NASCAR Cup

Toyota tidbits 2009-10-14

TOYOTA TIDBITS -- October 12 - 18, 2009 Here Are the Headlines: Reutimann Returns to Site of First Win Logano Looking for Three-Straight Braun and Great Clips Give Back Open-Wheelers Test Tundras RACE REWIND: Joey Logano (14th) was the ...

Published: Oct 14, 2009, 10:47 PM

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TOYOTA TIDBITS -- October 12 - 18, 2009
Here Are the Headlines:
Reutimann Returns to Site of First Win
Logano Looking for Three-Straight
Braun and Great Clips Give Back
Open-Wheelers Test Tundras

RACE REWIND: Joey Logano (14th) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Auto Club Speedway in southern California. Michael Waltrip (17th) and David Reutimann (18th) also posted top-20 results for Toyota at the two-mile oval. Kyle Busch -- who battled flu-like symptoms throughout the weekend -- was replaced early in the race by David Gilliland in the No. 18 M&M's Camry and finished 24th.

CHASE RACE: For the two Toyota drivers competing in the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship playoff, their hopes at this year's championship took a serious hit at California. Denny Hamlin, who entered the race sixth in the standings -- just 99 points out of first place -- was involved in an incident with 60 laps remaining that ended his race. The 37th-place finish dropped Hamlin to ninth in NSCS points after four of 10 Chase races, and he now sits 219 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. Brian Vickers remains 12th in the standings, 351 points behind the leader.

DAVID THE DEFENDER: The fifth race of the Chase is Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Reutimann was victorious earlier this year at the track, winning the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 in May. Crew chief Rodney Childers elected to keep the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 00 Aaron's Dream Machine Camry on the track when others pitted during a caution for rain. Weather forced NASCAR officials to call the race after 227 of 400 laps, giving Reutimann his first career NSCS victory.

DOUBLE DOSE OF JOEY: Logano won his second-straight NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race last weekend. The 19- year-old started on the pole in the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 20 GameStop Toyota and led three times for 20 (of 152) laps. Logano dove to the inside of turn one on lap 146 to take the lead for good, surviving a 'green-white-checkered' finish for his fifth NNS victory of 2009. After a victory two weeks ago at Kansas, Logano looks to make it three wins in a row Friday night.

BRAUN GIVES BACK: Toyota has teamed up with Braun Racing, Great Clips and BraunAbility for the 'Ultimate Fan Van Giveaway,' where contestants submitted entries to win a modified Toyota Sienna wheelchair van with a replica paint scheme to match Jason Leffler's No. 38 Great Clips Toyota Camry. Fourteen-year-old Kody Harlow, of Lebanon, Ohio, was the contest winner, and Leffler will be on hand at the Toyota 'Pit Pass' display this weekend to present the keys to Kody's family.

TUNDRA TEST FOR NEW TWO: After a scheduled test at 'Little Rock' in Rockinghman, N.C., was rained out Monday, Brazilian drivers Nelson Piquet Jr. and Vitor Meira turned their first laps in a Toyota Tundra for Red Horse Racing at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va., on Tuesday. Piquet Jr. is the son of three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet, and Meira, an IndyCar Series veteran, has twice finished runner-up in the Indianapolis 500 (2005 and 2008).

TOYOTA TAKES TITLE: Toyota driver Justin Lofton won the 2009 ARCA RE/MAX Series championship last weekend at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway. Driving the Eddie Sharp Racing No. 6 Lofton Cattle Camry, Lofton had six wins and 19 top-10 finishes in 21 races to earn Toyota its first ARCA title.

RIDE OF A LIFETIME: As part of Lowe's Motor Speedway's 'Homecoming: NASCAR Style' fundraising program featuring 40 area schools raising money by selling race tickets, Toyota selected two participants to ride along in a Toyota Tundra parade truck following driver introductions on Saturday night. The two winners are Jay Gretsuk, the Academy of Engineering Coordinator at Phillip O'Berry Academy of Engineering in Charlotte, and Michael Carro, a member of the Athletic Booster Club Board of Directors at Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte.

-credit: toyota motorsports

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