Christopher Bell completed a Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the opening round of the Cup Series Playoffs to advance to the Round of 12.
NASCAR
Bell proved to have the right strategy and made the right moves on the final restart to win at Bristol Motor Speedway, claiming his fourth points-paying victory of the season – a career-best – and completing a JGR sweep of the opening round of the Cup Series Playoffs. Toyota has had a strong start to the Playoffs with nearly 79 percent of the laps led and three wins.
“Well, I'll tell you what, I was nervous on the choose,” said Bell. “I didn't know if I wanted to be on the bottom or the top, and whenever Brad (Keselowski) picked the top, he didn't really give me an option. I had to pick the bottom. All night long, I don't know, old tires just really, really pushed up in the middle of the corners, so I was hoping that those guys on old tires would push up, and they did. They did, and I was able to get by or get underneath them. It wasn't pretty there at the end, but we got it done.”
- Christopher Bell
Bell led four Toyotas in the top-10 Saturday night. Truck Series points leader Corey Heim got a career-best sixth in just his seventh career Cup start, while Chase Briscoe (ninth) and Ty Gibbs (10th) completed the top-10. Gibbs’ strong night included a career-best 201 laps led.
Aric Almirola drove his Toyota GR Supra back to victory lane on Friday night for the second time this season and ninth time in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career. Almirola proved to make a clutch decision on a late call not to pit. He led the final 34 laps to clinch a spot for the No. 19 team in the Round of 8 for the owner’s championship playoffs.
“Just tired of getting beat by those guys,” Almirola said. “I figured I would try my chances with the lead. They’ve been so fast, and the fire off so fast on new tires. I just didn’t think I could beat them straight up on new tires. It took me about 20 laps to get going. I thought my best chance was to stay out on old tires. Seth (Chavka, crew chief) and I watched the last two or three races here and we saw where the No. 9 car, with Noah Gragson, won with like 100 laps on his tires, so I decided to stay out when they said pit. I have incredible opportunity here to represent Young Life and so many kids that give their life to Jesus Christ because of Young Life. This race car has J.D. Gibbs name on it. J.D. played such a pivotal part in my life – not just my career, but my life. We’ve shared a lot of stories about J.D. over the years. This is just so cool to get this car to victory lane with his name on it. This is pretty awesome. I can’t wait to celebrate with my team, and my guys and family. I just want to make sure all of the praise and glory goes to God.”
- Aric Almirola
His teammates – Brandon Jones and Taylor Gray – both battled adversity throughout the race, but ended with top-15 finishes which kept both above the Playoff cutline. Jones sits sixth – eight points to the good, while Gray is in eighth, three points above heading into Kansas.
Corey Heim added to his Playoff point tally with a stage win at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday in the Truck Series race, before finishing in third. Heim, who has clinched his spot in the Round of 8, was joined inside the top-10 by his teammate Tanner Gray who finished sixth.
“It was a debatable choose on that last restart, lining up behind the truck that stayed out – I think it was the No. 62 (Cole Butcher),” said Heim. “He spun the tires really bad, and we fell back to seventh or eighth, and it was just super track position dependent race. I thought our truck was good. I think the best team won for sure, those guys were lights out. I thought we were second to him, and could run around him, like at the end of stage two. We were on older tires, and we could kind of fend him off. Really just dependent on who was ahead of who, and he happened to be ahead of me. Took us a while to carve through the pack and get back to a decent spot. I think if we got a restart, we could have raced it out. Just really proud of my TRICON guys. This Yahoo Tundra was really good all day. I felt like we made really good gains throughout practice – I didn’t feel like we fired off great this morning, but huge thank you to them, Toyota and Yahoo and on to the next.”
- Corey Heim
Toyota’s other Truck Series Playoff driver, Kaden Honeycutt, had another strong performance as the Texas-native scored stage points in both stages. After difficulty on the final pit stop, Honeycutt drove back through the field to 12th . He climbed from below the cutline to seventh in the standings – 18 points above the cutoff.
NHRA
Doug Kalitta made the final round in Sunday’s Countdown to the Championship opener at Maple Grove Raceway. With the result, Kalitta takes over the Top Fuel points lead. Ron Capps advanced to the semifinals in Funny Car.
“The car just smoked the tires in the final; it was a little unexpected,” said Kalitta. “It was an opportunity for sure, but it is what it is. The Kalitta Air guys, the DHL guys along with everybody from my team, worked together and we were able to get the spare car out (after the round two incident), which we hadn’t run before. The thing went right down the track, so it was a heck of an effort. I’m real proud of my Mac Tools Toyota guys. We’re looking forward to heading to Charlotte.”
- Doug Kalitta
ARCA
Brent Crews led every lap on his way to another dominating ARCA victory Thursday evening at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Toyota Development Driver delivered his fifth ARCA victory of the season. He was joined inside the top-five by fellow Toyota drivers Leland Honeyman (fourth) and Thomas Annunizata (fifth).
WHAT’S NEXT
It’s another busy week for Team Toyota across the country. NASCAR is off to the Northeast and New Hampshire Motor Speedway as the Playoffs continue. The Truck Series reaches the cutoff of its Round of 10 on Saturday, September 20, with coverage on FS1 at 12 p.m. EST. The Cup Series begins the Round of 12 on Sunday, September 21, at 2 p.m. EST on USA Network.
The ARCA Menards Series is at Salem Speedway with coverage on FS2 on Saturday, September 20, at 8 p.m. EST.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series continues its Countdown to the Championship at zMAX Dragway outside of Charlotte, with finals coverage on Sunday, September 21, at 12 p.m. EST on FS1.