Toyota Racing
This Week in Motorsports – November 12-18, 2018
Toyota Racing On-Track this Week
· MENCS/NXS/NCWTS: Homestead-Miami Speedway (Homestead, Florida) – November 16-18
· USAC: Bakersfield Speedway (Bakersfield, California) – November 17
Ventura Raceway (Ventura, California) – November 22
NASCAR National Series – MENCS | NXS | NCWTS
Toyota Drivers Compete for Three Titles… Toyota heads into NASCAR championship weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway as the only manufacturer competing for driver championships in all three NASCAR national series. While Brett Moffitt and Noah Gragson vie for the Truck Series title, Christopher Bell hopes to lock in the Xfinity Series championship as Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. have their sights set on the Cup Series trophy. Since the current playoffs format began in 2014, Toyota remains the only manufacturer to have at least one Cup Series driver competing in the Championship 4 race as Camry drivers have collected two driver titles in that span – Busch in 2015 and Truex in 2017.
Lucky Number Two… Busch and Truex will both compete for their second Cup Series championship on Sunday. Together the two Toyota drivers have amassed 12 of 13 Camry victories this season. With his win at ISM Raceway, Busch effectively tied his career-best record, collecting his eighth victory in 2018. Busch already has accumulated a career-best 21 top-five and 27 top-10 finishes while Truex has tied a career-best 19 top-five finishes. If either driver visits victory lane on Sunday night, they will become the first Toyota driver to win multiple Cup Series championships.
Bell Aims To Complete Historic Season With Title… Heading into last weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) cutoff race at ISM Raceway, Toyota driver Bell needed a victory to advance to the championship round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Bell dominated the race, leading 94 laps (of 200) to earn the race win and not only advance to Homestead, but extend his NXS rookie win record to seven total triumphs this season. The Camry driver will compete in the NXS Championship 4 race at Homestead and hopes to win back-to-back NASCAR national series titles. Bell won the NASCAR Truck Series championship last season after placing second at Homestead. He has one Xfinity Series start at the 1.5-mile track (2017), but retired early due an engine issue. In the Truck Series, Bell has three starts at the track, including a career-best runner-up finish there last year. If Bell wins the championship, he will become the third Toyota driver to do so, joining Busch (2009) and Daniel Suárez (2016).
Gragson Going For First Career Championship… In his second full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) season, Toyota driver Gragson will compete in his first Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Tundra driver has had a strong 2018 campaign – collecting one victory (Kansas) and leading the most laps (591) in the NCWTS. Gragson advanced through the elimination-style playoff format after scoring top-20 finishes in every postseason start. A title from his would be Toyota’s eighth NCWTS driver championship since 2006 and Kyle Busch Motorsports’ third driver championship in the last four years.
Moffitt Makes The Most Of 2018 Season… Toyota driver Moffitt has raced in the NASCAR national series since 2012, making multiple starts at every level including the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series. This season Moffitt has put forth the best season of his NASCAR career as he has positioned himself in contention for the NCWTS championship with five victories (second-most in NCWTS) and 12 top-five finishes (second-most in NCWTS). Moffitt and his Hattori Racing Enterprises team have produced top-three finishes in their last three starts, including a victory at ISM Raceway to make the Championship 4 at Homestead. Although the Tundra driver has never logged a NCWTS start at the 1.5-mile track, he has two wins at intermediate tracks this season (Atlanta and Chicago). A title would not only be Toyota’s eighth driver championship, but the first-ever for Hattori Racing Enterprises.
NHRA – Top Fuel | Funny Car
Todd Earns First World Championship… Toyota driver J.R. Todd captured the NHRA Funny Car world championship on Sunday in Pomona after driving the DHL Camry to his sixth victory this season. Todd led the series in both wins and round wins (44) and closed out the season with a 24-3 round record over the season’s final seven races. During that stretch, he amassed 720 out of a possible 800 points available on race day. Todd’s six wins were the highest single-season total ever by a Toyota Funny Car driver. The world championship marks the second for a Camry Funny Car driver in the last four years and the third since 2008. Todd joins Del Worsham and Cruz Pedregon as Toyota Funny Car champions.
Midget Racing – USAC
Midget Title, Take Two… Toyota Racing development driver Logan Seavey seeks his second national midget racing championship after earning the 2017 POWRi title. He currently holds a 118-point advantage in the USAC P1 Insurance National Midget League with two USAC wins this year. Seavey can clinch the title by simply qualifying for the A Main at both remaining USAC events – Bakersfield Speedway (November 17) and Ventura Raceway’s Turkey Night (November 22). A USAC title this season would allow Toyota to sweep the two national midget car series after Tucker Klaasmeyer earned the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League championship last week. Toyota drivers have won the last five USAC titles, with Spencer Bayston (2017), Tanner Thorson (2016), Tracy Hines (2015), Rico Abreu (2014) and Bell (2013).
Get To Know
David Wilson, a car guy from the start… Racing and a love of cars have always been a family affair for Toyota Racing Development (TRD, USA) President David Wilson. The son of a U.S. Army officer, Wilson grew up in Germany where his father took him and his younger brother, Michael, to local ‘jalopy’ races and every year their family watched the Indy 500.
Years later, following a mechanical engineering degree from Virginia Tech and time serving his country as an officer in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, Wilson got a call from his brother who was working in Southern California at TRD. He convinced his younger sibling to take an interview there and he got the job.
Since then, Wilson has worked in various capacities on every racing program that TRD has participated in throughout the years – Toyota Atlantic, sports cars, off-road racing, CART/Indy and NASCAR. However, Wilson is quick to acknowledge while this was all valuable experience, it was time spent helping to build and grow the company where he really excelled.
And while the company has seen success across many forms of motorsports, its venture into NASCAR – first in the Truck Series in 2004 and then in Cup and Xfinity in 2007 – has proven most valuable.
The work has paid off for Toyota and TRD who have since amassed 11 driver championships, 16 manufacturer championships and most recently, the 2017 Cup Series Engine Builder of the Year award. Now, the manufacturer looks ahead to championship weekend where five Toyota drivers compete for three NASCAR national series titles in hopes of adding to the numbers.
