Story By: SAM MAHONEY / TOYOTA RACING – ATLANTA, GA – Bubba Wallace led Toyota with a fifth-place finish in a wild NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday evening. Wallace, along with many of his Toyota teammates, were involved in a lap two multi-car accident, but the 23XI Racing driver moved back through the field to earn back-to-back top-five finishes to start the season for the first time in his career.
Ty Gibbs added another Toyota inside the top-10, bringing home his Toyota Camry XSE in the 10th spot. Gibbs had to battle back from damage and made a stellar save on his way to his first top-10 finish of the season.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race 2 of 36 – 400.4 miles, 260 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Daniel Suarez*
2nd, Ryan Blaney*
3rd, Kyle Busch*
4th, Austin Cindric*
5th, BUBBA WALLACE
10th, TY GIBBS
12th, MARTIN TRUEX, JR.
21st, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
23rd, DENNY HAMLIN
25th, ERIK JONES
30th, TYLER REDDICK
34th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 MoneyLion Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How would you describe that race and crazy finish?
“Yeah, shout out to Daniel (Suarez). Know he needed that. He’s been in that situation before, so nice to see him rise to the occasion. What a day. I’m so glad we’re done with superspeedway racing for a while. The mental toll it takes on you, to just making sure you make the right move for 260 laps, including the race last week too, is a lot. Team did a great job. I put us behind with that speeding penalty on pit road. Never gave up, though. Came from the back. Enjoying where we’re at right now. Just can’t get complacent. We get to go race the next couple weeks and really got to dig deep and figure out where we need to be better. I thought we had a fifth-place car and came home fifth. We checked all the things off, I just got to stop making mistakes and give ourselves a shot.”
TY GIBBS, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
A wild race and you had to battle through so much to score a top-10. Can you describe what the race was like from the drivers’ seat?
“It was a pretty eventful day for us. I kind of got shuffled out a good bit and got some damage but ended up finishing well. I appreciate all of the hard work from my 54 Monster Energy Toyota crew, and now we go to (Las) Vegas.”