“This one feels really good,” said Bell. “Just a credit to Adam (Stevens, crew chief), William (Hartman, engineer), my engineers and all of my mechanics, everyone on this JGR team. You don’t get cars like that very often as you know. Super, super proud to be on this 20 car. This Rheem Camry was amazing today. I feel like we have capability of running races like this a lot, so hopefully this is the first of many this year.”
- Christopher Bell
It was an incredibly dominating performance for Team Toyota over the weekend as Toyota drivers won every race they compete in.
NASCAR
Christopher Bell drove from 20th to first in the final stage on a different pit strategy and drove away to earn his first victory of the 2024 season Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Bell also won the second stage to earn six Playoff points. Toyota drivers led 298 of 312 laps. For the first time in Toyota history, five drivers led 50 or more laps, including Tyler Reddick (68 laps), Denny Hamlin (68 laps), Ty Gibbs (57 laps), Martin Truex Jr. (55 laps) and Bell (50 laps).
“All glory to God,” said Smith. “Without Him, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be with Joe Gibbs Racing, my Toyota family. First win back together. That’s great. It has a great ring to it. Our No. 81 Quick Tie Products Toyota GR Supra was definitely as fast as Xfinity Internet today. I needed a little bit there at the end, but I got some good notes to come back with. Hopefully, we can repeat this in the fall when we are running for the championship.”
- Chandler Smith
Gibbs finished a career-best third, while Reddick won the first stage.
Chandler Smith added to his stellar start with Joe Gibbs Racing by picking up his first win of the season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday evening at Phoenix. Smith was strong early – leading every lap of the first stage – before looking likely to settle for second. However, the race leader was involved in a late-race accident, and Smith delivered on the overtime restart to get the win.
“Man, it feels really good,” said Langdon. “We’ve had a lot of years, a lot of years you question yourself, people ask you a lot of questions that you don’t want to answer, but keep your head down and keep working hard. And knowing you’re with a great group like the Kalitta team, leading the way with Connie Kalitta (team owner) giving us the opportunity. Kids like J.R. (Todd) and I, well I call us kids, but we’re out there living our dreams and having a great teammate in Doug (Kalitta). I can’t say enough about Brian Husen (crew chief). His first race as a crew chief and he gives me an absolutely flawless car. You know, I kept saying ‘as long as I don’t screw it up, I really have a car to beat.’ For everybody at Kalitta Air, we have a brand-new chassis this weekend – Revchem, Toyota. First Gatornationals victory, but this thing is going to Brian for sure. He deserves it and so do all of the guys.”
- Shawn Langdon
With the victory, Smith took over the Xfinity Series points lead. Smith’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sheldon Creed finished third – his third top-five finish in four races to start the season.
NHRA
In the same weekend that the late Scott Kalitta got inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame, team owner Connie Kalitta finally got his long-awaited first double victory as Shawn Langdon won in Top Fuel and J.R. Todd claimed victory in Funny Car at the historic Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.
It was a stellar day for Team Toyota across the board as all nine Toyota supported entries won at least one round of racing. Toyota had all four semi-finalists in Top Fuel, but the race was won by Langdon, who claimed his first Top Fuel victory since the 2020 U.S. Nationals.
In Funny Car, Todd saved his best Sunday run for last, defeating the No. 1 qualifier, Austin Prock.
“We’ve been trying to double up for a while,” said Todd. “When I was driving Shawn’s (Langdon) car, Del (Worsham) and I were in the final, when I was in Scott’s (Kalitta, former racing driver) car, in the final with Shawn or Doug (Kalitta), or in whatever situation, we couldn’t seem to get it done. But this one worked out. It seemed like the stars lined up for us here in Gainesville. Scott’s boys were here this weekend. Scott’s wife, Kathy, was here all weekend, I think it’s been since 2008 since she’s been to a race. It’s pretty awesome to have her here with us and hopefully take some pictures down in victory circle with all of the Kalitta family. I’m just the lucky one who gets to drive Scott’s car. That’s forever his car. His name’s on the side of it. I almost screwed it up there in the second round, but we were able to redeem ourselves and come out of here with a trophy. Hopefully it goes to his family when we’re celebrating down there.”
- J.R. Todd
ARCA
It was a Toyota Friday evening at Phoenix in ARCA Menards Series action. William Sawalich won the pole and battled fellow Toyota development driver Gio Ruggiero for the win most of the night. When the rain came with 35 laps to go, Sawalich was ahead of Ruggiero and earned his first ARCA win of the season. The two drivers led all 115 laps of the race.
Isabella Robusto impressed many with her strong performance in her ARCA debut, as the South Carolina-native ran in the top-five for most of the race before finishing sixth, while Toni Breidinger (ninth) delivered a top-10 finish as well.
With Antron Brown claiming the Top Fuel All-Star Call-Out on Saturday, Toyota swept the opening NHRA weekend.
What’s Next
NASCAR heads to ‘The Last Great Coliseum’ – Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for two races. The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series runs on Saturday, March 16 at 8:00 p.m. ET on FS1, while the NASCAR Cup Series competes on Sunday, March 17 at 3:30 p.m. ET.