Toyota Quotes - Texas
6/6/2013
Toyota NASCAR Camping World Truck Series - Notes & Quotes: Texas Motor Speedway, June 6, 2013
JOEY COULTER, No. 18 Darrell Gwynn Foundation Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
How was your Tundra during practice on Thursday at Texas?
“It was pretty good. Race trim, you know the truck handled great. We were able to run pretty much anywhere on the race track. I haven’t gone up in Brendan’s (Gaughan) groove yet, but we’ll get there before the night’s out, I’m sure. I was real happy with our Tundra, real happy with it. The only thing is not a whole lot of speed when we put it in qualifying trim. Nothing really changed, drove the same, just didn’t really pick up the time that we thought it should so we’re going to try a couple things different when we go to qualify, but real happy with our Tundra in race trim.”
What do you remember the most about your first career NCWTS victory at Pocono last year?
“The biggest thing I remember thinking is when I grabbed high gear and I was next to the Turner trucks, I said, ‘Man how come they’re not trying to block me?’ The seas kind of parted and we kind of got there. I really expected it to be a lot harder than that. I thought they were going to drive down through the infield and stuff. I don’t know, to this day it kind of surprises me that that didn’t happen. That was an awesome race, an awesome weekend. I am really looking forward to going back there and trying to do it again.”
What do you like about racing at Texas?
“I don’t know -- I've always loved racing here. It’s a fun place to race. It puts on an awesome truck race and I think a lot of our success here is just the communication I have with my crew chief. This place is one of those tracks that makes a big swing from the day time to the night time. We practice during the day and we qualify late afternoon and then race once it’s dark. I feel like having real good chemistry with your crew chief and knowing where your truck is at during the day and being able to anticipate where it’s going to be at night is a big part of it when you race here.”
Are you relieved that Kyle Busch isn’t racing at Texas this weekend since he’s won the last two NCWTS events?
“I don’t know. I’ve always enjoyed it when the Cup drivers or Nationwide drivers come back and race in the Truck Series because it really gives you -- one, it gives you a chance to compare yourself 100 percent to the guys that are racing on Sunday and two, obviously if you beat them it looks good and if you don’t beat them, usually if you pay attention, you can learn a lot from them. I really enjoy when Kyle (Busch) races. I know as being his teammate, I can get a ton more information from him while he’s driving basically the same equipment than texting him or calling him while he’s across the country. I really like it when he races.”
How do you prepare for Eldora and the Canada races?
“For the dirt race at Eldora, I’m really not sure how to get ready for that – it’s going to be wild. I have a dirt Late Model and I race it almost every off weekend, those cars are so purpose-built to run on dirt so the rear end moves, like six feet each direction and it’s got all kinds of stuff that I don’t even think you can put on a truck. I think it’s going to be a whole other ball game. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m going to rely on the ARCA races that I ran at Springfield (Ill.) and DuQuoin (Ill.) the past few years. That’s kind of how I think it’s going to be. As far as road course stuff, I’m sure I’ll make a trip out to Bondurant in Phoenix here pretty soon, that’s always helped me in the past. I’m sure we’ll go do a test somewhere just to kind of get everything straight. Who knows, we’ll see -- we're kind of playing it one race at a time right now and just seeing where things are before that race gets closer.”
Do you enjoy racing companion events with the IRL instead of other NASCAR series?
“As long as we’re here racing, it’s all good. I think it’s neat coming here with the Indy Cars because we’re used to our environment. Right now we have some down time so we can go over there and poke around and just kind of look at what their environment is like and get a different feel for it. Other than that, we could start racing on Tuesday and Wednesday by ourselves or with the World Rally racing group -- it doesn’t matter as long as we’re racing.”