Ty Gibbs earned his first NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway, holding off his competitors in a dramatic two-lap overtime shootout.
NASCAR
Gibbs led the final 25 laps of Sunday’s race to secure his first win in NASCAR’s top series. Gibbs added his name to Toyota’s growing list of winners this season, as three different Toyota Camry XSE teams have combined for six victories through the first eight races.
“It's awesome to be with great people,” said Gibbs. “To be in this position is great. I'd love for my father (Coy Gibbs) to have seen this. I knew he knew it was going to happen and expected it as well. It was great day for us. My boys didn't give up. Pit crew is just amazing. This is our family. It's been great. So, it's just such great deal. Very honored to be in this situation.”
- Ty Gibbs
Tyler Reddick finished fourth and Chase Briscoe placed fifth, rounding out the top five for Toyota. Denny Hamlin finished ninth, giving Toyota four cars in the top 10.
On Saturday, 18-year-old Brent Crews led Toyota with a third-place finish in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Bristol. It is the North Carolina-native’s first career O’Reilly Series top-five finish in what was his first ever series start at the 0.533-mile Tennessee bullring.
“I’m just really grateful to be here, this is a dream of mine to come out here and race in this series, that’s all we wanted to do since we were little kids,” said Crews. “Being able to grow up with Connor (Zilisch) and race with him is a full circle moment. Growing up and watching Kyle Larson race every week and racing him a little bit in dirt was cool and kind of trade paint with him there running the top at Bristol in an O’Reilly car in the second highest series is something that’s super cool. Those are the positives and definitely the negatives hurt, I just feel like I could have stayed up there and been flawless we could have been doing donuts with the sword. I’m learning and I’m grateful to be able to drive this super fast Mobil 1 Toyota Supra. To have the chance to be able to go out there and race for wins is where we want to be.”
- Brent Crews
William Sawalich, who is coming off his first O’Reilly Series win last week at Rockingham, started on the pole and led 27 laps early in the race, as he posted a seventh-place run, his fourth top-10 of the season. Taylor Gray rounded out the Team Toyota contingent inside the top 10 with a 10th-place result.
On Friday night at Bristol, Christopher Bell brought home his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory since 2017, taking the lead with 63 laps to go and setting sail on his way to his ninth career Truck Series win. The Cup Series regular and 2017 Truck Series champion visited victory lane in his second start of the season in the Halmar-Friesen Racing (HFR) No. 62 entry.
TRICON Garage’s Gio Ruggerio overcame slight contact on pit road to bring home a third-place finish for Toyota to notch his third top-five and fourth top-10 finish in just six races contested thus far in 2026.
“That was just so awesome to win a truck race,” said Bell. “I think it’s been since 2017 since I’ve won one of these things. It’s a lot of fun racing with this HFR (Halmar Friesen Racing) group. I got the call last year whenever Stewart (Friesen) got hurt and went out to Watkins Glen and we almost got it and they’ve been working really hard to get back to victory lane. When Stewart and Jimmy (Villeneuve, crew chief) called me about this opportunity to try and run some races this year, I was like heck yeah, lets do it. It’s just so special for me to be able to race with these guys, these wins mean a lot to this team and this organization and can’t say thank you enough to Stewart Friesen and Jimmy over at HFR. Thank you for the opportunity, glad we got his logo in victory lane there.”
- Christopher Bell
ARCA
In the ARCA Menards Series West Series at Tucson Speedway, Eric Johnson Jr. led the Toyota contingent with a third-place finish. The final running order saw four Toyota’s inside the top 10 behind Johnson Jr., which included Gavin Ray (fifth), Mia Lovell (eighth), and Julian DeCosta (10th). Cole Denton was the race winner.
SPRINT CAR
Buddy Kofoid had a stellar weekend World of Outlaws competition as the Toyota Development Driver swept both races at I-55 Speedway – giving his team, Roth Motorsports, its first three-race winning streak since 2000. Kofoid, who now leads the series with four wins this season, moved up to third in the point standings.
WHAT’S NEXT
NASCAR heads to the heartland at Kansas Speedway for a weekend of ARCA and NASCAR action. A Saturday doubleheader is on tap on April 18, as the ARCA Menards Series competes at 12:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series follows ARCA on Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW, while the NASCAR Cup Series closes the weekend on Sunday, April 19, at 2:00 p.m. ET on FOX.
