NASCAR
Heim earned his first title on Friday evening at Phoenix Raceway by winning the race. The Toyota Development Driver won the first two stages and set a record for leading a lap in every race this season, before having to battle through multiple overtime restarts to score his 12th victory this season, and 23rd of his career. Kaden Honeycutt also had an impressive performance in his first Championship 4 race as the Texas-native finished third, while Gio Ruggiero locked up Rookie of the Year honors.
“I just am so grateful to be where I'm at,” said Heim. “So thankful for the TRICON Garage, Toyota taking a chance on me years ago, Safelite, Mobil 1, Yahoo, Celsius, for every bit of their support. I was so stressed out ever since we went to the ROVAL. I've been, like, so terrible to talk to as a person, so stressed out. This is just such a relief, to say the least. So thankful for everybody. There's so many names I could go through, Trevor (Bayne, Competition Mentor, TRD) and Blake (Koch, Competition Mentor, TRD) for all my prep work, 23XI for everything they do for me on the development side. There's such a long list. Thankful for everybody involved.”
- Corey Heim
In Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, Aric Almirola passed Connor Zilisch late for the runner-up position to deliver the NASCAR Xfinity Series Owner’s championship to Joe Gibbs Racing. Brandon Jones finished fourth and ended the season with a career-best fifth in the point standings.
“What an absolute fight,” said Almirola. “Our car was not good to start. We had to just keep swinging at it. We were making huge adjustments, and those guys were just firing off so much better than me and I just couldn’t keep pace and finally Seth Chavka (crew chief) and the guys just kept swinging at it and swinging at it with huge adjustments and we finally got it decent to where I could maintain and keep pace with those guys. That restart was key to be able to get to third and try and keep pace with the No. 88 (Connor Zilisch). I knew I wasn’t racing the No. 2 (Jesse Love). I just knew that I needed to stay close enough that if the No. 2 got by the No. 88 then I could run him down and go and get by him for the owner’s championship. I’m just so proud. J.D. Gibbs name is on this car. Coy Gibbs name is on this car. This is not about me. This about a team. Coach Gibbs talks all the time about winning with people and this is about a lot of people at Joe Gibbs Racing. This is an owner’s championship. It has nothing to do with Aric Almirola. I was the lucky guy to be behind the wheel for a few of the wins and to get the championship tonight, but it is a team effort. I’m just so thankful for Coach and J.D. and the Gibbs family and Toyota, Young Life. Oh my gosh. This is really, really awesome. I’ve never won a championship. This is my first championship and again like I said, this isn’t about me, but I was a part of this and I’m just so proud of our organization and everybody that helps us and supports us. Praise God. This is pretty awesome.”
-Aric Almirola
On Sunday, Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team delivered a dominating performance – leading 208 of 319 laps, and he was in command late in the race before a caution in the closing laps. On the overtime restart, Hamlin was able to work his way back up to sixth but finished second in the standings.
“Yeah, nothing I can do different,” said Hamlin. “Prepared as good as I could coming into the weekend. My team gave me a fantastic car. Just didn't work out. I was just praying that no caution. Had one there. What can you do? Just not meant to be.”
-Denny Hamlin
NHRA
Shawn Langdon led Toyota with a runner-up finish to Brittany Force in Top Fuel at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. J.R. Todd led Toyota in Funny Car with an opening-round win.
“It was a great racing day. We had a good qualifying spot (third),” said Langdon. “First round did throw us a curveball, though – we were able to have a little bit of luck and make it through that. But from then on out, we had very fast race car. From a statistical and avid fan standpoint, the second round against Justin (Ashley) was pretty awesome. I was kind of in a different zone today, so it didn’t really dawn on me until after the run how big that round was, but regardless, I was just trying to do my job. I was a little off on the tree today for whatever reason, but it worked. The Kalitta Air Career Toyota Dragster saved my butt. The semifinal win over Doug (Kalitta) is why we have a completely outside shot at the championship, but still, we’re going to Pomona with that shot. We’ll go there with the same mentality we’ve had the last couple of races – we just need to win, and we have the car to do it. It’s just a matter of everything falling into place, but the main objective is the Kalitta cars finishing one-two in points at the end of the day.”
-Shawn Langdon
ARCA
Brent Crews scored another dominating victory to close out the ARCA Menards Series West season on Saturday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway.
WHAT’S NEXT
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series closes its season on Sunday, November 16, at In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip. Eliminations coverage can be seen at 5:00 p.m. EST on FS1.