Toyota Racing
This Week in Motorsports – May 28 – June 3, 2018
Toyota Racing On-Track this Week
· MENCS/NXS: Pocono Raceway (Long Pond, Pennsylvania) – June 2-3
· NHRA: Route 66 Raceway (Joliet, Illinois) – June 3
· Formula DRIFT: Wall Stadium Speedway (Wall Township, New Jersey) – June 2
· NKNPSE: Memphis International Raceway (Millington, Tennessee) – June 2
· ARCA Racing Series: Pocono Raceway (Long Pond, Pennsylvania) – June 1
· USAC: Indiana Midget Week:
Montpelier Motor Speedway (Montpelier, Indiana) – May 29
Gas City I-69 Speedway (Gas City, Indiana) – May 30
Lincoln Park Speedway (Putnamville, Indiana) – May 31
Bloomington Speedway (Bloomington, Indiana) – June 1
Lawrenceburg Speedway (Lawrenceburg, Indiana) – June 2
Kokomo Speedway (Kokomo, Indiana) – June 3
NASCAR National Series – MENCS | NXS
Historic Weekend for Busch… Camry driver Kyle Busch is coming off a historic race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway where he won the Coca-Cola 600 for the first time in his career to become the first driver to win at all 23 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) tracks. On the way to his milestone victory, Busch started from the pole – his 100th in a Toyota in NASCAR competition, – and captured all three stage wins as he led 377 laps (of 400). Busch also became the 10th Cup Series driver to lead 15,000 laps. He goes to Pocono Raceway as the defending winner after earning a victory in the July race last season.
Hamlin Looks to Deliver at Pocono… Denny Hamlin is looking to put his Camry in victory lane for the first time this season at Pocono Raceway this weekend. Hamlin has had a strong start to the 2018 season by collecting six top-fives, including a third-place finish last weekend at Charlotte. In 24 Cup starts at Pocono, Hamlin has four wins (most among active drivers), 10 top-fives, 15 top-10s and has led 688 laps (second-most among active drivers).
Toyota Aims for First NXS Win at Pocono… Camry drivers look to capture Toyota’s first NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) win this weekend at Pocono Raceway when the series races there for only the third time. Camry drivers have posted top-five finishes in both NXS races at Pocono, including Erik Jones (second) and Busch (fourth) in 2016 and Daniel Suárez (fifth) in 2017. Busch will have another shot at a NXS win at Pocono this weekend, as well as his Toyota teammates Christopher Bell and Brandon Jones, who will round out the Joe Gibbs Racing lineup for Pocono. Bell is no stranger to Pocono as he won the Truck Series race at the ‘Tricky Triangle’ last season. He is currently second in the NXS point standings through 11 races.
NASCAR Bump and Run Stats… Toyota has five Cup Series wins at Pocono Raceway with Hamlin earning back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2010… Busch has four poles at the ‘Tricky Triangle’ – the most among active drivers… Hamlin (second) and Busch (fifth) are both in the top-five among active drivers in laps led at Pocono – Hamlin has 688 laps led, while Busch has 260… In two career Cup starts at Pocono, Erik Jones has finishes of third and eighth for an average finish of 5.5.
NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series – Top Fuel | Funny Car
Pedregon On Fast Track… Cruz Pedregon will arrive in Chicago eyeing his second win of the season as his Camry has proven to be among the top cars in the field after some early season troubles. In the last three races, the two-time world champion won in Charlotte and went to the semi-finals in Atlanta. In addition, he earned bonus points for qualifying in the top-three in seven-consecutive qualifying sessions– the longest streak in Funny Car this season.
Todd’s Hot Streak Continues… Over the last 18 events, no driver has more Funny Car wins than J.R. Todd with four. What makes those numbers even more impressive is that Todd is just 32 races into his Funny Car career after making the move to Funny Cars last season. The Camry driver enters this weekend’s action in the midst of one of the hottest streaks of his career as he’s posted a 10-3 round win-loss record over the past five events with victories at Las Vegas and Houston and a semi-final showing at the most-recent race in Topeka.
Brown Looks To Even Things Up… Even years have been awfully good to Antron Brown at the Route 66 Raceway and he looks to earn his fourth consecutive even-year win at the Chicago-area track. In addition to his victories in 2012, 2014 and 2016, Brown fell just short of a fourth career win at the track last year when he lost in the finals by just five one-thousandths of a second. The three-time world champ is one win shy of becoming the fourth driver in NHRA history to win 50-career Top Fuel events.
Kalitta Motorsports Within Reach of Milestone… A Kalitta Motorsports sweep of Top Fuel and Funny Car this weekend would give team owner Connie Kalitta his 99th and 100th victories as a team owner. The team has four wins to date this season and has registered five previous wins at Route 66 Raceway, including three by Doug Kalitta (2002, 2004 and 2006).
Formula DRIFT
Drifting Into New Jersey… Fredric Aasbø and the 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback will carry the points lead into Formula DRIFT’s Round 4: The Gauntlet at Wall Stadium Speedway in New Jersey this weekend. The ‘Norwegian Hammer’ has finishes of first, second and third as he sits atop the point standings heading to New Jersey, where he won in both 2014 and 2015. Toyota 86 driver Ryan Tuerck is seventh in driver points heading back to the Northeast for the closest event on the schedule to his hometown of Derry, New Hampshire. Tuerck finished third at Wall in 2015.
Regional Stock Car Racing – NASCAR K&N Pro Series | ARCA Racing Series
Toyota Goes for Sixth-Straight in Memphis… Toyota drivers have won the first five NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (NKNPSE) races of the 2018 season and will look to capture a sixth-consecutive victory at Memphis International Raceway this weekend. Todd Gilliland (New Smyrna and Bristol), Tyler Dippel (Hampton), Tyler Ankrum (South Boston) and Anthony Alfredo (South Boston) have all been victorious for Toyota this season. Toyota drivers will go for the second-straight win for the manufacturer at the Tennessee track after Harrison Burton won the race last season.
Toyota Drivers Leading the Way in ARCA… Toyota drivers have swept the first six ARCA Racing Series events of the year with Zane Smith (Nashville, Talladega and Toledo), Michael Self (Daytona), Christian Eckes (Salem) and Brandon Jones (Charlotte) all winning races. Toyota drivers hope to keep the streak alive when the series heads to Pocono Raceway this weekend, where Toyota driver Riley Herbst is the defending race winner.
Talking East, West and ARCA Stats… Two Toyota drivers named Tyler (Ankrum and Dippel) rank first and second in the NKNPSE standings, respectively… All three Bill McAnally Racing NASCAR K&N Pro Series West drivers – Hailie Deegan, Derek Kraus and Cole Rouse – will compete in the East race at Memphis… Toyota drivers own the top-five positions in the ARCA standings after six races with Smith leading the way followed by Sheldon Creed (second), Chase Purdy (third), Herbst (fourth) and Natalie Decker (fifth).
Midget Racing – USAC | POWRi
Indiana Midget Week Kicks Off… The six-race Indiana Midget Week kicked off Tuesday night at Montpelier Speedway with Kyle Larson driving his Toyota to the win… Logan Seavey would go on to finish third, while Jerry Coons Jr. placed fourth… The series moves on to Gas City tonight with three races to follow before concluding in Kokomo on Saturday… Fifteen Toyota-powered drivers are expected to compete, including five national midget champions in Rico Abreu, Brady Bacon, Spencer Bayston, Zach Daum and Seavey.
Toyota Drivers Excelling Early… Nine different Toyota-powered drivers have combined to win 16 national midget events to date this season… Bell leads Toyota with four wins, followed by Seavey (three) and Tucker Klaasmeyer (two)… Bell won’t participate this week as he prepares for Saturday’s NXS race at Pocono.
POWRi Point Leaders… Seavey will take the USAC National Midget Series point lead into this week’s action, while Ryan Robinson is on top of the POWRi standings… POWRi is off until June 6 when the series begins its five-race Illinois SPEED Week.
Get to Know the Owner
It’s More Than Just Racing… Keith Kunz is known for more than just being the owner of USAC National Midget Series team Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM). He’s known for giving drivers like Kyle Larson and Bell their big break. This year, he’s taking it a step further as he announced last week in Charlotte that TRD (Toyota Racing Development, U.S.A.) will serve as the presenting sponsor of the Keith Kunz Motorsports Giveback Classic at Millbridge Speedway on October 31. The KKM Giveback Classic is a unique race event open to non-national series drivers of outlaw karts and the winner of the main event will get the ultimate prize for a midget car driver – a ride in a KKM-prepared, TRD-powered midget at the 33rd annual Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2019.
“The KKM Giveback Classic is my way of giving back to the karting community because we’ve had so many talented kids that have come from there,” said Kunz. “We’re in a unique situation now that we weren’t in before to be able to give away a ride like this. When the idea first came about, the thought was that KKM would field a car at a regular race, but we wanted to make the Chili Bowl happen. There are a lot of kids out there that will never get the opportunity because they’re never in the right place at the right time and we want to offer someone that once in a lifetime opportunity through this KKM Giveback Classic.”
