PLANO, Texas (September 30, 2019) – Shawn Langdon won an all-Toyota Funny Car final in NHRA while Derek Kraus notched his fourth K&N Pro Series West win of the season over the weekend.

NHRA

Shawn Langdon defeated fellow Toyota driver, J.R. Todd, in an all-Toyota Funny Car final to win Sunday’s NHRA event at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. With the win, Langdon became the second driver in history to win at the track in both Funny Car and Top Fuel (2016).

“What at incredible day,” said Langdon. “I’m not really sure what happened in the finals. I hit the gas and I heard that thing was laboring, but man, it was the final round and we’re in the Countdown and I’m not lifting. I was expecting to see the yellow car (J.R. Todd) and I knew our car was struggling, but I never did and we got the win.”

This was Langdon’s second Funny Car and the 16^th overall victory of his career in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series after he previously registered 14 Top Fuel wins.

In Top Fuel, Doug Kalitta advanced to the second round and continues to lead the point standings in the Countdown to the Championship.

NASCAR

Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. advanced to Round 2 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday. Truex was also the highest-finishing Camry driver with a seventh-place result.

After starting from the rear of the field, Truex raced his way to the front, running in second before a series of late-race cautions left him in seventh place.

“We started from way behind there and made our way up,” said Truex. “We got to second and just didn’t have a good enough car to take the lead and then all those heat cycles again, I just got really loose. We probably should’ve got tires, but we didn’t expect all of the cautions at the end.”

In the final road-course event in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season, Christopher Bell was the top Toyota finisher with a 12th-place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. Bell led 19 laps (of 67) while his Supra teammates, Harrison Burton (13th) and Brandon Jones (16th), also collected top 20 finishes.

“We were really good,” said Bell. “We had a really fast Rheem Supra and then it kind of just got away from us a little bit on that last stage. We were really tight for some reason. Not the finish we wanted, but I’m thankful that we got the win last week in Richmond.”

With one race remaining in the first round of the NXS Playoffs, Bell has already advanced to the second round while Jones needs to either win or collect additional points to continue his championship run. Jones is currently 11 points below the cutoff line.

In the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, Camry driver Derek Kraus continued his dominance, winning his fourth race of 2019 at Idaho’s Meridian Speedway. After starting seventh, Kraus worked his way to the front of the field, leading 100 laps (of 221). It was Kraus’ 12th career NASCAR K&N Pro Series victory.

“It’s been a good year so far and tonight was just another short track race,” said Kraus. “There was lots of beating and banging, there were lots of yellows for sure. There were a lot of restarts, and I was able to get the lead over Jagger (Jones) about halfway through the race and I was able to keep it. That was really good, I’m really proud of how tonight went and I can’t thank these guys enough.”

With the win, Kraus extends his championship points lead to 40 points over second place. Hailie Deegan is third in the standings, 45 points behind Kraus.

USAC

Four Toyotas finished in the top five in the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series event at Eldora Speedway on Saturday night. Tanner Carrick led the Toyota contingent with a runner-up finish after leading 22 laps (of 25). Logan Seavey, Rico Abreu and Kevin Thomas Jr. followed closely behind.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East travel to Dover, Delaware where all three series will compete at Dover International Speedway. The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East opens the weekend on Friday, October 4 with its season-finale with the broadcast tape-delayed until October 11 at 6 p.m. EDT on NBCSN. The Xfinity Series continues on Saturday, October 5 at 3 p.m. EDT on NBCSN while the Cup Series races on Sunday, October 6 at 2:30 p.m. EDT on NBCSN.

The Toyota midget car program returns to action October 4-5 at Jacksonville Speedway for a pair of POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League feature events at the Illinois track next weekend.