BRANDON JONES RALLIES LATE TO LEAD TOYOTA IN CHARLOTTE
Taylor Gray only Chase driver with top-10s in every race
CONCORD, NC (October 10, 2026) – Brandon Jones (sixth) battled with an ill-handling race car all night, but was there when it counted to lead Toyota in the rain-delayed NASCAR O’Reilly Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday evening.
Taylor Gray (ninth) continued his streak of Chase top-10 finishes, and now sits alone as the only driver to have finished in the top-10 in every Chase race. Gray continues to be the lead Toyota in the point standings as he sits in seventh, 87 out of the lead.
It was a solid night for Team Toyota as a whole with five in the top-15 in the final finishing order – Jones, Gray, William Sawalich (11th), Harrison Burton (13th) and Dean Thompson (14th).
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Race 29 of 33 – 300 miles, 200 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Corey Day*
2nd, Jesse Love*
3rd, Sheldon Creed*
4th, Justin Allgaier*
5th, Carson Brown*
6th, BRANDON JONES
9th, TAYLOR GRAY
11th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
13th, HARRISON BURTON
14th, DEAN THOMPSON
30th, BRENT CREWS
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BRANDON JONES, No. 20 Menards/Dawn Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
How did you get back to sixth?
“I would not have imagined that for our Dawn, Menards Toyota GR Supra. I think a lot of it had to deal with because our car was really struggling to fire off – like hard to say what the major problem was, best way I could describe it is it felt like we were putting on 25-lap scuffs, and sometimes you just have that balance – it was like the blue screen of death on your computer. So difficult to work around – I just don’t know what to tell Sam (McAuley, crew chief) in those situations. That’s what makes it hard – you are struggling with both ends of the car, where do you start with that. The guys did a really good job. I was kind of giving them a lot of mixed reviews with feedback. I think that last run – he made really good. I think what helped us on that final restart, was I couldn’t take off with some of those guys quite as good, so I don’t think I was using all of the tire that I could be – some of those guys were able to push their cars a lot harder so they fell off a lot quicker, and more aggressively, so I was able to kind of have a long run car tonight, but it was because our short run was under what we needed it to be.”
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.
