Denny Hamlin finished in second at Bristol – leading three consecutive Camrys in the top-10 – in a strong weekend for Team Toyota.
NASCAR
Denny Hamlin (second), Ty Gibbs (third) and Chase Briscoe (fourth) gave Toyota three of the top-four finishers in Sunday’s green-flag dominated Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, won by Kyle Larson. Hamlin came just short of his third straight victory, while Gibbs delivered a season-best result. Christopher Bell (eighth) gave Joe Gibbs Racing four of the top eight finishers.
“You have to give that team their due – just a dominant performance,” said Hamlin. “It looked like a pretty flawless day for them. It looked pretty easy. It was all I had to try to keep up there. I’m glad we were able to give him a little bit of a run with our Progressive Toyota, but this weekend – we are all thinking about Jon Edwards’ family, Al Pearce, Shige Hattori. We’ve lost a lot of great people in our sport over the last week, so our thoughts are with them. Wish we could have got one more spot, but I just wanted to keep him honest there at the end. That was all I was trying to do, but he was a little too much to handle.”
- Denny Hamlin
Brandon Jones (fifth) added another top-five run to his early season tally in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol on Saturday. It is Jones’ fifth top-10 finish in the last six races. It was also a stellar afternoon for Sam Hunt Racing as the organization placed two Supras inside the top-10 for the third time in team history. Corey Heim was scored in eighth, while rookie Dean Thompson finished in 10th.
“We kind of really struggled today,” said Jones. “It wasn’t one of our better race cars that we’ve brought to the table. I think on these kind of days – that is what you have to do. You have to put yourself in a position to capitalize and get a finish out of it. Definitely didn’t have the car to go out and contend today – we have some work to do when we get back – but really proud. These guys on pit road – I say it every single weekend – they are the saving grace when you have days like this. It is all about track position when you behind a little bit on adjustments. They just do such a good job to get me where I need to be. Everyone at Pelonis, thank you so much, Menards – it means a lot to have them on our Supra. I think going to another good race track next week in the Dash 4 Cash.”
- Brandon Jones
On Friday evening, Heim battled back from an early right rear flat tire to lead Toyota with a third-place finish in the Truck Series race. Heim led in the closing portions of the race before being overtaken by eventual race winner Chandler Smith on a late-race restart. Heim’s teammate, rookie Gio Ruggiero, joined him inside the top-10.
“Yeah, it just got us behind from the start,” said Heim. “I thought we fired off really free there but ended up having a right rear going down and adjusted based on that thinking it was the balance of the truck. We made it way too tight there – not knowing that the right rear was down, no fault to my guys. Just kind of part of it – and we never had a chance to come down and adjust again. Just got behind there in the beginning, but really proud of the rally. I thought once we got down there to 17th or 18th, it was going to be really tough to come back through the field, but we were able to do it. Almost had a shot at it – just lit the tires there on the last restart. Definitely unfortunate, but thankful for TRICON Garage, Toyota and Safelite for everything they do.”
- Corey Heim
NHRA
Antron Brown and Justin Ashley led Team Toyota on Sunday at the NHRA Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals, making the Top Fuel final round. Brown finished as the runner-up in his second final round appearance this season while this marked Ashley’s first final round of 2025. In Funny Car, J.R. Todd made the semi-finals after winning his quad in the opening round.
XTREME MIDGET
Toyota drivers Jacob Denney and Karter Sarff combined to sweep the weekend’s two national midget feature events at Farmer City (Illinois) Raceway, co-sanctioned by the Xtreme Outlaw Series and the POWRi National Midget League.
Denney would lead 21 laps in Friday’s 25-lap feature to earn his second national feature win of the season with Zach Daum finishing second and Sarff placing third to give Toyota-powered drivers a podium sweep on the night.
On Saturday, it was Sarff's turn to take the checkered flag after taking the lead with 10 laps remaining. Six different Toyota-powered drivers have now won in 2025, combining for eight wins in the first 11 national midget feature races this year.
WHAT’S NEXT
NASCAR is returning to Rockingham Speedway for the first time in several seasons for three races over two days. The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series competes on Friday, April 18 at 5:00 p.m. ET on FS1. On Saturday, April 19, the ARCA Menards Series East starts the day at 1:30 p.m. ET with coverage on FloRacing, while the NASCAR Xfinity Series closes the weekend at 4:00 p.m. ET on the CW.