THREE GR SUPRAS IN TOP-11 IN ATLANTA
Taylor Gray bounces back from stage three incident to lead Toyota with a ninth-place finish
HAMPTON, Ga. (February 21, 2026) – Taylor Gray (ninth), Brandon Jones (10th) and Dean Thompson (11th) led Toyota with strong finishes in the second race of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season at EchoPark Speedway.
Both Gray and Thompson battled through adversity as they were involved in incidents during the race, while Jones delivered a top-10 finish at his home track.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS)
EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta)
Race 2 of 33 – 251.02 miles, 163 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Sheldon Creed*
2nd, Parker Retzlaff*
3rd, Nick Sanchez*
4th, Corey Day*
5th, Jesse Love*
9th, TAYLOR GRAY
10th, BRANDON JONES
11th, DEAN THOMPSON
23rd, WILLIAM SAWALICH
24th, GIO RUGGIERO
35th, HARRISON BURTON
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Good stage points, and battled back from damage late for a top-10.
“Yeah, obviously, all over the place. Honestly, just happy to get out of here with it being a superspeedway style track. Looking forward to getting to our race tracks as a group – kind of our style of race tracks that we are really good at. I can’t thank everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing and TOYOTA RACING, and obviously Jason Ratcliff (crew chief) for bringing me a really fast Supra. We just will keep plugging away.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 20 Menards Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
Finished in the top-10 at a superspeedway style track. Can you tell us about your race?
“Well, it has been a rough week too. No one really knows, but I ended up with the flu after Daytona, so I didn’t do any simulator work. I’ve been on the couch for four days. I have been watching film – I haven’t had much to do, so I’ve been watching how these races play out and the guys did a fantastic job. It was finally one of those days where we were finally missing some of the wrecks. We were catching some of the right breaks and we had good speed. We look at some of the races in the past here, we qualify well but then we drop in the race. So, I really wanted to show up this weekend and not worry too much about qualifying, and how can we make these GR Supras race a little bit better. I was really pleased with what we brought to the track with us today. I thought I had a chance to win, and it is so circumstantial where to pick in the end. I don’t know if you want to give up too many more spots to go to the top. I thought picking the bottom was probably the right thing but just got to line hop at the right times, and gain the momentum at the right times. I learned a bunch from this one. This has been a work in progress, getting better at these superspeedways. It takes a little bit of messing up sometimes to learn from, but at the same time I was catching on to moves that I was making that was good too. I’m excited to come back here in the summer. I think we now have a good package that we can go race for the win with, so all-in-all, it was a good rebound after Daytona – I know that didn’t go our way, but a good stage and a good finish in the end.”
DEAN THOMPSON, No. 26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 11th
At one point today, you were two laps down and you finish with a near top-10. Can you tell us about your race?
“Yeah, definitely a wild day. We rebounded well. We got the wave around and then got the lucky dog, so our race really started in the third stage. Proud of the effort our team put forward. We had a really fast Thompson Pipe Group Toyota GR Supra. Really just proud of our guys and the effort they put in to help me rebound to a good points day today. This team has no quit in it, so we will keep chugging along and go to COTA.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 24 AIRBOX Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 35th
What happened?
“I didn’t really see exactly what happened. I know they went three wide in front of us and just looked like wrecked each other. I don’t know. I’m frustrated because I feel like we’ve brought good Supras the last two weekends, and haven’t done anything wrong, and I’ve been in the infield care center twice. That’s just this style of racing. I’ve been on both sides of it, where it goes really well and you get lucky and I’ve been on the side that we’ve been on the last two weeks as well. It’s the nature of the beast, but it is hard for me to feel that way right now. Just thanks to AIRBOX for being on our car this weekend, and to everyone at Sam Hunt Racing for the hard work.”
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