Five Toyota NASCAR Cup Series drivers advance to the 10-race Playoffs after Daytona while racers in ARCA, IMSA and POWRi earned wins during the weekend’s racing activities.
NASCAR
Erik Jones led Toyota with a fifth-place result in the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.
“We were good,” said Jones following the race. “I thought we had a lot of speed and drivability, pushed well and could be pushed well, but everybody gets shoving hard and the 5 (Kyle Larson) was shoving us super hard probably getting shoved from behind and just got me really out of shape. I’m glad we could hang onto it and at least finish, but just disappointed. Put ourselves in a great spot and executed well all day right to our plan and it just didn’t work out.”
- Erik Jones
With the regular season coming to a close, five Toyota drivers secured their spot in the 10-race NCS Playoffs, which begins next Sunday at Darlington Raceway. Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace all earned Playoff spots with wins during the regular season while Tyler Reddick clinched a Playoff berth on points.
Jones and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB teammate John Hunter Nemechek both led the field during the 400-mile event at Daytona. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs was also in the mix and earned a top 10 finish with an eighth-place result.
Brandon Jones led Toyota with a sixth-place finish in Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona. Sam Hunt Racing’s Dean Thompson also earned a top 10 with a seventh-place finish in Friday’s rain-delayed race.
“It’s always insane here,” said Jones. “It’s a shorter race this time so the strategy played out a little bit different. I was just happy to have a really good day. I think we got points in each stage so that was beneficial and then to come home in the top five – it’s hard to finish these races out. Highest finisher of the Toyota team so we’ll take it and go on to Portland and that will be a good one.”
- Brandon Jones
ARCA
Max Reaves led every lap from the pole position in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota Camry to win his second national ARCA Menards Series race of the season on Friday night at Madison International Speedway. Toyota Development Driver Isabella Robusto (fourth) and Julian DaCosta (fifth) also earned top-five finishes for Toyota.
GT4
Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVOs swept the podium at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) on Friday and Saturday and finished one-two on Sunday in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races over the weekend. Steven Clemons won Friday’s VP Challenge race while Toyota Development Driver Kiko Porto was victorious on Saturday and Sunday.
POWRi
Jacob Denney was victorious on Friday night, while Cannon McIntosh took top honors on Saturday as Toyota drivers swept the POWRi National Midget League double-header at Macon (Illinois) Speedway this weekend, recording podium sweeps on each night. Denney currently holds a commanding 300-point lead over McIntosh in the POWRi point standings with just five races remaining.
WHAT’S NEXT
It’s a busy weekend for Team Toyota at race tracks across the country. The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series will open its Playoff action at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, August 30, at 12 p.m. ET with race coverage on FS1. The Cup Series will also open their Playoffs at Darlington on Sunday, August 31, at 6 p.m. on USA Network. The Xfinity Series travels to the West Coast to compete at Portland International Raceway on Saturday, August 30 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
In Off-Road racing action, the Crandon World Championships are also this weekend at Wisconsin’s Crandon International Raceway, taking place August 29-31.
Toyota racers will compete in Formula DRIFT action on Saturday, August 30 at Utah Motorsports Campus, with coverage streamed live on YouTube.
The ARCA Menards Series is set to race at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds on Sunday, August 31, at 8:30 p.m. ET with FS1 broadcasting the race.
Finally, the NHRA U.S. Nationals are also set for this weekend with live coverage of the final eliminations on Monday, September 1, beginning at 2 p.m. ET on FOX.