Christopher Bell was the highest-finishing Toyota driver with a sixth-place finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe also earned a top 10 result with a 10th-place finish after leading 19 laps (of 301) around the 1.058-mile New England oval. 

Bell leads Toyota in the NCS Playoff standings, sitting in fourth place, while Denny Hamlin (fifth), Briscoe (eighth), Tyler Reddick (11th) and Bubba Wallace (12th) round out the Top 12. 

Toyota GAZOO Racing Post-Race Recap

NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Race 30 of 36 – 318.46 miles, 301 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS 

1st, Ryan Blaney*

2nd, Josh Berry*

3rd, William Byron*

4th, Joey Logano*

5th, Chase Elliott*

6th, CHRISTOPHER BELL

10th, CHASE BRISCOE

12th, DENNY HAMLIN

21st, TYLER REDDICK

22nd, RILEY HERBST

26th, BUBBA WALLACE

28th, ERIK JONES

34th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK

35th, TY GIBBS 

*non-Toyota driver 

TOYOTA QUOTES

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 6th

Are you happy with the finish today?

“That’s a loaded question. I think from a points standpoint we did well. I know a lot of people are going to look at me and say how can I be frustrated at Gateway and not today. Well, this weekend really was a whole different story. We just didn’t have the pace. We didn’t have the pace to run with the top competitors. We walked out of here with a lot of points, so I think it was a successful day.”

How optimistic are you going into Kansas and the Roval?

“I feel good about our performance at the next two, but with that being said I felt good about our performance coming into here and it didn’t turn out. Yeah, Kansas is very similar to what we had at Darlington so hopefully we do good. I think we can. And, then surely the Roval is a road course we’re definitely strong at. Optimistic – you never know until you get through them. But today was a good day and off to a good start in the Round of 12.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 10th

How was your race?

“It was not a great day for us. On the race track, we never really had any issues, but on pit road we kept losing positions. Just hard to do that in the Playoffs and not sacrifice a finish because of it. I thought our car was okay. We definitely didn’t have anything for the Penske cars. I would’ve taken a 10th after yesterday but also felt like we kind of left a lot on the table today just on pit road and whatnot. We’ll move on to Kansas. The positive thing is we’re above the cutline. That was the goal of today and we were able to do that. We’ll go on to Kansas where I feel like our car should be way better and hopefully capitalize on it there.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 12th

How do you feel about what happened with the contact with Ty Gibbs early in the race?

“It’s super unfortunate he got spun there and obviously the contact came from us. Yeah, I don’t have any other comment other than that. Just had some contact into (turn) one. It was obviously a really rough race before that.”

Do you feel like there needs to be a conversation with Ty Gibbs?

“Well, I mean, we’ll work through it and all but just — we’ll see how it goes. But honestly, it’s unfortunate the contact happened.”

Can you walk us through the last restart?

“Just a bad restart on my part. I just couldn’t get going with the bottom lane. Every time we started on the bottom, just could not get anything going, and so obviously it cost us some positions there from where we probably would’ve finished. But just got to get a little better and certainly we didn’t come here with our best. Gotta get a little faster, gotta get the car handling better and I’ve certainly gotta do a better job.”

TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 SiriusXM Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 21st

What were you battling today?

“I didn’t expect that – that’s for sure. The way the race started I thought we were going to be able to run in the top 10 all day, but between the brake issues we had and – it just got away quick. The balance went away and then next thing you know we were trying to battle for 20th. Just terrible day.”

Are you looking forward to the next race at Kansas knowing your history at intermediate tracks?

“Yeah, there’s just a lot of question marks honestly. Places we have had speed at, we don’t bring speed. That’s been one of them for us. Yeah, we need something special to happen. I’m hoping we find the answer.”

BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 26th

What was your biggest battle today?

“Just a miss all around really. We couldn’t really seem to get things going. Our best run lasted for five laps, the caution came out and then it was just right back to no good. I hate it. I felt really optimistic and marched forward at the start and it just never really went anywhere. We kind of plateaued lap 5 and that was it. I hate that. It’s just a head scratcher. I told our team we’re way better than that. We know it. As much of a gut punch as this one is, we’ll move on. This is what we’ve got to do.”

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB

Finishing Position: 34th

What happened to take you out of the race?

“Yeah, I’m good. I hate it for all of my guys after the run I’ve had the last few weeks. Getting into turn 3 just under the 35 (Riley Herbst) there I don’t know if just when I hit the bumps, but it automatically just turned sideways, and I was kind of along for the ride. I hate it. We were making ground on it all day and getting better track position wise and now we’re going home with a wrecked race car. We’ll be back next week in Kansas.”

TY GIBBS, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 35th

After seeing the incident with Denny Hamlin, was someone in the right and someone in the wrong?

“Yeah, it’s unfortunate but I’m excited to go race next week and I’m looking forward to it.”

Denny said on the radio that someone within the organization should talk to you, what do you expect that conversation to look like?

“Yeah, we’ll have a good race next week. I’m looking forward to it.”

Toyota PR