NASCAR CUP SERIES: HIGHPOINT.COM 400

July 23, 2023

Tyler Gibbs

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Tyler Gibbs, GM of TRD. Special guest today, big day for Toyota. Their 600th win in NASCAR. Also had their earlier win today at NHRA.

Tyler, appreciate you coming in to talk about this. You've been in NASCAR since I believe 2004.

TYLER GIBBS: 2004 with the Truck Series.

THE MODERATOR: Talk about this milestone win.

TYLER GIBBS: Yeah, huge accomplishment. Obviously we won't dwell too long on 600. We're going to go for 601 pretty soon. But great accomplishment. A lot of hard work by a tremendous number of work at Toyota, TRD, all of our Truck, Xfinity and Cup teams over the last 20 seasons. A huge milestone.

Really proud of everybody. Happy to represent Toyota and TRD today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. To not only see a driver win, but to see all except one of your cars in the top 10, what does that mean? Make it more significant?

TYLER GIBBS: Yeah, I mean, it's always fun to enjoy something like this with as many people as you can. Again, I think Bubba finished 11th. Six in the top 11, we'll take that. That's a good Sunday.

Again, really proud of everybody and all the effort that's gone in this weekend, over all the years, so...

THE MODERATOR: Another milestone for one of your drivers, Denny Hamlin. 50 NASCAR Cup Series wins. Talk about that milestone as well.

TYLER GIBBS: Yeah, I mean, Denny has been with us basically from the beginning, almost from the beginning. Huge to have him in the family. Love to have him associated with 23XI and with that ownership group, represents us on the driver side and ownership side.

Three Daytona 500s, 50 wins overall. You look at what 23XI is doing on the competition side as well. It's great for us. Love having Denny. Love what he's doing for the sport overall.

Q. Looks like your transitioning into the next generation where Toyota can stay strong not only now but in the next 10, 15 years.

TYLER GIBBS: Yeah, again, 600 wins is for us a milestone, but it is just part of the journey. We're not satisfied at 600.

As we've talked about before, building teams that kind of are associated with us and fit our whole kind of personality is exactly what we're looking to do. Certainly Denny does that and is part of the family.

From our side, yeah, we want to continue to raise up the drivers from our development program into the Cup Series. When we have opportunities with Hall of Famers like Denny, that's a natural step for us.

Q. What is the morale like at Toyota?

TYLER GIBBS: Again, we're coming to the Playoffs, so everything is focused on getting as many cars in the Playoffs as we can.

I would say our morale is great. We have a dedicated group of people at TRD, as well as Toyota Motorsports and Toyota Racing. We try not to get too high on good success when we have a little bit of a run. We try not to get too down when we have the challenges. Just keep digging and the results will come.

I think you've seen us lead a pretty fair number of laps. We continue to just put in the performance, put in the hard work, and move ourselves forward.

Q. (Question about Martin.)

TYLER GIBBS: I think our message is consistent with JGR's, I think the fans of our sport. We'd all like to see Martin stay. He knows that. We know that.

From that perspective, we're waiting for his decision. It's obviously a tough one for him. He has a tremendous amount of success and is enjoying a really, really strong season this year.

We certainly hope that he'll decide to come back again next year, but we would understand why he may want to do something different. It's a long season. He's done it for a long time. From that perspective, we're just working with JGR and we'll figure out what that looks like if Martin chooses not to come back. Again, we certainly hope that he does.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.