Denny Hamlin (third) drove his Toyota Camry to a top-five finish in the NASCAR Cup Series race on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday evening.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt
Race 7 of 36 – 125 miles, 250 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Joey Logano*
2nd, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.*
3rd, DENNY HAMLIN
4th, Daniel Suarez*
5th, Ryan Newman*
17th, KYLE BUSCH
19th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
26th, TY DILLON
27th, BUBBA WALLACE
31st, MIKE MARLAR
34th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Did the damage play a factor in trying to chase down Joey Logano for the win?
“Probably, I couldn’t see a whole lot. I was kind of guessing, but I thought I could – on that last restart – run the top-end hard, but they didn’t prep it in-between cautions like they did before, so it was just marbles up there. I’m proud of this whole FedEx Camry team. Man, I thought I had a shot there. I cut the 22 (Joey Logano) too many breaks there when he was cutting us off, but at the end of the day it looked like he had a little bit better car in the long run. I’m proud of this whole team. We are third-best again.”
How did you get your dirt experience to finish third in today’s race?
“I watch a lot of TV and that’s about the only thing I could do there. Really had the top ripping there for a couple laps and that was my opportunity to get the 22 (Joey Logano). Ran him back down and then just kind of stalled out there behind him. I went back to the top and jumped the cushion, got a bunch of damage and that was all she wrote. All effort there.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Irwin Trade Strong Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 34th
What happened during the accident that ended your day?
“I was just trying to run the water in under yellow. I knew it was a little bit slick, but I felt like I could go up there and make some time and I kind of entered shallow underneath of it and tried to pick it up on exit and it was just really greasy up there. I hate it for all of our partners – IRWIN Tools, PristineAuction.com, Toyota, TRD. That was a lot of fun, being able to be out there for that first run was really cool and hate it that I can’t be out there longer.”
Toyota Racing PR
