SAWALICH, CREWS DELIVER TOP-THREE FINISHES AT BRISTOL
Team Toyota has its strongest night of the season
BRISTOL, Tenn. (September 18, 2026) – William Sawalich and Brent Crews battled for the win on the final overtime restart before just missing the victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday evening. Sawalich earned his best finish since his win at Rockingham, while Crews continued his strong rookie season with his second consecutive third-place Bristol finish.
It was the strongest night of the season for Team Toyota as all six supported Toyota GR Supras for Joe Gibbs Racing and Sam Hunt Racing delivered lead-lap, top-15 finishes for the first time this year. Sawalich and Crews were chased to the line by Taylor Gray in sixth and Dean Thompson in ninth. Harrison Burton (12th) and Brandon Jones (15th) also had solid results.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS)
Bristol Motor Speedway
Race 27 of 33 – 159.9 miles, 300 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Sheldon Creed*
2nd, WILLIAM SAWALICH
3rd, BRENT CREWS
4th, Justin Allgaier*
5th, Corey Day*
6th, TAYLOR GRAY
9th, DEAN THOMPSON
12th, HARRISON BURTON
15th, BRANDON JONES
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
WILLIAM SAWALICH, No. 18 SoundGear Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
What happened on that final restart?
“Yeah, double 00 (Sheldon Creed) just had new tires, and old tires can’t launch as good as new. Just kind of lost it on that restart. Did all I could there on the top to make it up, but it just wasn’t enough. Our SoundGear GR Supra was pretty good today, and especially good in stage three.”
BRENT CREWS, No. 19 YoungLife Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Can you tell me about your night?
“Yeah, it was kind of all over the place as far as where we were running in the beginning. In practice, I felt like this was the best car that I’ve had all year. It was super cool. We fired off super good, but then the track swung a bunch of different ways, but Seth (Chavka, crew chief) did a good job keeping up with it. I felt like at the end we had the race winning call, just those crucial two spots we lost on pit road, I think that is what cost us, but there was a lot of things that we could have done better to get us to victory lane that didn’t end up happening, but grateful to everyone at YoungLife and Toyota, and so grateful to be able to represent this amazing team.”
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
You had a look at the win there at the end. What happened out there?
“Just really good execution by the 54 group. Really proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, and really thankful for everyone at TOYOTA RACING and M-Experiment. Yeah, I just went for it – and he’s my best friend. Hate the fact that I stuck in the fence, but even more than that – just gutted for my team. They did a really good job all day and have done a really good job the last few weeks getting me prepared for this race. This is not my best racetrack by any means, and we put a lot of effort into this place and getting better, and it showed. It became one of my better racetracks tonight, but honestly, I don’t know. Just a lot of emotions going on right now.”
DEAN THOMPSON, No. 26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Another solid night for you at Bristol. How was your race?
“Yeah, really happy with how our Thompson Pipe Group, ONE TPG Toyota GR Supra performed all night. I feel like we have a consistent way of racing with this group – we struggle a little bit in stage one and stage two. We are starting to figure it out in stage three and always come around and finish decent. Three really good finishes in a row. Really happy for our team, really happy for my guys – really looking forward to the rest of the year.”
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.
