CREWS IMPRESSIVE IN DARLINGTON DEBUT
Gray, Jones start Chase fight with top-10 runs
DARLINGTON, S.C. (September 5, 2026) – Toyota Development Driver Brent Crews had an impressive debut at Darlington Raceway as the 18-year-old drove through the field in the final stage to finish third in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series race on Saturday evening. The Rookie of the Year leader earned his ninth top-five finish of the season.
Taylor Gray (seventh) and Brandon Jones (10th) started their Chase runs with solid top-10 finishes, as both teams remain in the Championship fight. Sam Hunt Racing’s Dean Thompson (11th) continued the organization’s recent performance surge as he just missed the team’s third straight race with a top-10 finish.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS)
Darlington Raceway
Race 25 of 33 – 200 miles, 147 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Sheldon Creed*
2nd, Corey Day*
3rd, BRENT CREWS
4th, Sammy Smith*
5th, Austin Hill*
7th, TAYLOR GRAY
10th, BRANDON JONES
11th, DEAN THOMPSON
20th, HARRISON BURTON
30th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
34th, GLEN REEN
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BRENT CREWS, No. 19 Mobil 1 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
What did you learn about Darlington tonight?
“Well, it was a lot of fun. I got to move around a bunch. It was a hot day. It was a lot of fun. Learning a lot of different things. We tried a lot of different things in practice and just kept learning all night. At the end, when I was running everyone down, it kind of felt like Millbridge (Speedway). That was really cool. Blessed with the opportunity to come here and race. Wish I could have raced here earlier in the year, and maybe our result would have been a little different here, but it was a great learning day, and we had a super-fast No. 19 Mobil 1 Toyota GR Supra.”
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
Solid top-10 to start the Chase, and continuing to show improvement at Darlington. How was your race?
“Really proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Thankful for everyone at Operation 300 and TOYOTA RACING, M-Experiment. This is probably my weakest track in the Chase, so we went to work really hard on this place over the last few months knowing we were coming here the first race of the Chase, and we made good improvements. I feel like we struggled a little bit firing off, and honestly, didn’t expect the race to go that green there at the end, but yeah, really proud of progression and the effort from the 54 group. We will go on to Gateway.”
About Toyota
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