TOYOTA RACING – TRICON GARAGE
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Quotes
TALLADEGA, Ala. (October 23, 2026) – TRICON Garage partner and general manager Kevin Ray, along with 2027 drivers Sammy Smith and Dawson Sutton, were made available to the media on Friday prior to the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race from Talladega Superspeedway.
KEVIN RAY, partner and general manager, TRICON GARAGE
SAMMY SMITH, No. 15 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON GARAGE
DAWSON SUTTON, No. 5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON GARAGE
Opening Remarks.
KEVIN RAY: Good morning. It’s great to see this nice of a crowd for a Truck Series press announcement. My family and I have a great history here at Talladega, so, it’s only fitting that we’re able to announce TRICON’s next full-time lineup here at Talladega. It’s been very exciting working with Dawson (Sutton) and Sammy (Smith) to get them into our lineup. They both come with great history. So, we’ve enjoyed great success, since forming TRICON back in 2022. David (Gilliland, partner, TRICON Garage), Johnny (Gray, partner, TRICON Garage), myself, it’s been a huge commitment. Most people probably thought that we were crazy when we jumped out and went five full-time teams right out of the bat, but it’s been very, very rewarding and beneficial to see what is happening on track. However, we could not do what we do without our 73 people back at the shop, and their commitment to building good fast race trucks, safe race trucks, and we’re extremely excited to have Dawson and Sammy come full time. Sammy has a history with us. He’s been with us before, and at 22, being a rookie in the truck series is, is kind of fun. We’re excited about having him, join us, and he’s got a lot of great partners that will be a part of the Truck Series, new partners to the Truck Series. Then with Dawson and all of his grassroots success; Dawson goes very well with our commitment at TRICON to development. We want to develop great talent. David’s prior experience as a driver, Johnny’s prior experience as a driver. Mine has a steering wheel holder, but we won’t talk about that (laughter). Someone like Dawson can lean on the experience from all of our other drivers and Sammy and Kaden (Honeycutt) and Gio (Ruggiero), it’s going to be an exciting 2027 season for everyone at TRICON.”
What does TRICON have that right fit for you is you take the next step in your career?
DAWSON SUTTON: “Yeah, for sure. I feel like it’s honestly just the place to be. It’s going be a big change for me. Having four teammates, but at the same time, I race late models and I had teammates, so I think it’ll be really cool to lean on them a lot and also just use my prior success in the grassroots stuff, and also the past few years, I’ve learned a lot and I’m just super excited for the future. This is the place to be, and I’m super excited to take it to the next level. I’m here to win races and I feel like I can do that on any level. I’m just excited to finish off today and then move on to next year.”
What excites you the most about that next chapter in your career?
SAMMY SMITH: Yeah, I think what excites me most about joining TRICON and Toyota, I think, is just getting back in the program. When I left Toyota in 23, I think it was a surprise to some, but obviously when I had everything happened over the summer of splitting from JRM, I really assessed all my options and really felt like TRICON and Toyota was really my best option to be able to go out and win races and, um, yeah, I really appreciate Kevin Ray (general manager and partner, TRICON Garage), Johnny Gray (partner, TRICON Garage), Matt Puccia (competition director, TRICON Garage); Toyota welcoming me back with Jack (Irving, general manager, TRD), Slugger (Labbe, engineering manager, vehicle support, TRD), Trent (Rodriguez, manager, driver development, TRD), Tyler (Gibbs, president, TRD), everyone to really bring me back in the program. I’m really looking forward to it. So, yeah, really looking forward to kind of getting the season started in ‘27.”
Are you guys going to be running a fifth part time truck this year?
KEVIN RAY: “Yes, we will run the 1 truck as our all-star truck. We will continue to have five full-time trucks, and the 1 truck will be a rotation of drivers. Those will be announced soon.”
Can you talk about these years having driven your family team and then kind of spreading your wings and leading the nest and going off to a big opportunity like this one?
DAWSON SUTTON: “Yeah, for sure. The past 2 years with Rackley has been a great experience and to build relationships with those guys have been really great. I don’t have a whole lot to comment on there. This is the last race, but I’m looking forward to just going out and doing the same thing, trying to win. This is the final dance, so hopefully you can go on win.”
Do you expect to do any, um, more late model racing with Rackley WAR next year or have you not gotten that far yet?
DAWSON SUTTON: “Yeah, for sure. We plan on it. Right now, we’re just focused on the All American 400 in a few weeks and then the Snowball Derby. We work toward next year soon and hopefully we can line up some more races.”
Do you expect Corey Heim to raise any of your all-star truck next year?
KEVIN RAY: “Not sure yet. We’re still working through our driver lineups. We’re going to have a couple of new guys through the program again, and a couple of returning guys, so Corey (Heim) has been with us for four years now, and has done a phenomenal job, and he has at least one race with us this year after today. He has Homestead, so we’re looking at all of our drivers and funding and making sure that we pair the best available to each track, with Corey’s full-time cup schedule, we just don’t know what he’s going to be able to do.”
Obviously, Tanner Gray’s driven you for the last few years, doesn’t look like he’ll be back next year, just kind of went into that decision.
KEVIN RAY: “We will let Tanner talk about his future plans. Not for TRICON to disclose what he’s going to do for the future. He’s been a staple of our program since the inception. We’re certainly going to miss him as part of TRICON. He’s been there since, since the beginning. What more can we say about one of our founding drivers not coming back. It’s bittersweet but we do wish him all the best in the future.”
Are you able to say definitively, is Tanner Gray outside of the organization or is there a possibility he might be in the all-star truck at any race next year?
KEVIN RAY: “As of right now, we don’t have anything inside TRICON for Tanner (Gray) for next year.Currently we don’t have any, any open races for him.”
What kind of performance and expectations do you have for each of these guys respectfully next year?
KEVIN RAY: “Our goal is always to win every race. Sammy’s (Smith) a proven national series winner. Dawson (Sutton) has won some of the biggest, late model races out there, so we do expect these guys to go perform. You’ve got Gio (Ruggiero), you’ve got Kaden (Honeycutt). They’ve been in the program for a couple of years now. So that is the experience that they can lead on our other drivers. But then again, when you look at the depth of our organization, from David (Gilliland, partner, TRICON Garage) to Johnny (Gray, partner, TRICON Garage) to Matt Puccia (competition director, TRICON Garage), there’s a lot of depth inside the organization. These guys, they have the racecraft, so we do expect them to go out and perform.”
What can you just say about Kaden’s development this year and growth and also the prospects of having him back?
KEVIN RAY: “Watching Kaden (Honeycutt) over the course of this year, I think everyone has been excited, especially inside our program, to see the progression that he has made. Not only on the racetrack, but as a person. Our philosophy inside TRICON is we can all build the same parts and pieces. It’s about the people that we surround ourselves with. I think that Kaden has done a very good job coming into the program and leaning on that experience. We expect him to continue to contend for the championship this year, and our, our intent is for all four of our guys, full-time guys, to be going for the championship at Homestead next year.”
Sammy, you’ll make your 11th career truck series start, and you’ve had six top-10 finishes. What have you learned throughout your truck series races?
SAMMY SMITH: “I feel like I’ve learned kind of how the trucks drive. Obviously, I’ve had a dazzle of stars the last couple years, two or three every, every year, so it’s been good. To be able to race for Spire, some running today, obviously, and then running Martinsville. It’s always enjoyable to race on a weekend where I’m running O’Reilly Series just to get more experience and obviously, I love to race. I feel like going to next year will kind of be a rookie learning year of learning the trucks, but I know I have a lot of great resources around me to be able to go capitalize on that and try to go win races.”
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