Denny Hamlin won for the first time this season, leading a Toyota top-three sweep at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday.
NASCAR
Hamlin won in dominating fashion – leading 274 of 400 laps – and drove away from his teammate, Christopher Bell, late to win for the sixth time at Martinsville Speedway.
“It is great,” said Hamlin. “It is a historic race track – I’ve been so frustrated not getting a win here, being the next best in line, but man, we have really turned the corner. Whatever setup we’ve got here, whenever we come back in the fall, we will be contenders. This whole Progressive Toyota team did a phenomenal job all week preparing and all practice to give me this race winning car.”
- Denny Hamlin
Bell, who won his first Martinsville pole on Saturday, finished second, while Bubba Wallace earned back-to-back third-place finishes. With the result, Toyota swept the top-three positions for the 15th time in its history, and first time since July 2023 at Pocono Raceway.
Dean Thompson led Toyota in a caution-filled NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday evening. Thompson finished sixth – which is a career-best result for him and a best-ever Martinsville result for his team, Sam Hunt Racing. Austin Hill was the race winner.
“I’ve got a great group of guys at Sam Hunt Racing,” said Thompson. “We came into this race knowing we were going to have a good car. Practice and qualified really well and brought the car back in good shape. That is kind of what it is all about here – keeping it in one piece and making it to the end. I knew if we made it to the end, we would be fine. Just learning all day – my first time here in these kind of cars. I’m lucky to have spun – it sounds weird, but I’m lucky to have spun and not hit anything because I learned the limit. I’m pretty lucky to get out of there unscathed and get a good finish out of it. I’m really proud of my guys. We made good adjustments. We spun that last time, and we came and put a set of scuffs on it, and I didn’t know if that was the right move, but obviously it was at the end. I’m really proud of my guys. My Thompson Pipe Group Toyota GR Supra was very fast.”
- Dean Thompson
Taylor Gray led 87 laps in the race and was leading going into the final corner when the second-place driver made contact with Gray causing a multi-car accident. Gray finished 29th.
On Friday, Corey Heim led 149 of the 200 laps of the NASCAR Truck Series race as the Toyota Development Driver won both stages before the second-place driver made contact with Heim late in the event, giving him a flat tire. Despite the adversity, Heim drove from 26th to sixth in the final 30 laps to lead Toyota. Daniel Hemric won the race.
“A lot of frustration of course,” said Heim. “I really wanted to get a win for Toyota’s 500th Truck start. Obviously, I had the Tundra to do it today. I just feel like we got used up there a little bit. I don’t think he intended to cut my left rear down. I think if he intended to do that, he would have just wrecked me as it is. Just watching it here – he kind of jacked me up in (turns) one and two and then ran into me in (turns) three and four. It wasn’t anything malicious, but I don’t know, I would have liked to be cut a break in hindsight. I think if he was going to cut down my left rear he probably wouldn’t have done it but doesn’t stop me from being pretty frustrated. I’m super thankful for TRICON Garage and Toyota. Our Mobil 1 Tundra was really good today. I don’t know – I guess get a better restart I guess.”
- Corey Heim
NHRA
Kalitta Motorsports had a strong start to the weekend in Pomona with Doug Kalitta winning the Top Fuel All-Star Callout on Friday and Shawn Langdon claiming the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win on Saturday. Langdon also extended his points lead with a semi-final finish on Sunday’s final eliminations. Clay Millican won the Top Fuel race.
“We had high expectations of winning today, but obviously, all in all, it was a great weekend for Kalitta Air, DAYCO, Revchem, SealMaster and Toyota,” said Langdon. “We made it to the semifinals, had back-to-back Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty challenge wins and Doug (Kalitta) won the Callout (Top Fuel All-Star Callout). Team Kalitta leaves Pomona first and second in (the) points, so we have no complaints. We had a little bit of misfortune there in the semifinals dropping the cylinder at the step, but we’ll get that fixed and head to (Las) Vegas. It’s a great time to be at Kalitta Motorsports, and we’re ready to go to Las Vegas."
- Shawn Langdon
Toyota’s three Funny Car teams were defeated in the first round on Sunday. Jack Beckman claimed victory.
GR CUP
It was the beginning of the season for the Toyota GR Cup at Sonoma Raceway. On Saturday, Toyota Development Driver Westin Workman nearly chased down race winner Lucas Weisenberg, while on Sunday, Will Robusto, twin brother of Toyota Development Driver Isabella Robusto, won for the first time. Workman drove from the 17th starting spot to fourth at the finish.
GT4
It was a successful weekend for the Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 teams at Sonoma Raceway. On Saturday, Anthony McIntosh led every lap in the SRO GT America race to pick up the win, while Anthony Geraci and Kenny Schmied picked up the victory in the Pirelli GT4 America race in the AM class. On Sunday, McIntosh followed his win on Saturday with a runner-up finish, while Toyota Development Drivers Tyler Gonzalez and Gresham Wagner drove to a runner-up finish in GT4 America race in the Silver class, and Anthony Geraci and Kenny Schmied overcame a penalty to sweep the weekend in AM.
WHAT’S NEXT
NASCAR is hosting their annual throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway. The NASCAR Xfinity Series runs on Saturday, April 5 at 3:30 p.m. ET on the CW, with the NASCAR Cup Series on track on Sunday, April 6 at 3:00 p.m. ET on FS1.
Formula DRIFT also kicks off their season on the Streets of Long Beach. Final eliminations can be seen on FormulaD.com on Saturday, April 5 at 5:30 p.m. ET.