Story By: SAM MAHONEY / TOYOTA RACING – RICHMOND, VA – Taylor Gray had a strong run to the end of the regular season, leading Toyota with a third-place finish at Richmond Raceway on Saturday evening. Gray, who clinched his spot in the Playoffs for the first time at the close of the first stage, claimed his fifth top-five finish of the season.
Taylor Gray will be joined in the Playoffs by his TRICON Garage teammate Corey Heim, who will be the number one overall seed on the strength of his series-leading five victories this season.
Tanner Gray, who entered Richmond five points above the cutline, finished 12th and missed the 10-driver Playoff field by 12 points.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Richmond Raceway
Race 16 of 23 – 250 Laps, 187.5 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Ty Majeski*
2nd, Christian Eckes*
3rd, TAYLOR GRAY
4th, Grant Enfinger*
5th, Layne Riggs*
12th, TANNER GRAY
16th, COREY HEIM
19th, TIMMY HILL
22nd, WILLIAM SAWALICH
25th, STEWART FRIESEN
27th, JUSTIN CARROLL
32nd, DEAN THOMPSON
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 3rd
Can you talk about the run you had tonight?
“I can’t thank all of my TRICON guys enough and Jeff Hensley (crew chief) on top of the box bringing me a really fast JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Just, honestly, I think I kind of ruined our chances of winning the race on that one restart where I fell back to 10th or so and it kind of just snow-balled from there. We got into the wall on the backstretch and got a little bit of a fender on the right front and it just caused us to get super tight there. The caution saved us, came down, got tires and Jeff made a good adjustment and we were able to drive back to third so can’t hang my head too much. It was a good points day for us and we’re running for a championship.”
Does it give you confidence going into the Playoffs knowing you’ve been successful on the short tracks?
“Yes, it does especially when Jeff (Hensley, crew chief) whipped everybody’s butt last year in Milwaukee and hopefully we do the same. Yeah, it defintiely does. We’ve struggled the last couple weeks so to go out and run third and content for a win is definitely a confident booster going into the last seven. Hopefully, just claw our way to the front.”
TANNER GRAY, No. 15 Operation 300 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 12th
What are your thoughts right now?
“We just weren’t good enough. All day, we just didn’t have the speed – didn’t have the balance. I didn’t do a good enough job. Really frustrated. I don’t know. You come into a race where you’re on the cut like this – you have to better, and we weren’t tonight. Congrats to Daniel (Dye). They were better, and they were better down the stretch when it mattered. We just made too many mistakes overall throughout the season – too sloppy, so we have to clean it up. I have got to clean up things on my end, and we just need to be better.”
COREY HEIM, No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 16th
What more did you need to get the win tonight?
“Just tires I guess. Easy way to say it. Honestly, we kind of struggled tonight overall. Was riding around in fifth and sixth all race. I was right there with him, I wanted to try something and put on some tires. I really think we had a good chance to win tonight. The 98 (Ty Majeski) was coming there at the end. I was on board with that strategy call. Just part of it. It didn’t fall our way tonight. I’m certainly just thankful for TRICON Garage, Safelite, Toyota Racing. I wish we could’ve had it go green there, but it is what it is.”
What did you learn last year that you can take into the Playoffs this year?
“Just perserverance I think is the main thing. I think we’re kind of in a dip right now just on overall speed with these last few short tracks. We haven’t had the speed we’ve wanted. Just got to regroup and understand what went wrong these last couple weeks and I’ve got to personally understand how I can do a better job during the week on the simulator to get these guys to give me a better truck. Overall, just have to reset and keep moving forward.”