NASCAR News With Attitude

SpeedwayMedia.com

December 4, 2008

Toyota 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Statistics Starts Top-Top-Times Laps Races (Drivers) Wins 5s 10s Poles Led Let 36 353 (20) 10 44 72 5 218 3 472

10 FOR TOYOTA: Toyota Camry drivers earned 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) wins in 2008. Kyle Busch led the Camry contingent with eight victories in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Camry, Busch earned Toyota’s initial Cup triumph at Atlanta (March 9), followed by victories at Talladega (April 27), Darlington (May 10), California’s Infineon (June 22), Watkins Glen (Aug. 10), Dover (June 1), Daytona (July 5) and Chicagoland (July 12). Denny Hamlin visited victory lane at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway (March 30) and Tony Stewart crossed the finish line first at Talladega (Oct. 5).

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Busch earned Toyota’s first-ever NSCS victory in the fourth race of the 2008 season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The 23-year-old Las Vegas-native led  173 of 325 laps in the JGR No. 18 Snickers Camry en route to the checkered flag. Toyota’s inaugural NSCS victory came in the 40th race for the Camry since joining the series in 2007. Busch’s JGR teammate, Stewart, finished second to give Toyota a one-two sweep. “It was pretty special,” said Busch, after his Atlanta win. “We are fortunate to have Toyota on our side, giving us the help that we need. To win the first race for Toyota was fun. I’m sure they wanted it sooner, but I’m glad I was able to do it for them.”

UNBELIEVABLE BUSCH: Busch competed in a total of 81 NASCAR races across the three national series in 2008 - - NSCS, NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS). During the season he registered 21 wins, seven poles, 45 top-five finishes and 57 top-10 results. He now holds the NASCAR record for most wins by one driver in a single year across the top-three series. “It’s been a great year and it means a lot to have a year like this and win as many races as we have,” says Busch. “People discounted the Nationwide and the Truck wins because it’s a lesser series than what the Cup series is, but there are Cup guys that are running in those series. There are ex-Cup guys in the Truck series and Cup guys now in the Nationwide Series and upcoming guys that are supposed to be the best of what there is today.”

POKER PLAYING: Crew chief Steve Addington led the JGR No. 18 Camry team to its first ‘Chase’ appearance in 2008 after earning eight wins with Busch in the first 26 races of the season. The team entered the ‘Chase’ with on top of the standings, but bad luck early in the 10-race playoff ended any hopes of a title - -and the team finished 10th in the final NSCS point standings. “Don’t show your hand too early in the season and let these other guys go to work and get better than you,” says Addington. “The one thing that I learned is how to approach this stuff. We know we have a good package, so let’s try some different things and not show our hand. We’ve got a good enough race team to be in the ‘chase.’”

PLACES IN THE ‘CHASE’: in 2008, the three JGR Camrys of Busch, Hamlin and Stewart gave Toyota its first drivers in the ‘Chase’. Hamlin finished the year eighth in points as the highest Camry driver in the points standings. Stewart finished the season in ninth-place and Busch was 10th in the standings. Other Toyota drivers who finished in the top-35 in the 2008 NSCS points standings include Brian Vickers (19th), David Reutimann (22nd), Michael Waltrip (29th), and Dave Blaney (30th).

DENNY DELIVERS: Denny Hamlin recently visited Japan to participate in Toyota’s annual Motor Sports Day at Fuji Speedway. The event featured Toyota drivers from a variety of different racing series, including NASCAR and Formula One, as well as Toyota race cars that participate in various racing series. “This was my first time traveling overseas,” said Hamlin, who took a few demonstration laps in the JGR Camry. “It was an excellent experience. The Fuji Speedway was a good track and I was impressed with the Japanese fans and how excited they were to see a NASCAR race car. It was really enjoyable and I’m glad I was able to attend Toyota’s Motorsports Day.”

WALTRIP’S TEAM WORKING: Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) ended the season with Reutimann’s No. 44 Camry on the pole in the season-finale at Homestead. “MWR make huge strides in 2008,” says team owner Waltrip. “We led races, had chances to win and established ourselves as contenders this year. We went from missing races with no cars in the top-35. to having two cars in the top-30 and one right on the bubble. We know we must continue to improve, but, we also know we have our foundation built that will make us better than we were in 2008.”

Toyota 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series Statistics Races Starts (Drivers) Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Times Led Laps Led 35 214 (18) 20 58 102 14 147 3, 439

TOYOTA TAKES TITLE: Toyota earned its first Nationwide Series manufacturer’s championships in 2008. Toyota clinched the NNS manufacturer’s title in its second year of series competition when Hamlin’s JGR No. 18 Camry crossed the finish line first at Kansas (Sept. 27). “Toyota’s accomplishments are the result of hard work and achievement by all of our race teams working in conjunction with TRD, U.S.A. (Toyota Racing Development) and Triad,” says Lee White, TRD’s president and general manager. “All the tireless efforts during the off-season, pre-season testing and throughout the season, in combination with a talented driver line-up, have produced the exceptional results that yielded these championships.”

OWNER’S CHAMP: Joey Logano’s 10th-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway secured the NNS owner’s championship for JGR and the No. 20 Toyota Camry. In 2008, four drivers (Busch, Hamlin, Logano and Stewart) combined for nine wins, six poles, 16 top-five finishes and 25 top-10 results in the No. 20 entry. “It was special to have all those guys - Kyle, Denny, Tony and Joey - - get in that car and run it,” says J. D. Gibbs, president of JGR. “For the guys at the shop that have worked all year long, it would have been real frustrating to go the whole year and not have something to show for it. We’re real excited and I think for our team, it meant more than most championships mean to other teams. This was a big deal for us and for the guys that worked so hard, because in the Nationwide Series you have guys that do a little bit of everything- - they really work their tails off.”

RECORD RUNS: The Joe Gibbs Racing NNS Camrys — No. 20 and No. 18 — combined to win a series record 19 races in 2008. Busch’s win at Texas (Nov. 2) equaled Sam Ard’s 1983 record for the most wins (10) by one driver in the Nationwide Series in a single season. Busch (eight) and Hamlin (two) combined for the 10 triumphs by the No. 18 team - equaling another series record. In Indianapolis (July 26), Busch broke the previous record (13) for most victories by one NNS organization, and the additional wins by Busch and Hamlin further increased the mark.

EIGHT STRAIGHT: Camry drivers won eight consecutive NNS races from April to June — Texas through Dover — this season. The eight wins were achieved between two race teams (JGR and Braun Racing) and among three drivers (Busch, Stewart and Hamlin). The record for most consecutive NNS wins by one manufacturer is 11 established in 2000,

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