Camping World Trucks - Toyota Team Comments - Martinsville

Denny Hamlin won Saturday afternoon's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin led the field twice for a total of 68 laps, including the final 14 laps. Hamlin became the 23rd driver in history to win races in all three of NASCAR's national series. This was Hamlin's first NCWTS victory in 12 career series starts. Tundra drivers Timothy Peters (eighth) and Brendan Gaughan (ninth) also recorded top-10 finishes. Other Tundra drivers in the field included Timothy Peters (eighth), Brendan Gaughan (ninth), Todd Bodine (11th), Max Papis (18th), David Starr (22nd), Matt Lofton (31st), Johanna Long (33rd) and TJ Duke (34th). Peters is fifth in the unofficial NCWTS point standings -- 48 points behind leader Austin Dillon. Bodine (sixth), Gaughan (11th), Starr (13th), Paludo (17th) and Papis (18th) are also in the top-20 in the point standings.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 18 Traxxas Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 1st What did you think of your pass to take the race lead? "It was great. Those guys -- I know they were battling for the championship, so I didn't want to put them in three -wide at any point, but it was just a gift right there into turns one and two. Just a great battle back. That was definitely the hardest 50 laps that I've ever driven at this race track. I had to restart 18th. We didn't think that was going to be the case, but still like to see it work out."

Were you worried about starting so far back with 50 laps remaining? "Not until 20 laps into the run and I hadn't gone anywhere. We just had to battle and it was so tough just to get through those trucks running two and three-wide -- just proud of this whole team."

What does it mean to have won in all three national NASCAR series? "It's a big deal for me -- more than what people probably think. When they think that we go down into these different series -- Nationwide and Truck -- and we're just going down there trying to get wins. From my standpoint, it's very, very tough. The Truck Series is more competitive now than it's ever been so it means a lot to myself to win a Truck Series race, especially just running one a year usually. It's just been one of those weekends where you unload and it's pretty good. I felt like we gave these guys an off-weekend as far as adjustments and stuff. I know you can have weekends where you can unload and you have to work you guts out to get it right. This is just one of those weekends where everything worked out great for us."

What did you learn for tomorrow's race? "The track didn't rubber up as good as what we thought it was, but the track did go through some transitions right there through the race and we'll adjust to that accordingly."

What does it mean to get your first NCWTS win? "I have to thank Kyle (Busch, team owner) for letting me drive this truck. This is something that really means a lot to me to get my very first Truck Series victory. Just have to thank everyone at Toyota for helping support Kyle's program. This is a big race for all these truck guys and to have all these fans come out to Martinsville is great."

How does it feel to get another win at Martinsville? "This is a great race track for us. Even back in the Late Model days -- this was always a great race track for me. I knew this was going to be one of my best opportunities going forward to win a Truck race. Being teamed up with these guys. Kyle (Busch, team owner) just sent me a text about a month ago and asked if I would run this. He wanted to concentrate on the Cup car a little bit more during the Chase and he's our (Joe Gibbs Racing) last hope for a championship. I volunteered to do it for him. Hopefully, that all pays off for that team tomorrow."

When was your truck at its best in the race? "Our truck was just so good on the long run. That's really where it seemed to excel and I felt like I did a good job. I didn't abuse my truck very early for the first five to 10 laps -- as soon as I put tires on -- to try to make sure I had something at the end. That's what paid off for us the biggest. On the last restart -- I just needed them to get single file so I could pick them off. I felt like our truck was so much faster at that point of the race -- we had better tires and we just needed them to get single file or figure out who was going to be in front. Obviously, we had some transmission over the radio and we knew those guys were racing for points so I didn't want to put them in a bad spot. I told them if they just moved right over and let me go then they could gladly race right behind me. That's exactly what they did."

ERIC PHILLIPS, crew chief, No. 18 Traxxas Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports How was the race truck this weekend? "It's been pretty flawless since we unloaded. We didn't change much. Made a little bit of an air pressure adjustment there at the beginning of the race after watching Cup practice. Put it back the way we practiced yesterday and the thing came back to life and was really good after that. Then the rest was just managing your tires and when to pit so you had enough tires at the end. It kind of paid off. I got a little nervous there when we restarted 18th, but Denny (Hamlin) did a great job getting back through there and taking care of the truck."

TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Gearwrench/Strutmasters Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 8th How was your race? "Great race -- good hustle. We got eighth on the last lap. This Gearwrench Tundra -- she's used up pretty good. I love coming to Martinsville. It's great short track racing. It's a great day. It's just fun."

What happened with Brendan Gaughan at the end of the race? "I guess he (Brendan Gaughan) just wants me to pull over for him. The 32 (Blake Feese) was wounded on the bottom and he committed high and I'm going to go up under him. He ran me down and I wasn't going to give. If he's mad then I guess we won't be doing any appearances together anytime soon. I'm out here to race hard for my sponsors -- this is my livelihood. We'll go on to Texas."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 South Point Hotel & Casino Tundra, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 9th How was your race? "Our Toyota -- I haven't seen the loop scoring data in quite a while, but I believe our Tundra has passed more vehicles this year than probably anybody. We started 28th today and I would like to know if anybody picked up more than 19 positions. I hate qualifying at Martinsville and if I can ever just start up front at Martinsville -- I think I would have just a normal day. But I can't. I always mess up qualifying and it's on me. I have to figure out how to qualify better here. Our Tundra went to the front. We got up there. We never got to the lead this time, but we got to the top-10. We got to the top-five. We were strong and in the end we just had older tires so we were just trying to keep that solid top-10 spot and we ended up coming home ninth."

TODD BODINE, No. 5, NTB / Service Central Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports Finishing Position: 11th What happened with Max Papis early in the race? "The stuff on the race track you can deal with and you can lay it off that it's Martinsville and that's racing and that's part of the game. When you're driving down pit road and the guy keeps running in the side of you -- you keep turning away from him trying not to run into each other and eventually you're going to hit a pit crew -- that's ridiculous. I had to let off and hit the brakes. I don't know who's crew it was out there changing tires, but I was going to run into them since he (Max Papis) had me so low on pit road. That's the part that I have a problem with. Endangering those guys -- it's dangerous enough on pit road. Then it snowballed from there. After I pulled behind him, he brake-checked me and I run into him. He got me again on the race track and run into me and then off of (turn) two. He got loose, I got under him and tried to get off him, couldn't get off him because he kept slowing down because his rear tires were off the ground. Finally, I just dumped him around because at that point there's no saving it. I'm going to get run into. Some of that stuff is Martinsville, some of that stuff is lack of experience racing at Martinsville. We've all done those things -- I've done those things and I'm not proud of those things. It is part of the learning process and you have to go through it. Unfortunately, we had a great Tundra. We were fast. We had a top-five truck and we thought we had the best truck we ever had at Martinsville. For a while there we got to show it and I was running good. We were biding our time and just trying to keep the wheels on it. We got out of sync on the pit stops and that messed us up. That's why we went down pit road with Max. From there it was everybody hitting everybody."

TODD BODINE, No. 5, NTB / Service Central Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports (continued) What happened at the end of the race? "We had 10th and James (Buescher) decided he was going to run out of brakes on the last corner of the last lap. We battled. We had a great truck. All that skirmish with Max (Papis) is what messed us up and messed the fenders up. The thing started pushing and then we had our hands full after that. Just trying to ride along and get a decent finish. Passed some guys clean and was racing those guys at the end clean. James decides to run through us."

MIGUEL PALUDO, No. 7 Stemco Duroline Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 16th

MAX PAPIS, No. 9 GEICO Tundra, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 18th What happened with Todd Bodine? "We had just a great run and Todd (Bodine) just ruined it. It was going to be my best ever race so far in my career. It is not what you are expecting from a friend -- I don't treat my friends like that or my teammate like that. It's just disappointing. I was not expecting that and we deserve better. When things like this happen, I guess it ruins team spirit."

DAVID STARR, No. 81 Zachry / NCCER / ASI Limited Tundra, SS Green Light Racing Finishing Position: 22nd

JOSH RICHARDS, No. 51 Joy Mining Machinery Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 28th

MATT LOFTON, No. 97 Strutmasters.com Tundra, Lofton Racing Finishing Position: 31st

JOHANNA LONG, No. 20 Panhandle Grading & Paving Tundra, Panhandle Motorsports Finishing Position: 33rd

TJ DUKE, No. 07 Merrill Lynch Tundra, SS Green Light Racing Finishing Position: 34th