Former Funny Car champion J.R. Todd finished a strong weekend for Team Toyota with a victory in Epping, New Hampshire, on Sunday.
NHRA
J.R. Todd drove to his first win in over a year on Sunday at New Hampshire’s New England Dragway. Todd, who qualified in 10th, defeated Cruz Pedregon, Phil Burkhart, Alexis DeJoria and Spencer Hyde on his way to his 22nd career win. The victory moved Todd from 10th to sixth in the point standings.
“You want to talk about patience? I almost ran out of it on the starting line (in the final round),” said Todd. “I flinched probably three or four times and did everything but a red light. Tree comes on, and I’m like, ‘Oh crap, I’m late!’ I never saw him (Spencer Hyde). Next thing you know, I’m over by the wall and (I said), ‘I ain’t lifting until that win light comes on.’ Sure enough, it came on. This is for Eddie (aka Scott Kalitta). We had the celebration last night in Scott’s honor. There were a handful of us telling some stories and this one is for him. I have to thank Connie (Kalitta, team owner) for giving me the chance to drive his car and my DHL, Toyota guys. They’re the best in the business. I say that all the time, but I truly I have the best crew out here. They dug deep, worked their butts off and they deserve this.”
- J.R. Todd
In Top Fuel, both Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta advanced to the semi-finals to lead Toyota. Brittany Force was the race winner.
NASCAR
On Sunday, Denny Hamlin had a strong day in his 700th NASCAR Cup Series start. The Virginia-native won the first stage, led 79 laps and scored a third-place finish to lead Toyota. Ryan Blaney earned the race win.
“We just needed to be a little bit faster there at the end,” said Hamlin. “The 12 (Ryan Blaney) had exceptional long run speed there – just couldn’t hang with him after about 40 laps on a set of tires. They just had a lot of speed. We were just kind of next best there with our Progressive Camry, so we just went long there to kind of gain a tire advantage just in case a caution came out – we line up right behind them if we don’t pit for tires, and then in the end, the track – just a weird thing – everyone went to the bottom, and it created a lot of dust for the middle and top grooves, and we couldn’t get off of the bottom – so everyone just kind of freight trained that last 30 laps.”
- Denny Hamlin
Hamlin led a strong night for Toyota with five drivers inside the top-10 finishers, including Hamlin (third), Bubba Wallace (sixth), Erik Jones (seventh), Tyler Reddick (ninth) and Christopher Bell (10th).
Aric Almirola finished sixth to lead Toyota in the Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway Saturday evening, which was won by Justin Allgaier.
“That was fun,” said Hamlin. “Gosh, I wish that was for the win. It was fun. I love coming back and driving these race cars. We are just off right now. We are working really hard to figure it out, but we are just off. We don’t have whatever the JRM (JR Motorsports) cars have. We are looking for it, for sure, but we can’t find it. They are about a tenth to two tenths better than us at every race track we go to right now. We have work to do, but I have a blast every time I get back in these race cars. I have so much fun. They are so much fun to race. I really enjoy it. Racing with Ross (Chastain) was a lot of fun. He got the better of me on the long run, I just got way too tight.”
- Denny Hamlin
On Friday, Corey Heim continued his stellar Truck Series season as the Toyota Development Driver won the second stage and led 58 of 150 laps before finishing second to Rajah Caruth. Heim is now the first driver in Truck Series history to lead over 800 laps in the first 12 races of the season, and he now holds a 122-point advantage in the point standings.
“I feel like just clean air was the main thing tonight,” said Heim. “With the third stage tonight being pretty straight forward, with a lack of strategy and all green, it was tough to come back for the lead, but I slid through my box there on the last stop and didn’t do my guys any favors. Just something to reflect on my end, but huge congrats to Rajah (Caruth). He did an awesome job managing from the lead. I was really free behind him, and he made pretty much the right move every time where I was going to go. That was cool; big congrats to him, and thank you to TRICON Garage, Toyota, Safelite – we wrapped up the month with Foster Love with a P2. I would have loved to get my first guitar, but always next time.”
- Corey Heim
FORMULA DRIFT
Jhonnattan Castro continued his recent performance surge as the Dominican driver made the first final round of his career and finished second to Hiroya Minowa of Japan, who was also driving a Toyota GR86. Castro has moved into a tie for third in the point standings – his highest ever rank.
It was a stellar night for Team Toyota as Fredric Aasbo also continued his strong start to the season and took over the points lead by 10, while Toyota added to its Auto Cup advantage.
XTREME MIDGET
Toyota-powered drivers Karter Sarff and Cannon McIntosh combined to sweep the two-race Xtreme-POWRI Challenge Series at Coles County Speedway in Matoon, Illinois, this weekend as Toyota drivers secured one-two-three finishes on each night.
Sarff led the way on Friday, capturing his second win of the season with Jacob Denney earning runner-up honors and Kameron Key in third. In Saturday's feature, McIntosh won a thriller with a late-race pass of teammate Gavin Miller. Miller placed second one spot ahead of Sarff.
To date, seven different Toyota-powered drivers have combined for 18 wins in the first 21 national midget feature events this year.
WHAT’S NEXT
NASCAR goes back to Motor City this weekend as they compete at Michigan International Speedway. The ARCA Menards Series kicks off the action on Friday, June 6 at 5:00 p.m. ET on FS2, the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series competes on Saturday, June 7 on FOX at noon ET and the NASCAR Cup Series closes the weekend on Sunday, June 8 at 2:00 p.m. ET on Prime.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads to Bristol Dragway with final eliminations on Sunday, June 8 at 3:00 p.m. ET on FS1.