’ve ran this year?
“It shows I’m versatile. We’ve won at Dover and Daytona – can’t be more opposite. This is my eighth race of the year – period. I don’t race late models or trucks or ARCA or any of that stuff. I do my sim work at TRD during the week, and that is my main focus and on weekends that I get to race, I put all of my effort into this car. To be able to add to the list of winners they’ve had in this car is really special.”
What does it mean to you to call yourself a winner at Daytona?
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, but I’m sure it will. I might not feel too good tomorrow so maybe after that it will sink in – but it feels really good though.”
CHANDLER SMITH, No. 81 QuickTie Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
What was the run late like for you?
“I was getting a run from behind, and I was trying to time my runs precisely to where I could time it right and still have forward momentum to poke bottom. It looked like the 16 (AJ Allmendinger) started to go bottom and it was just all bad pushes at that time. I was getting pushed out back. There wasn’t much I could do. I was already squirrelly. Just extremely, extremely happy for everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. I mean this in a very nice way – we had not been good on superspeedways for a very, very, very long time on the Xfinity program. We went to Indy and was solid. We had our break. Went to Michigan and was firing on all cylinders and then we came here today and sat on the pole. That is huge for us, and now we are sitting in victory lane – just a huge statement to all of the men and women back at the shop. Really, really fast No. 81 QuickTie Products Toyota GR Supra – as fast as Xfinity internet today, just couldn’t time my run good enough and it wasn’t in the cards today.”
Golin for Toyota Racing PR
