“I don’t know,” said Reddick. “Visually on the body, it doesn’t look like it much. The wheel was off a little bit – just stupid. I was on cold tires, and it was going to be really hard to hold him off anyway. I kind of just fell for it. I don’t know. I guess we will know once we go back to the shop – just weren’t as good. I didn’t have a great restart – that also played a big factor. Even when we kind of got some clean air after, we got the second set of tires on it – it didn’t seem as good. We will go back and look at it, and try to understand what got away from us, but at least we got a Playoff point out of it with the Monster Energy Toyota Camry. The 5 (Kyle Larson) was on a similar strategy to us – and he won the race, and we finished eighth. We were doing the right things; we just didn’t have the restart we needed.”
- Tyler Reddick
The annual Toyota/Save Mart 350 highlighted an exciting weekend of racing, including another successful Indiana Midget Week in USAC National Midget competition.
NASCAR
Tyler Reddick (eighth) and Christopher Bell (ninth) led Toyota with top-10 finishes in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, won by Kyle Larson. Reddick, who won the first stage, led the most laps (35 of 110), but had to battle back from minor on-track contact. Bell also had to overcome adversity, as he was spun during the mid portion of the race.
Martin Truex Jr. was racing for the lead late, but ran out of fuel on the final corners and was scored 27th in the final finishing order.
Sheldon Creed came so close, once again, to his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory – finishing second to race winner Shane van Gisbergen. For the California-native, it was his ninth career Xfinity Series runner-up finish. Creed led three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supras inside the top-10, with Chandler Smith closing in on the points lead with a seventh place run, while John Hunter Nemechek was scored in eighth. Ed Jones, in a Sam Hunt Racing Supra for the second consecutive week, had a solid top-15 run.
“I don’t even know how many second places that is – number nine or something? I don’t know – I guess I just had a silly set of tires that blistered – had an unscheduled stop there and had really good adjustments,” said Creed. “I knew we were really good the second half of stage two, and stage three after that first caution came out. Just knew I had a really fast car after the first few laps. I want to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota – I had a really fast MRC Construction Toyota GR Supra. I really want to say thank you to MRC Construction for coming on board this weekend, Mike Avila (owner) and his family – thank you guys. I don’t know – I don’t want to say that we need more laps, because I know the 97 (Shane van Gisbergen) probably wasn’t going his hardest at the end, but I just wish maybe I could have started on the front row with him and wasn’t part of the chaos there. We will move on to Iowa next week and keep trucking along.”
- Sheldon Creed
"Great to make it to another final with this Mark III Employee Benefits Dragster,” said Kalitta. “Can't thank everyone from Mark III enough for stepping up and jumping onboard with our program, really wish we could have got the win for them at their first race in the sport. We are going to continue to build and do it again at Richmond. All three of the Kalitta (Motorsports) cars are running strong right now and it's a big testament to everyone's hard work."
- Doug Kalitta
NHRA
Doug Kalitta took over the points lead after he advanced to the final round at Bristol Dragway before coming up short to Tony Schumacher.
In Funny Car, J.R. Todd advanced to the finals before losing a close race to Austin Prock in the final round. With the strong performance, Todd moved up to third in the point standings.
ARCA WEST
William Sawalich battled through damage and multiple pit stops to drive back through the field to score a top-five finish to lead Toyota. Isabella Robusto continued her strong performance as she brought her Toyota Camry home in sixth. Robusto has now earned top-six finishes in her four ARCA starts this season.
USAC
Toyota drivers dominated the five-night USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series' Indiana Midget Week led by Daison Pursley, who earned two wins and five top-three finishes to capture the Indiana Midget Week championship.
Overall, Toyota drivers won four of the week's five events and captured 12 of the 15 top-three finishes. In addition to Pursley's two wins at Kokomo and Bloomington Speedways, Ryan Timms (Lawrenceburg Speedway) and Emerson Axsom (Lincoln Park Speedway) also won during the week. In addition to the Indiana Midget Week title, Pursley leads the overall USAC points standings after eight races this season.
What’s Next
For the first time, the NASCAR Cup Series competes at Iowa Speedway this weekend. The ARCA Menards Series kicks off the racing action on Friday, June 14 at 8:00 p.m. ET on FS1, while the NASCAR Xfinity Series runs on Saturday, June 15 at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network. The first-ever NASCAR Cup Series event at Iowa Speedway is on Sunday, June 16 at 7:00 p.m. ET on USA Network.
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