TOYOTA NASCAR Notes & Quotes - Pocono / Montreal

TOYOTA NASCAR Notes & Quotes - Pocono / Montreal

This Week's Races:

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
* Friday, August 3, Qualifying @ Pocono Raceway, 3:40 PM (ET)
* Sunday, August 5, Pennsylvania 500 @ Pocono Raceway, 2:00 PM (ET)
* Race 21 of 36

NASCAR Busch Series
* Saturday, August 4, Qualifying @ Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada, 12:10 PM (ET)
* Saturday, August 4, NAPA Auto Parts 200 @ Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada, 3:00 PM (ET)
* Race 23 of 35


WIN ONE FOR CAMRY: A Toyota Camry won for the first time in NASCAR competition on Saturday night (July 28) at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Jason Leffler moved his No. 38 Great Clips Camry into the lead only three laps remaining and led the field all the way to the checkered flag. The inaugural win for the Camry in NASCAR competition came in the 22nd Busch Series race of the 35-race season.

JASON JOVIAL WITH WIN: "It's pretty awesome to be the first one to bring a Camry to victory lane," said Leffler, following Saturday night's win. "I just can't say enough about our whole team at Braun Racing and what it means to us to get Toyota their first win in the Busch Series. It's also pretty cool to come here and win in Indy because I've won quite a few Midget and Silver Crown races here at ORP (O'Reilly Raceway Park). I've always considered Indianapolis to be like my second home -- I've spent a lot of time here and I have a lot of friends here."

WHITE ON THE WIN: "I think we honestly expected at some point we'd get a Busch Series victory this year," says Lee White, senior vice president and general manager, TRD, U.S.A. (Toyota Racing Development). "If you consider how well the Busch Camrys have run all season -- with three cars in the top-seven in points -- you would expect a victory before the end of the year. You saw all three Camrys in the top-10 pretty much all night in Indy, which overall, was a very good performance. I think it was great for the whole program. I'm so proud of the complete Braun organization. They run such a small, tight-knit program, and they consistently run strong race after race."

HISTORY HERE AT POCONO: When the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series (NNCS) visited the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway in June, it was the first trip to the track located in the Pennsylvania mountains for the Toyota Camrys. Four of the seven Camrys qualified for the 43-car field, including Brian Vickers (No. 83 Red Bull Camry), David Reutimann (No. 00 Burger King Camry), AJ Allmendinger (No. 84 Red Bull Camry) and Dave Blaney (No. 22 Caterpillar Camry). Vickers completed all 106 laps in the rain-shortened race and was the top-finishing Toyota (35th).

BRIAN TALKS ABOUT BEING BACK: Vickers earned his best starting position of the season with his Team Red Bull Camry when he started ninth at Pocono in June. "Pocono is the first race track that we're going back to for a second time where both of our cars made it into the race, and that's a confidence boost for the whole team," says Vickers. "We qualified into the race before -- we should be able to do it again. We even had our best qualifying run of the year at Pocono. I don't think we'll have too many changes to make to our qualifying set-up, but we need to work on our race set-up because we really struggled with our car when it came time to race."

RETURN ENGAGEMENT: "Pocono is the first track this season that we go to for a second time where we made the first race, so hopefully that will help us get back on track," says Allmendinger. "It's also the first track we revisit where both Red Bull cars raced last time. I'll have more confidence going into this weekend mainly because I have turned laps here in practice and in a race, and will know what to expect when I show up for practice Friday morning."

TAKING A TOP-10: Blaney earned his first top-10 of the season and recorded a career-best finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Blaney finished ninth in the No. 22 Caterpillar Camry after starting 27th and running within the top-10 throughout the race. Camry drivers have earned four top-10 finishes this season in NEXTEL Cup competition, including one top-five finish by Vickers at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

CLOSE TO COMFORTABLE: With his ninth-place finish at IMS, Blaney was able to move his way into the 36th position in NASCAR owner points -- placing him only one position away from the coveted 35th position -- which would give him a guaranteed starting position in the next race.

BLANEY ON POINTS: "It would be a huge load off our shoulders to be locked into the field," says Blaney. "But, of course once you're in the to-35, you have to work on staying there. With the way we've been running, I've been very pleased. I think if we can just stay out of trouble and keep running like we have been -- then we will be just fine."

WALTRIP'S VIEW ON SECOND HALF: "In the second half of the season, we just need to make all the races," says Waltrip, driver of the No. 55 NAPA Camry. "David (Reutimann) ran good at Chicago and I ran good at Michigan -- so there's optimism galore that if we can make the races then we can run well. There's really not one race track that we feel we will have more of an advantage than another. We've struggled on our COT (Car of Tomorrow) program in the early races. But, we had a good test the other day in Winchester, Indiana in preparation for the Bristol race. We're wide open and we're doing everything you're supposed to do. We're wind tunneling, we're seven-posting and we're on-tracking."

ROAD RACING RETURNS: This week's road race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada will mark the second time this season the NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) will take to a road course and the first visit to Canada for the series. The NBS racers competed at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City earlier this year. Leffler (sixth) was the highest finishing Camry in Mexico, while Reutimann (12th) and Blaney (13th) both registered top-15 finishes.

MORE ON MONTREAL: "I'm really looking forward to running the road course in Canada," says Leffler. "We normally only get to run two road races in a season. This year we're running two in a row with Montreal and Watkins Glen -- and I've only run three road races in my whole career. We had a good run in Mexico earlier this year so I'm real excited to get to run two in a row because I know I'll learn a lot and hopefully get better over those two weeks."

REUTIMANN ON TURNING RIGHT: "This will only be the second time that I've ever run a race on a road course," says Reutimann, driver of the No. 99 NAPA Canada Camry. "Running in Mexico City was quite a learning experience for me and I was almost impressed that I was able to finish 12th in that race. I'm looking forward to another shot at the road course this weekend. Then I get to run the Busch car at Watkins Glen, so having the chance to run two in a row should help quite a bit."

CANADIAN CONNECTION: John Graham will make his first NBS start of 2007 in the No. 10 Kick-Butt Energy Ballz Camry for Braun Racing at Montreal as a substitute for Dave Blaney. Graham is a native of Toronto, Canada with extensive professional road racing experience around the world. He has made seven starts in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and nine starts in the 24 Hours of Daytona, in addition to four oval track starts in the Busch Series in 2004. Graham is also scheduled to race the No. 10 Camry next weekend at Watkins Glen.


CHAMPIONSHIP CHASERS: Following Saturday night's NBS race at O'Reilly Raceway Park, Reutimann remains second in the championship point standings. After his Indianapolis win, Leffler now sits third in the standings, while Blaney fell to the seventh in the standings after not competing in Saturday night's race.

SMOOTHER SURFACE: Several NBS and NCTS teams participated in last week's test session at Bristol Motor Speedway in preparation for next month's races on a brand new concrete surface. The half-mile track completed a four-month resurfacing project and several Camrys and Tundras made the trip over the North Carolina mountains to try out the new, smoother surface. Trucks took to the track on Monday with Tundra drivers recording four of the top-five testing speeds. The Busch cars were on track Tuesday with Reutimann posting the fastest speed and Leffler within the top-10.

GREEN TESTS SURFACE: "The new surface is going to provide two good lanes of racing," said David Green, driver of the No. 1 Red Horse Racing Tundra. "I think two-and-a-half lanes of racing at Bristol is like three lanes everywhere else. We're definitely going to see side-by-side racing. The only issue is that since the track is so new, that there won't be much rubber down when we race Wednesday night. The track will be at its best Saturday night for the Cup cars. What a fantastic job they did with the whole track. I think it's very hard to pour concrete and be smooth when it's flat. To put nearly 30 degrees of banking in a track and be smooth, it's even tougher. They did a great job."

TUNDRAS TOPS: After 14 of 25 races, five Tundra drivers currently sit in the top-eight in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) championship point standings. Mike Skinner remains in control of the point standings, but now only holds onto the top spot by 77 points over Ron Hornaday. He is being chased by fellow Tundra drivers Todd Bodine (third), Johnny Benson (fifth), Jack Sprague (seventh) and Ted Musgrave (eighth) as the series enjoys a weekend off before heading to Nashville Superspeedway for the Toyota Tundra 200, August 11.

ARCA ADDITIONS: Two Camrys will compete in Saturday's Pennsylvania 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Pocono Raceway. Josh Wise, who finished tenth when the series visited Pocono in June, will compete in the No. 22 ESR Development Camry for Eddie Sharp Racing. Bobby Santos will be behind the wheel of the No. 02 Bill Davis Trucking Camry for Bill Davis Racing.

HAPPY 50th: Toyota is celebrating its 50th anniversary in the U.S. in 2007 and operates 10 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and assembles approximately half the vehicles it sells in America. In addition, Toyota, its dealers and manufacturing plants employ close to 150,000 individuals in the U.S.

BROADCAST BITS: The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race will be televised on ESPN and broadcast on MRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio (Channel 128). NEXTEL Cup qualifying will be televised on ESPN2, and broadcast on MRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio (Channel 128). The NASCAR Busch Series race will be televised on ESPN2, and broadcast on MRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio (Channel 128).

2007 TOYOTA DRIVER/TEAM ROSTER


NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Driver Car Team
Dave Blaney No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota Camry Bill Davis Racing
Jeremy Mayfield No. 36 360 OTC Toyota Camry Bill Davis Racing
Dale Jarrett No. 44 UPS Toyota Camry Michael Waltrip Racing
David Reutimann No. 00 Burger King Toyota Camry Michael Waltrip Racing
Michael Waltrip No. 55 NAPA Toyota Camry Michael Waltrip Racing
AJ Allmendinger No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry Team Red Bull
Brian Vickers No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry Team Red Bull

NASCAR Busch Series
Driver Car Team
John Graham No. 10 Kick-Butt Energy Ballz Toyota Camry Braun Racing
Jason Leffler No. 38 Great Clips Toyota Camry Braun Racing
David Reutimann No. 99 NAPA Canada Toyota Camry Michael Waltrip Racing