NASCAR Cup

Watkins Glen: Toyota Thursday notes, quotes

Reliability Key to Hamlin's 'Chase' Chances Busch Back to Defend Watkins Glen Win Carpentier Returns for Waltrip NEWS, NOTES & NUMBERS: Toyota Camry drivers have combined for six wins (Kyle Busch -- Las Vegas, Bristol and Richmond; David ...

Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:35 PM

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Reliability Key to Hamlin's 'Chase' Chances
Busch Back to Defend Watkins Glen Win
Carpentier Returns for Waltrip

NEWS, NOTES & NUMBERS: Toyota Camry drivers have combined for six wins (Kyle Busch -- Las Vegas, Bristol and Richmond; David Reutimann -- Charlotte); Joey Logano -- New Hampshire; Denny Hamlin -- Pocono-2), 23 top-fives and 43 top- 10 finishes through 21 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) races this season ... Hamlin scored his third-career NSCS victory in eight starts at Pocono Raceway on Monday ... Patrick Carpentier will substitute for Michael Waltrip in the No. 55 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry at Watkins Glen this weekend ... Brian Vickers has posted four-straight top-10 finishes and has climbed to 14th in the NSCS point standings, only 104 points out of the 12th and final spot for the 'Chase' championship playoff.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

What would you like to see your team improve on heading into the 'Chase?' "Reliability. We've got to finish races. All season we would run top-five or we're in the garage 20 laps in with a mechanical failure of some sort. Reliability is number one on our priority list at (Joe) Gibbs Racing. It goes ahead of speed. It goes ahead of anything like that. We always go for reliability so we're trying to make sure we have a car that can finish a race. It seems like we always find the one thing that shouldn't go wrong does go wrong for us. It will turn around. I'm not discouraged by it. We're at least running well."

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M's Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

What's the key to winning at Watkins Glen? "Track position was very important last year and we were lucky that qualifying got rained out there and we started on the pole. But, we qualified second at Infineon. Hopefully, we can have a good qualifying lap and have some good track position from the start. We had a fast car, too, last year. Last year, the race went green for the first 40 laps. The field got kind of spread out. Luckily, we had the track position we did, but we were pretty quick and we could pass some guys. When you get to a guy and you don't get by him right away, and you start following him, then you start learning his line, and then you can't pass him because then you're trying to do something better than him -- it's easy to start over-driving your car. Hopefully, we have another car that turns pretty good and exits the corners pretty good so we can pass, if need be."

PATRICK CARPENTIER, No. 55 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing

What is the key to running well at Watkins Glen? "I think it's all about the momentum of the race. It is a little different than Sonoma because Sonoma is a lot more technical, in my opinion. With the double-file restarts, it is going to be tough. What I experienced at Sonoma, that new element was really tough. It was tough to stay on the track during restart after restart, so we'll just see how it goes. I think the restarts are going to make it really interesting."

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing

What do you think your team needs to do to make the 'Chase?' "A decent finish at Watkins Glen definitely comes to mind because I just haven't been historically a road course guy. At Sonoma, we actually would've had a pretty decent race if we would've finished in the neighborhood of 20th or 22nd, which obviously is not a great day, but for me on a road course it would've been a drastic improvement . We just got tangled up in a deal right there towards the end."

-credit: toyota motorsports

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