Busch, Toyotas Fill Top of Brickyard Grid as Dominant Run Continues
July 23, 2016 | By Phillip B. Wilson
Once upon a time, for a dozen years, Chevrolets dominated when NASCAR made its annual summer stop at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
No other car manufacturer had celebrated a Brickyard 400 victory since Bill Elliott’s Dodge prevailed in 2002. Then all of that changed dramatically last year.
Everyone, since then, has been chasing Toyota, no longer the overpowered engine that couldn't. At Indy, specifically, the competition is still trying to catch Kyle Busch, who won this race last year and on Saturday seized the pole for Sunday’s Crown Royal presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard.
But this trend of tough-to-beat Toyotas goes beyond Busch and his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry. The second-fastest qualifier was his teammate, Carl Edwards, last year’s pole winner. Another teammate, Denny Hamlin, starts fourth. Teammate Matt Kenseth, who won last week’s race at New Hampshire, will roll off 18th.
And this recent dominance goes beyond just this race. After Busch gave Toyota its first Brickyard 400 win last year, he went on to earn the manufacturer its first Sprint Cup Series championship since the mark’s arrival in 2007. Then, in this season’s debut race, Hamlin edged Kenseth to win the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s most prestigious race.
A quick check of the Chase points standings doesn’t require much scanning to spot the Gibbs’ Toyotas: Edwards is fourth, Busch sixth, Kenseth ninth and Hamlin 10th. Martin Truex Jr., in a Furniture Row Racing Toyota, is also seventh.
“It’s definitely pretty special to be running the way that we’re running and to have the success that we’ve had here the last couple of years at Indy, and I’d love nothing more than to try to win here again,” Busch said.
It wasn’t long ago that Toyota endured a winless drought of more than a year. Performance reliability issues forced the builders to back off, enabling Chevrolet and Ford to enjoy a distinct advantage in horsepower. The humbling stretch finally ended when Hamlin won at Martinsville in the sixth race of the 2015 season. It would be the first of 14 Toyota victories last season, tying for the most in a year in the manufacturer’s history.
So far this season, Toyotas have won nine of 11 races. Gibbs’ cars have eight of those checkered flags, led by Busch with three. The top five Toyotas, including Truex, have combined for 28 top-five finishes.
“I’ve had some really good cars and I remember the days when I didn’t have such good cars here,” Busch said, “but we’ve been doing a good job of working hard and making sure we keep our heads down and keep doing what we need to be doing and focusing on our own thing and I think that’s just the Joe Gibbs Racing tradition of what we do.”
The driver who prevented a clean 1-2-3 qualifying sweep was Hoosier native Tony Stewart, a two-time Brickyard 400 winner who is retiring after this season.
“I’ll take it,” Stewart said of qualifying third in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. “I feel like we left the pole out there, and I think the guys who were ahead of us felt the same way, (they) thought they could do something a little better on their lap.”
Edwards didn’t expect Busch to edge him for the pole.
“I was surprised Kyle (Busch) got me,” Edwards said. “That was a good lap for him – I mean, that was a good lap that he ran because I felt like my lap was pretty good – but, yeah, it’s frustrating right now to be second because it’s so close and the pole position is obviously huge here. But by tomorrow, the race gets started and I think I’ll be pretty happy with that starting spot, so just good job by all my guys.”
Edwards attributed team success to the owner, a 75-year-old former NFL head coach who won three Super Bowls and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996. When making his living in football, Gibbs became known for his exceptional organization and ability to delegate responsibility.
“I can tell you this, I’ve been in this sport for a while now and the reason that Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas are running well is because coach has an amazing group of people put together,” Edwards said of Gibbs. “TRD (Toyota Racing Development) is building great engines. We work really well together as teammates. Today, it’s a good example, I was out there trying to beat my teammate, Kyle, and both of us ended up running well. … He motivates me, my other teammates motivate me and so, yeah, we’re running really well.
“But, man, it’s all cylinders are firing.”
The most successful race team in NASCAR history, Hendrick Motorsports, continues to sputter on the opposite side of the spectrum. Rick Hendrick’s four Chevrolets have failed to finish in the top 10 in the past three races.
Although Hendrick has won nine Brickyards, five with Jeff Gordon and four with Jimmie Johnson, qualifying didn’t go so well. Johnson, a six-time series champion, will start 13th. Rookie Chase Elliott, the son of the 2002 Brickyard winner, qualified 15th. Gordon, who came out of retirement to sub for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr., starts 21st. Kasey Kahne was slotted back in 26th in the 40-car field.
“Because I’m sure we’ll all make changes going into Sunday’s race, and with just a lap or two today in a totally different trim in the race car, nothing really correlates,” said Johnson, who last won this race in 2012. “I’ve been doing this long enough that I won’t lose sleep over it. It is what it is, and we’ll come out and race tomorrow.”
Drivers are preparing for intense afternoon heat in a race scheduled to begin at 3:19 p.m.
“I feel like we have a good race car and it’s going to be a long 400 miles and a hot 400 miles here tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes,” Busch said.