Toyota NASCAR driver Kyle Busch claimed the sports’ second-ever weekend sweep by a single driver; while Toyota racers also won in NHRA and USAC events over the weekend.
NASCAR
Toyota’s Kyle Busch recorded just the second NASCAR race week sweep by a lone driver when he won three national series races at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway this week – matching a feat he accomplished at the track in August 2010.
Busch completed the sweep with a Camry win in Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on the 0.533-mile track for the milestone accomplishment.
The 2015 Cup Series champion led 156 laps (of 500) en-route to the Cup victory, but fought with his Toyota teammate Erik Jones for the lead in the race’s waning laps before securing his sixth-career Cup win at Bristol. Jones started from the pole and finished runner-up, marking his career-best result in his rookie campaign.
Before capturing his second Bristol sweep with the Cup win on Saturday, Busch won in the NASCAR XFINITY Series on Friday night and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Wednesday, when he led the most laps in each event en route to the checkered flags. The Toyota driver led 186 laps (of 300) in the XFINITY contest and 109 circuits (of 203) in the Truck Series race in a dominant weekend of performances.
In addition to Busch’s victories, Toyota drivers also claimed the runner-up result in each Bristol race – Jones finished second in Cup, Daniel Suárez was runner-up in the XFINITY Series race and Tundra driver Matt Crafton claimed second place in the Truck Series.
Busch captured the weekend sweep in his final opportunity of the year, as the Toyota driver is not scheduled to compete in any other Truck Series races this year.
NASCAR racing is off this upcoming weekend before returning to action at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway with the Cup and XFINITY Series from Friday, Sept. 1 through Sunday, Sept. 3.
NHRA
Alexis DeJoria drove her Toyota Camry in the NHRA Funny Car final to win at Minnesota’s Brainerd International Raceway on Sunday. The victory is the second for a Camry Funny Car in the last three races.
In the final, Tommy Johnson Jr. held a lead of under one-hundredth of a second over DeJoria through the 660-foot mark before she inched ahead to win by just 0.004 seconds. DeJoria defeated Tim Wilkerson and Cruz Pedregon in her opening two runs of the day, setting up a semi-final match with John Force. She led the entire way to defeat Force with a time of 3.892-3.909 to advance to her first final round of the season.
In Top Fuel, Antron Brown advanced to his fifth-consecutive final round and his eighth in the last 10 races, but fell to Leah Pritchett in the final. Brown had a 0.024 lead at the light, but lost traction midway down the track to finish as the runner-up. With his finish, the Toyota driver extended his championship point lead to 31 marks heading into the final race of the regular season.
NHRA next races at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis from Wednesday, Aug. 30 through Monday, Sept. 4.
POWRi/USAC
Toyota’s Logan Seavey came from the back of the field to take the lead with 12 laps and win by 0.010 seconds in POWRi racing at Illinois’ Macon Speedway on Saturday night. The victory was the second of the season for Seavey.
In USAC action, Chad Boat won a pair of races, while Tanner Thorson added another victory as Toyota-powered drivers won three-of-four races during Pennsylvania Midget Week. Over the four races, Toyota drivers led 120 laps (of130). Toyota’s Spencer Bayston continues to lead the USAC National Midget Championship race with just four races remaining.
POWRi next races at Illinois’ Jacksonville Speedway on Friday, Sept. 8, while USAC returns to action at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway later that month.
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