Story By: SAM MAHONEY / TOYOTA RACING – DARLINGTON, SC – Ty Gibbs had a strong race as the reigning Rookie of the Year led 34 laps and delivered a career-best runner-up finish at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. Gibbs was one of three Toyota Camry XSE’s inside the top-10 with Denny Hamlin scored in fourth and Bubba Wallace in seventh.
Tyler Reddick had the dominate car from the pole as the California-native won the second stage and led a career-best 174 of 293 laps. He was racing with the leader in the final laps before being involved in an on-track incident, which led to a 32nd-place finish. With Wallace’s additional six laps led, 23XI Racing set a new team-best with 180 laps led in a single race.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Darlington Raceway
Race 13 of 36 – 400.238 miles, 293 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Brad Keselowski*
2nd, TY GIBBS
3rd, Josh Berry*
4th, DENNY HAMLIN
5th, Chase Briscoe*
7th, BUBBA WALLACE
13th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
19th, ERIK JONES
25th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
31st, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
32nd, TYLER REDDICK
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TY GIBBS, No. 54 He Gets Us Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
What more did you need in the closing laps?
“I feel like I need to get better at passing and driving in dirty air. That is where I feel like I lacked today. My car was really great. Still kind of fighting some numbers on balance, but I feel like we were really, really good. Thank you to He Get Us. All glory to God. Thanks to Toyota, Monster Energy, Interstate Batteries – and my family and my great mom. Happy Mother’s Day.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Yahoo Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Denny, it looked like it just lacked a little bit all day. How was it from your perspective?
“I’ve got to look at it. We had a lot of damage from the 12 (Ryan Blaney) incident off of turn two. It knocked the nose in, knocked the splitter up, so that certainly played a factor, but certainly didn’t feel like we were as strong on the long run like we usually are. Below average day for the Yahoo Camry, but to finish fourth on a below average day – that’s alright.”
ERIK JONES, No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 19th
How was your race?
“Just a long day with our AdventHealth Camry. We didn’t have the balance quite were we needed it, and obviously started deep. We made the most of it, and ended up with a top-20, which I think was a win for today. We’ve got to make it better. We will try to make the All-Star next week in North Wilkesboro and will work on our mile-and-a-half program for the next one.”
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 MoneyLion Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 32nd
Can you talk about what happened at the end of that race and the conversation that followed?
“Honestly, I think it went as probably as good as it could have. Everything he said was accurate to be honest. He raced me respectfully, and I got really aggressive.”
What transpired there at the end of the race and here on pit road?
“I completely understand where he is coming from. He was running the top, running his own race, running his own line to keep me at bay. I made a really aggressive move and was hoping I was going to clear him, when I realized, I wasn’t going to, I tried to check up to not slide up into him, but yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that. I completely understand why he is that mad. He did nothing wrong. Just trying to win the race, and to take myself out – that’s one thing – I can live with that, but just disappointed it played out the way that it did, and I took him out of the race as well. That was not the goal there. If I was going to go for it, I was hoping I was going to clear him. If I hit the wall, pop a tire – I take myself out, I can live with that – it’s tough to walk away knowing I used someone up, and took away their chance of winning the race, that has raced me really cleanly since he came in the Cup Series. Just have to work on that and try to make some better decisions going forward.”