GRAY, SAWALICH SCORE BEST CAREER FINISHES IN MEXICO
Gray moves into the provisional Playoff field with his runner-up finish
MEXICO CITY (June 14, 2025) – Taylor Gray (second) matched his career-best result with an impressive debut in Mexico City to lead Toyota in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday evening. With the finish, Gray moved inside the provisional Playoff field heading into Pocono Raceway next weekend.
His teammate, William Sawalich, also had a strong run and earned a career-best sixth-place finish.
Toyota GAZOO Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Race 15 of 33 – 157.3 miles, 65 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Daniel Suarez*
2nd, TAYLOR GRAY
3rd, Austin Hill*
4th, Christian Eckes*
5th, Connor Zilisch*
6th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
12th, DEAN THOMPSON
14th, TY GIBBS
25th, BRANDON JONES
33rd, SAGE KARAM
39th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
That might have been the closest you have been to your first career win. How was that finish?
“Besides Martinsville (laughter). Just sucked, right – to come so close and I feel like have the car capable of winning, and I don’t know – I’m mad, frustrated, sad, all of it at the same time, but it was a good points day overall for us. I can’t thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing enough. They brought me a really fast Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra – as fast as Xfinity Mobile. Just going to take this momentum and keep it rolling.”
WILLIAM SAWALICH, No. 18 Starkey Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
Best career finish, how was the race?
“Yeah, the Starkey GR Supra was pretty good today. Not too good in stage one, but we made some good changes on our second and third stop. We made some good strategy calls by Jabo (Jeff Meendering, crew chief) to get us up there but just got tangled in a little bit of a mess a lot of times, actually, going into turn one and had that spin early. I thought it was good day for everything that was thrown at us.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 24 Mobil 1 Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 39th
Was there any indication that there was a problem before there was?
“No, and let it be known, that I didn’t miss a shift with the h-pattern (laughter). I don’t know – it just let go getting into the stadium section, so it is a bummer. It was obviously going to be a really good run for the Sam Hunt Racing group. I thought our Mobil 1 Supra did some things really well, and some things it needed to be a little bit better. Clearly the 19 (Ty Gibbs) and the 88 (Connor Zilisch) are the class of the field but seemed like we were really the best of the rest.”
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.
