Toyota Scores First NASCAR Sprint Cup Win

Denny Hamlin scored Toyota's first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win on Thursday at Daytona, winning the second Gatorade Duel qualifying race for next Sunday's season-opener.

Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart worked together to beat Jeff Gordon in the closing laps, securing the first major success for Toyota in NASCAR's top series and putting three Camrys in the first three rows of the grid for Sunday's race.

Stewart led on the last restart into a green-white-chequer finish until Denny Hamlin overtook him, getting a push from Gordon. The Hendrick driver then tried to go for victory but Stewart lined up behind Hamlin to push him and secure a Toyota one-two.

"We needed to kind of almost exchange positions to kind of get that finish we needed at the end, because we knew the 24 (Gordon), the 8 (Mark Martin) and the 9 (Kasey Kahne) were all planning something behind us," Hamlin said.

"I'm very proud. I definitely was a guy that liked to switch over to Toyota. We knew they had a lot of resources that we were not able to do with the 400 or so employees that we have at Joe Gibbs Racing. It's finally starting to pay off."

Pos  Driver              Make       Laps
 1.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota      64
 2.  Tony Stewart        Toyota      64
 3.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   64
 4.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       64
 5.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   64
 6.  David Ragan         Ford        64
 7.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   64
 8.  Greg Biffle         Ford        64
 9.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      64
10.  John Andretti       Chevrolet   64
11.  Kyle Busch          Toyota      64
12.  David Reutimann     Toyota      64
13.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota      64
14.  Robby Gordon        Dodge       64
15.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        64
16.  Travis Kvapil       Ford        64
17.  David Gilliland     Ford        64
18.  Ken Schrader        Dodge       64
19.  Patrick Carpentier  Dodge       57
20.  Eric McClure        Chevrolet   43
21.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      24
22.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   16
23.  Jacques Villeneuve  Toyota      14
24.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        14
25.  Dario Franchitti    Dodge       14
26.  Stanton Barrett     Chevrolet   14

1970toyotamarc - 2/15/2008 11:58:47 AM

-1 Boost

It's going to be a great year.

M35MT - 2/15/2008 12:02:11 PM

+7 Boost

Yee-haw!

SHOWTIME - 2/15/2008 1:53:12 PM

+5 Boost

LOL

rocker - 2/15/2008 1:58:34 PM

+4 Boost

It's a qualifier race, it does not count in the standings as a win.

rocker - 2/15/2008 2:00:27 PM

+2 Boost

You should actually be more happy with Michael Waltrip(questionable manhood) starting second in the 500. Let's wait and see if his car gets DQ'd before the flag drops.

BMW4me4ever - 2/15/2008 12:48:09 PM

+1 Boost

this race is the sprint car race, lets actually wait until the big race takes place. It is a good start, though.

farabira1 - 2/15/2008 2:44:04 PM

+1 Boost

Lexus and Toyota fans rejoice. But i want to see their racing technology being applied in production sports cars. Toyota and Lexus really needs to introduce some sport coupes and sedands in their lineup. Bring out a new Supra, also give us a production hybrid sports car like the FTHSA and certainly make the LFA the best of the business. Only then will i think that this race wins are really worth it.

Atenza28 - 2/15/2008 5:35:51 PM

+1 Boost

Toyota is definitely not unbeatable in motorsports. All you have to do is take a look at F1. With that said I'm not surprised with this result. I won't even be surprised if they do extremely well and maybe win the cup this year. Tony Stewart has won the cup previously, they have a great racing team using their cars this year, and of course they have all the money in the world to help produce great vehicles. Toyota has also seen a lot of success in the Craftsman Truck series which is basically cup racing with a truck platform. This success was supposed to translate into great vehicles and wins last year. It didn't happen and they may just make up for that this year. It is definitely gonna be a very interesting season in which I envision a fight between Joe Gibbs using Toyotas and Hendrick using Chevys. Both have great drivers, crew chiefs and a lot of talent in the production facilities.

AE86 - 2/15/2008 7:46:37 PM

+1 Boost

josh/will/willis/houstoncutie is hilarious! Lexus Enthusiasts, Jumbo Scrimp, Military Intelligence...

austin219 - 2/16/2008 12:04:52 PM

+3 Boost

You have got to stop hating they have done a wonderful thing for the world when it comes to automobiles. You need to come out from underneath the rock and give credit where it is do.

truckmen - 2/15/2008 6:06:16 PM

0 Boost

I would rather see the camry race in stock form! Just like when it first started! I don't think that the cars were modified much back then? That would get me to watch the big auto companies race in stock form.

EL34 - 2/15/2008 7:33:25 PM

+1 Boost

Good to hear Toyota finally got a car to turn left ;-)

XYZZ - 2/18/2008 10:33:30 PM

+1 Boost

i'd like to see toyota further develop their hybrid RACE CARS.

the first already had an impressive showing at Fuji raceway last year. and they've only JUST STARTED developing that genre.

imo, it has HUGE potential. with every other type of car, MASSIVE AMOUNTS of energy are just THROWN AWAY as heat, whenever the brakes are used. RECOVERING that energy with regenerative brakes and super capacitors will give hybrid racers a huge advantage.

to the extent, i won't be surprised if at some point they get banned or least severely restricted by the sanctioning bodies.

Homer008 - 2/16/2008 11:47:27 AM

+3 Boost

toyota and chevrolet will dominate this year!

austin219 - 2/16/2008 12:01:36 PM

0 Boost

Toyota is the most extreme of all extremes. I want to let everyone know......... Toyota is the best built vehicle of all time. Yes indeed they need to start producing production sport cars.... I mean they are already leading every other segment, maybe they will just let other manufactures have some kind of gold medal, in ONE of the segments. NASCAR IS GOING TO BE REALLY FUN WITH TOYOTA INVOLVED!!!

rocker - 2/17/2008 8:56:25 AM

+1 Boost

They do have a good showing at Daytona so far this week. Let's see how they do at the 500. It would be nice if they offered a sports car not necessarily a high priced super car. Stick their 5.7L in a Scion and call it the new Supra if nothing else.