CREWS, SAWALICH NET TOYOTA TOP-10s AT CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS
Crews lead Five Laps; Brings Home Solid Sixth-Place finish in his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut
AUSTIN (February 28, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Brent Crews (sixth) and William Sawalich (seventh) earned top 10 finishes in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
Crews dazzled in his O’Reilly Series debut, taking the lead on an early race restart with an impressive move in turn one and led five total laps in the 65-lap race on Saturday afternoon. With his time in the lead, Crews became the youngest driver to lead laps in the O’Reilly Series since Casey Atwood did so in 1998 at the Nashville Fairgrounds.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS)
Circuit of the Americas
Race 3 of 33 – 156 miles, 65 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Shane Van Gisbergen*
2nd, Austin Hill*
3rd, Sammy Smith*
4th, Jesse Lovel*
5th, Corey Day*
6th, BRENT CREWS
7th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
12th, TAYLOR GRAY
15th, BRANDON JONES
26th,, DEAN THOMPSON
29th, HARRISON BURTON
35th, SAGE KARAM
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BRENT CREWS, No. 19 Young Life GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
How would you rate your overall performance today?
“Felt like today was just a big learning day. My first start obviously. Overall I just wanted to finish and keep the car in one piece and we did that. There are some things I felt like I could have done better. There at the end not thinking about it, I took the outside. I’ve been here so many times where you gain a row or two rows taking the outside and then they all get wiped out. It was a tough day, it was a long hot day and we survived. I just want to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, and we were also happy to represent Young Life.”
Tell us about the move you made around SVG (Shane Van Gisbergen) and Connor Zilisch to lead for five laps early in the race?
“It was definitely cool. Today was a great learning day and I just want to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and Young Life and Toyota for getting us here, first of all. Today was a blast, it’s a day I dreamed of going on 10 years now. Today was a lot of fun getting to race around my friends and people I’ve thought about racing for a lot of years. We definitely struggled this week in practice and we made adjustments to make the car better and almost came out of there with a top-five, so I’m happy.”
How did the day turn out compared to your expectations?
“They were pretty close. I expected to have a pretty good day being a road course kid. Definitely was a bit eye-opening in practice. We really struggled, but got a lot better. So I was happy to almost have a top-five there. Having green flag pit stops, and coming down pit road hot and all of those things are new to me. So I’m just trying to learn.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our nearly 1,500 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 48,000 people in the U.S. who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of more than 35 million cars and trucks at our 11 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.
