GRAY, THOMPSON START THE SEASON WITH SOLID RUNS AT DAYTONA
Dean Thompson earns first top-10 finish in just his third Xfinity Series start
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 14, 2025) – Toyota rookie drivers Taylor Gray (fifth) and Dean Thompson (eighth) kicked off the season with strong top-10 finishes in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Gray drove the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra to his third career top-five finish, while Thompson earned his first top-10 finish in his third start in the series. He also matched Sam Hunt Racing’s best ever finish in Daytona with his eighth-place run.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Daytona International Speedway
Race 1 of 33 – 300 miles, 120 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Jesse Love*
2nd, Sam Mayer*
3rd, Sheldon Creed*
4th, Carson Kvapil*
5th, TAYLOR GRAY
8th, DEAN THOMPSON
17th, RYAN TRUEX
25th, JUSTIN BONSIGNORE
28th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
37th, BRANDON JONES
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
Can you walk us through your lane choice on the final restart?
“I just feel like the restart lanes kind of have a lot of diversity in terms of which one works, and which one didn’t. I felt like the top lane was the way to be at the time just with the 2 (Jesse Love) up there. I felt like he was the best car. Honestly, launched really well and gave him a good push. I just pushed him too far out there for him to be able to get clear of the bottom and kind of got myself in a little bit of a trap. Then, I was able to pick up some good help behind me in search for it there. I can’t thank all my Joe Gibbs Racing guys enough. They brought me a really fast Operation 300 GR Supra. I’d say it was probably as fast as Xfinity Mobile. Just got to keep going, keep working, building momentum. It’s a long year.”
DEAN THOMPSON, No. 26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
What does it mean to finish with a clean race car and a top-10 finish to start your season?
“It means a lot. I’ve never finished Daytona before in three years of trucks. It’s always a really big emphasis for me for this race to start the year off right. You can really dig yourself in a hole wrecking early and then you’ve got to claw your way back. I’m glad we finished, got good points with our Thompson Pipe Group Toyota and finished in the top-10. It was a good effort by everyone at Sam Hunt Racing.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 20 Menards/Swiffer Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 37th
What happened out there?
“Yeah, it is unfortunate. It is way too early to be out of this race. There’s a lot of cars in line there and I had two teammates in front of me – and so I thought we were in a pretty good situation. The momentum kind of got choked up there in the bottom lane, and I avoided getting into our teammates, I was trying to pull that lane back a little bit. That’s not the place to get pushed, coming off of the corner – so I don’t know. I’ll go back. I’ll look at it. Always try to figure out how to get better at this craft, at this type of racing. But it looks to me right now there is nothing I could have done. That’s not how we wanted to begin our quest to go get a championship. I’ll get my guys rallied back around. I’m happy to be back at Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 20, and have Menards and Swiffer on our race car this weekend. It was a big deal for me. There were a lot of people from Menards here, so pretty, pretty mad to be taken out here.”
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