Fontana II: Toyota teams race notes, quotes

Kyle Busch earned his 12th win of the season at Auto Club Speedway in Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race. It was his fourth career NNS win at Auto Club Speedway.

Busch started from the pole position and led four times for 38 (of 150) laps.

The win also marks the sixth consecutive victory for Joe Gibbs Racing at the Southern California two-mile oval.

Joey Logano (fifth) and Reed Sorenson (10th) also earned top-10 finishes.

Other Toyota drivers in the field included James Buescher (17th), Michael Annett (20th), Martin Truex Jr. (25th), Ricky Carmichael (31st), Brendan Gaughan (32nd), Steve Wallace (33rd) and Jason Leffler (37th).

Seven Toyota drivers are in the top-15 in the unofficial NNS driver points following California -- Busch (third), Logano (seventh), Wallace (ninth), Leffler (10th), Gaughan (11th), Annett (12th) and Sorenson (14th).

***

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finished: 1st

Did your pit crew win you this race? "They did, that's why he is who Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) is. He does a great job and makes great calls. These guys did an awesome job for me today. Pit road probably won this race, so I can' t thank these guys enough. They do a great job. I have to thank NOS Energy Drink, Z-Line Designs, Combos and all the guys at Toyota -- this is their home track so it's cool to be here and win it in front of them – Nationwide, it's a great series to run with, of course. All the people that make this so much fun for us to come out here and get number 12 -- it's awesome. These guys really enjoy doing this and so do I."

***

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 GameStop/Triton Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finished: 5th

Are you satisfied with a fifth-place finish? "No, no satisfaction. We ran bad. We were loose to start and then we were okay in the long run. We adjusted the car and it was okay. We were up to second maybe could have been leading at one point and then we did a good job of putting ourselves in the back and putting ourselves in a hole on every pit stop. We lost probably 20 spots in the pits. Our car wasn't good enough to make it up there. We were okay, but we weren't the 18 car (Kyle Busch), we weren't that fast. We were jus t slow."

***

REED SORENSON, No. 32 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finished: 10th

JAMES BUESCHER, No. 11 BigSpot.com Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finished: 17th

MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 15 Pilot Flying J Coffee Toyota Camry, Germain Racing
Finished: 20th

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 99 Torrent Toyota Camry, Diamond-Waltrip Racing
Finished: 25th

RICKY CARMICHAEL, No. 10 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finished: 31st

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 South Point Hotel & Casino Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing
Finished: 32nd

***

STEVE WALLACE, No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing
Finished: 33rd

What happened to force you out of the race? "Our 5-Hour Toyota was really good at the start of the race and then we lost the handling on it after the second pit stop. When we pitted, we were short pitting there because our car wasn't real good. We put on new tires and went out and was a whole lot faster than the car I was passing, I thought I was clear and I just wasn't -- my mistake. I screwed up, it was my fault. I was on the new tires and was a lot faster and thought I had the 11 (James Buescher) car clear, but obviously I didn't. Got me in the quarter panel then I hit the wall. I hate it for these 5-Hour guys. We work our tails off. We had a really good year to start and about midway through the wheels started falling off the wagon and it's a snowball effect right now -- when it rains, it pours."

***

JASON LEFFLER, No. 38 Great Clips Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finished: 37th

What happened to put you in the garage early in the race? "It didn't spit the oil pump belt off, the oil pump belt got shredded. The oil pump's locked up right now. It's some sort of internal problem in the oil pump or something else. These guys have been giving me good power lately. This is the first issue we've had with the Great Clips Camry. We struggled all weekend, but the guys did a good job this morning and we would have been just fine there. Another bad luck day for us."

-source: toyota motorsports