This Week in Motorsports: April 6 – April 12, 2026
NCS/NOAPS/NCTS: Bristol Motor Speedway – April 10-12
ARCA WEST: Tucson Speedway – April 10-11
PLANO, Texas (April 8, 2026) – It’s a busy weekend ahead for Team Toyota in stock car competition. NASCAR’s three national series head to Bristol Motor Speedway for three days of short track racing, culminating with a 500-lap Cup Series race on Sunday afternoon. The ARCA Menards Series West heads to Tucson Speedway in Tucson, Arizona, for their third race of the 2026 season.
NASCAR National Series – NCS/NOAPS/NCTS
Toyota leads the way in Cup Series … Through seven races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Toyota has captured five victories but has also dominated the series in terms of laps led. In total, Toyota Camry XSEs have led 1,051 laps, which is 57% of the laps run in the Cup Series so far this season. Toyota’s lap leaders this season include: Denny Hamlin (444), Christopher Bell (225), Tyler Reddick (189), Bubba Wallace (86), Chase Briscoe(62), John Hunter Nemechek (19), Ty Gibbs (18) and Corey Heim (8).
Hamlin reaches 650 starts with Toyota … Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway will be the 650th start for Hamlin in a Toyota Camry. The 45-year-old made his first start with Toyota in the 2008 Daytona 500 and has since become Toyota’s all-time Cup Series leader in wins (58) and pole positions (44). Hamlin also captured Toyota’s 200th Cup Series win last season at World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway). This weekend, he looks for his fifth win at Bristol to join his 2012, 2019, 2023 and 2024 victories.
Bell seeks Bristol back-to-back … In last fall’s Bristol night race, Bell captured his fourth win of the 2025 season and the 13th of his Cup Series career. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) returns to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend in hopes of a second consecutive victory on the 0.533-mile concrete oval, and to get his first win of 2026. Bell has been consistently strong at Bristol, scoring seven top-10s in his nine career starts on the Bristol concrete surface. He also has a victory in the former Bristol dirt race during the 2023 event. Bell will also pilot the No. 62 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Halmar-Friesen Racing in Friday’s Truck Series race, marking his second start of the season after finishing sixth at Darlington Raceway last month.
Gibbs looks to continue strong 2026 start … After a fourth-place result last time out at Martinsville Speedway, Ty Gibbs has recorded five consecutive top-10 finishes entering this weekend. Gibbs has earned three fourth-place finishes (Circuit of the Americas, Phoenix Raceway and Martinsville Speedway), a fifth (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) and a sixth-place finish (Darlington Raceway) in that span. Gibbs has also traditionally run well at Bristol, with four top-10s in six career starts.
Sawalich comes off first win … JGR’s William Sawalich captured his first career victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Rockingham Speedway in his 42nd series start. The Minnesota native led 80 laps on his way to taking the checkered flag last Saturday. Sawalich and the No. 18 GR Supra team look to keep up the momentum this weekend at Bristol. Sawalich is a former winner around the 0.533-mile short oval, with two victories in the ARCA Menards Series in 2023 and 2024.
No. 19 looks for second straight Bristol win … Brent Crews and the JGR No. 19 Toyota GR Supra team head to Bristol seeking their second straight victory on the concrete short oval after Aric Almirola captured victory there last fall. Crews will make his fifth career O’Reilly Series start this weekend. He’s also a former winner at Bristol, as he was victorious in the ARCA Menards Series race last fall, leading all 204 laps from the pole position.
Burton returns to favorable Bristol … Harrison Burton has routinely found success around Bristol Motor Speedway during his O’Reilly Series career. The Sam Hunt Racing driver has finished inside the top-10 in five of his six career starts there, coming off a seventh-place result in last year’s fall race.
Honeycutt leads full-time points … With a runner-up result in last weekend’s Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway, TRICON Garage’s Kaden Honeycutt is now the points leader of full time series drivers heading into Bristol. Honeycutt is technically tied with Heim atop the Truck Series points, with Heim running a part-time schedule in the series this season. At Bristol Motor Speedway, Honeycutt has made eight career Truck starts, with a best finish of eighth last spring.
Heim looks for three in a row … Heim is once again behind the wheel of the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage this weekend at Bristol, looking for his third straight victory in the series after triumphs at Darlington Raceway and Rockingham Speedway. Last weekend’s victory for Heim was his 25th career Trucks victory, placing him fifth all-time, and was the 250th Truck Series win for Toyota. Heim also took over the all-time record with consecutive Truck Series races with a lap led at 29 and became the third driver in series history to win at 21st different tracks, breaking a tie for that mark. Additionally, should he win again this weekend, Heim and the No. 1 team will take home $500,000 as part of the series’ Triple Truck Challenge.
Briscoe takes on the Truck Series … Along with his full-time duties in the Cup Series with JGR this weekend in Bristol, Briscoe will also run Friday’s Truck Series race in the No. 5 Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage. This will be Briscoe’s first Truck Series start since 2023 and the 30th of his career. He’s made one Truck Series start at Bristol Motor Speedway, finishing 12th in 2017.
NASCAR Regional Series – ARCA Menards Series West
Avedisian, Lovell, DaCosta and Robinson take on Tucson … In Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series West race at Tucson Speedway, Jade Avedisian, Mia Lovell, Julian DaCosta and Will Robinson will be driving Toyota Camrys. Avedisian will take the wheel of the No. 13 Camry for Central Coast Racing, making her fifth career start in the West Series. Earlier this season at the West Series season opener at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Speedway, she started on pole and finished eighth. Lovell, DaCosta and Robinson, meanwhile, will pilot the No. 15, No. 25 and No. 70 Toyota Camrys for Nitro Motorsports this weekend. All four drivers will look to capture Toyota’s first West Series win of the 2026 season.
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.
