Denny Hamlin led a Toyota podium sweep in the annual All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday evening.
NASCAR
Hamlin had a strong performance throughout the weekend as the Virginia-native won the pole and had the dominant car throughout the race. After the first two segments, Hamlin earned the first starting position and led 103 of the final 200 laps to score the win. Hamlin also won the All-Star Race from the pole in 2015. This is also Hamlin’s third consecutive Dover Motor Speedway win.
“This team did an amazing job working on our Progressive Toyota,” said Hamlin. “I knew yesterday that we had all of the feels in the car that we really needed to go out there and do what we needed to. I thought with the format – it played into our hand. It put us to the back there, and that is typically where we are our best – coming through traffic. This Progressive team just gave me a Camry that was a rocket. I was the lucky guy that got to drive it.”
- Denny Hamlin
Chase Briscoe finished second for the second straight Dover race to Hamlin, as the Indiana-native led 61 laps, while LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s Erik Jones had his best weekend of the season. He started third and qualified for the All-Star Race main event with the second-best average finish in the first two segments. Jones then ran the final 200 laps inside the top-10 and completed Toyota’s first podium sweep in an All-Star Race.
William Sawalich led 15 laps and finished fourth to lead Toyota on Saturday in NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series action from Dover. With his second top-five finish of the season, Sawalich moved back inside the provisional Chase field. His teammate, Brandon Jones, finished sixth to continue to lead the charge for Team Toyota in the point standings as the Georgia-native sits fifth overall. Corey Day was the race winner.
“We came up a little short on that last restart, and the second-to-last restart,” said Sawalich. “We just kept getting a little bit too tight, but when we were out front in clean air, our Starkey GR Supra was really good today. We just needed more there at the end. We were too tight to run the top, and a little too snug to run the bottom. Just fell short.”
- William Sawalich
Truck Series points leader Kaden Honeycutt rebounded from an early pit road speeding penalty to lead Toyota with a fourth-place finish. Honeycutt extended his points lead to 38 points with his series-leading sixth top-five finish of the season. Christopher Bell followed his Bristol win with a fifth-place finish in Halmar-Friesen Racing’s second entry, while Brandon Jones finished sixth – his second top-10 in as many Truck Series starts this season. Kyle Busch was the race winner.
“Self-inflicted there with the speeding penalty and all, but we had a great truck,” said Honeycutt. “I really thought we were faster than the 34 (Layne Riggs) on speed. I just had to save a lot of fuel. I really thought I had enough to go get him before I attacked him, but it was either run out trying to run third or save and finish fourth. It was a good day. Another top-five. We have a lot of them thankfully, but hopefully we can go get that first oval win at Charlotte next week, but thank you to Safelite, Foster Love, TRICON Garage – this whole TOYOTA RACING team did a great job bouncing back for sure.”
- Kaden Honeycutt
ARCA
The ARCA Menards Series national tour and East series hosted a combination race on Saturday evening at Toledo Speedway where Thomas Annunziata earned a season-best second behind race winner Tristan McKee. Annunziata led four Nitro Motorsports Camry entries in the top-eight finishers, including points leader Jake Bollman in fourth, Isabella Robusto, who charged through the field after an engine change after practice, in sixth and Wesley Slimp in eighth.
LATE MODELS
Keelan Harvick won his second CARS Tour West race of the season on Saturday evening at Kern Raceway. Harvick, a Toyota Development Driver, won the pole and led 79 of 125 laps to score his second win in a Toyota Camry.
SPRINT CAR
Buddy Kofoid earned his ninth podium finish of the World of Outlaws Series season on Friday as part of night one of two races at Eldora Speedway. The Toyota Development Driver finished 11th on Saturday and now sits just 12 points out of second in the point standings.
WHAT’S NEXT
It is time for one of NASCAR’s iconic race weekends – Memorial Day Weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series runs on Friday, May 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, while the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series follows on Saturday, May 23 at 5:00 p.m. ET on the CW.
The annual 600-mile NASCAR Cup Series race is on Sunday, May 24 at 6:00 p.m. ET on Prime.
