CREWS LEADS TOYOTA WITH STRONG THIRD-PLACE AT BRISTOL, HIS FIRST CAREER SERIES TOP-FIVE FINISH
Sawalich and Gray also post Top-10 Results Saturday night
BRISTOL, TENN. (April 11, 2026) – 18-year-old Brent Crew led Toyota with a third-place finish in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. It is the North Carolina-native’s first career O’Reilly Series top-five finish in his first ever series start at the .55-mile bullring in Tennessee.
William Sawalich, who is coming off his first O’Reilly Series win last week at Rockingham, started on the pole and led 27 laps early in the race, as he posted a seventh-place run, his fourth top-10 of the season. Taylor Gray rounded out the Team Toyota contingent inside the top 10 with a 10th-place run.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS)
Bristol Motor Speedway
Race 9 of 33 – 159.9 miles, 300 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Connor Zilisch*
2nd, Kyle Larson*
3rd, BRENT CREWS
4th, Justin Allgaier*
5th, Carson Kvapil
7th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
10th, TAYLOR GRAY
17th, HARRISON BURTON
20th, BRANDON JONES
24th, DEAN THOMPSON
34th, BLAKE LOTHIAN
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BRENT CREWS, No. 19 Mobil 1 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Can you go through the final restart from your view?
“My feelings are heartbroken to be honest with you. But I’m just really grateful to be here, this is a dream of mine to come out here and race in this series, that’s all we wanted to do since we were little kids. Being able to grow up with Connor (Zilisch) and race with him is a full circle moment. Growing up and watching Kyle Larson race every week and racing him a little bit in dirt was cool and kind of trade paint with him there running the top at Bristol in an O’Reilly car in the second highest series is something that’s super cool. Those are the positives and definitely the negatives hurt, I just feel like I could have stayed up there and been flawless we could have been doing donuts with the sword. I’m learning and I’m grateful to be able to drive this super fast Mobil 1 Toyota Supra. To have the chance to be able to go out there and race for wins is where we want to be.”
What did you feel like you did right in the closing laps and where are you kicking yourself?
“What I feel like I did right was going up there and running the top really hard and getting beside the 1 (Connor Zilisch) there in (turns) three and four and have a flawless corner to be able to put it right outside the one and kind of gain leverage on the top. The parts that I’m not going to be able to go to sleep on is going up there and getting loose and running into the fence a few times. I can’t pick a driver who would make me feel worse than losing to other than Connor. As much as we are friends off the track he’s also the biggest competitor. It was really running again Connor and Larson there at the end. Larson is something I’ve raced against and I’ve been racing Connor since right after diapers. It’s pretty cool, I’m happy with our Mobil 1 Toyota GR Super No. 19 team. Great that we finally go to execute a points day, but we are hungry for more and we are looking forward to my first mile and-a-half next week.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 49 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In spring 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 31 electrified options.
For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.
