HAMLIN RECOVERS FOR TOP-10 TO LEAD TOYOTA AT GATEWAY
Season-high in cautions leads to damage for several Team Toyota drivers
MADISON, Ill. (September 13, 2026) – Denny Hamlin bounced back from a slow pit stop to lead Toyota with a ninth-place finish in a chaotic race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday evening.
Seven of the nine Team Toyota drivers, all but Hamlin and John Hunter Nemechek, suffered damage in one or multiple of the 18 cautions that fell during the race.
Hamlin maintained the points lead – by nine over Kyle Larson, with Christopher Bell only 18 points out.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway
Race 28 of 36 – 240 miles, 300 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, Alex Bowman*
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, William Bryon*
5th, Ross Chastain*
9th, DENNY HAMLIN
13th, ERIK JONES
14th, BUBBA WALLACE
15th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
18th, TY GIBBS
19th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
25th, TYLER REDDICK
32nd, CHASE BRISCOE
34th, RILEY HERBST
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 King’s Hawaiian Cinnamon Bites Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How would you summarize your team’s day?
“Not a great day for sure. I wasn’t good on restarts. I couldn’t get the car to do what I needed to on restarts, and then obviously we had that bad stop which put us further back with a car that wasn’t very good on restarts and a driver that wasn’t good on restarts. Just a bad combination. Needed others to have issues to get a good finish out of it.”
Are you starting to feel the pressure?
“No. I think we are so fortunate. We were strong last week, and this week we were not strong, and still, we maintained the lead. With all of the tracks coming up, we have a good notebook on. Here was the first one where we were coming back with a new package. We haven’t been good all year with this package at this track for the first time. I feel like we’ve been given a second chance. We just have to go and be better now.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 19th
What happened on that restart with 18 to go?
“I haven’t seen it, so I don’t exactly know, but I ended up in a three-wide battle with Josh (Berry) beside me and he was just laying on me, and then he missed the turn. I don’t know. Just a missed opportunity. I’m really bummed that it looked like it was going to be a really good points day for us, and I thought I was in position to win, and if I wasn’t going to win get a top-five and ended up with a 19th place finish, which in the grand scheme of things – we are still in the hunt, which is awesome, but just a missed opportunity for this Rheem Toyota team.”
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Comparion Insurance Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 25th
What was going on out there?
“I mean, for us, we were just getting caught up in everyone’s messes. Whether it was early on there – the 7’s (Daniel Suarez) mistake, and I don’t know what happened with Bubba (Wallace) and (Josh) Berry there. Yeah, just tried to bring it home and get a good finish, and couldn’t even do that. It is just kind of where we are used to at this point, for us, we did a really good job at bouncing back from the issues early. We had some splitter damage on lap two or three when we had that contact with the 7, and yeah, it just looked like we were going to crawl our way out of there and get a top-10, and just move on with a good day, and I truly don’t know what happened with those two, but it is kind of the trend, we just get in everyone else’s mess.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 32nd
What are the Chase implications of today? Is there room for a mulligan?
“We won’t know the implications until the end of the day. There is a lot of chaos still happening. Just wrong place, wrong time for our Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Boats Toyota Camry. Just have to go the next eight weeks and try to win as many of them as we can. We kind of used nine lives today and kept trying to find our way back up there and at the end wasn’t in the place where we needed to be. Will go to the deer stand tomorrow and reset.”
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 over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 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.
