Corey Heim extended his points lead with a nearly perfect run at Lime Rock Park on Saturday to lead the Toyota GAZOO Racing action.
NASCAR
Heim had a dominant performance in the Truck Series debut at Lime Rock Park. The Toyota Development Driver won the pole, led 99 of 100 laps and earned his fifth victory of the season. It is Heim’s 16th career Truck Series victory.
“Yeah, that was nothing short of incredible,” said Heim. “These road courses – I really look forward to them, pre-event and what not, and I really prepare for them, so to see all that pay off with Safelite, TRICON, Toyota – it is super special. Obviously, the truck was so good today – I can’t complain one bit about that. A flawless day and we will take that move forward and try and collect some wins that we should have had this year.”
- Corey Heim
His teammates and fellow Toyota Development Drivers Gio Ruggiero and Brent Crews also turned in solid performances. Ruggiero, a New England-native, made a late race charge to finish third, while Crews followed a top-five qualifying effort with an eighth-place finish.
Tyler Reddick won the second stage in thrilling fashion and led Toyota with a fourth-place finish in Saturday evening’s NASCAR Cup Series race from EchoPark Speedway, just outside of Atlanta. The race win went to Chase Elliott.
“We were really solid,” said Reddick. “Our Upper Deck, Superman Camry was pretty good. Made the wrong move at the wrong time, most of the night. If I sat and waited, I would get shuffled back, just needed to be a little bit smarter with my move on the 6 (Brad Keselowski). I got shuffled too far back to fight truly for the win there, so just disappointing for sure, but it was nice to get a Playoff point and score some points at a superspeedway. Just more and more new winners, so we have to find a way to victory lane.”
- Tyler Reddick
Erik Jones (fifth) also had a strong night, battling back from being involved in multiple incidents to earn his second top-five finish of the year.
For the third consecutive race, Taylor Gray led Team Toyota in a rain-delayed NASCAR Xfinity Series event that finished early Saturday morning in Atlanta. The Toyota Development Driver finished fifth – his third consecutive top-10 finish – and won his first stage of the year. Nick Sanchez was the race winner. Aric Almirola joined Gray in the top-10, while fellow series rookie Dean Thompson finished 11th – just missing his fifth top-10 of the year.
“Just not losing my track position late there in stage three,” said Gray. “We would have definitely been better off not losing it and then had to fight back up there to regain it and put myself back in position. I don’t know necessarily what different moves I would have made. I was kind of getting knocked around when I lost it. I thought I wrecked into (turn) three and was able to save it, but I don’t know. I need to go back and look and see what moves I would make. I’m sure there are some. Overall, solid day for our Joe Gibbs Racing team. I felt like we brought a really fast Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra – as fast as Xfinity Mobile – just need things to work out better there in the end.”
- Taylor Gray
ARCA
Thomas Annunziata battled back from a lap one incident and drove through the field to earn his first national ARCA Menards Series win at Lime Rock Park Saturday evening. The win was the second in three races for Nitro Motorsports. It was a top-three sweep for Toyota drivers, as Alon Day and Lawless Alan finished second and third. Alan closed to within 10 points of the championship lead with his top-five run.
NHRA
Justin Ashley claimed his second consecutive Top Fuel victory after taking home the Wally Trophy at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, on Sunday. Ashley methodically won four intense rounds on Sunday to claim victory, including winning the final round on a holeshot with a 0.027 reaction time. The win is also Toyota’s third straight in Top Fuel.
Also in Top Fuel, Shawn Langdon made the semifinals while Steve Torrence and Doug Kalitta advanced to round two. In Funny Car, Ron Capps made his fourth semifinals appearance this season, falling to event winner Austin Prock in that round.
TA2
Nitro Motorsports driver Thomas Annunziata, fresh off his ARCA Menards Series win at Lime Rock on Saturday afternoon, started 23rd after missing qualifying while competing in Connecticut. He quickly moved up through the field to finish a solid fourth. Three other Toyota Camrys finished inside the top 10, including Julie DaCosta (sixth), Boris Said Sr. (seventh) and Sam Corry (10th). Mike Skeen was the race winner.
WHAT’S NEXT
During Independence Day weekend, NASCAR returns to the streets of Chicago for the third time. The NASCAR Xfinity Series competes on Saturday, July 5 at 4:30 p.m. ET on CW, and the NASCAR Cup Series runs on Sunday, July 6 at 2:00 p.m. ET on TNT.