Toyota Takes Sixth Truck Series Manufacturers Title

In addition, Tundra racers collected three driver’s championships with Todd Bodine claiming a pair of titles (2006 and 2010) and Johnny Benson winning the 2008 trophy.  Tundra driver Matt Crafton currently leads the NCWTS standings by 46 points and only needs to start next week’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim his first career NCWTS championship. Three teams fielding Tundras — Kyle Busch Motorsports, Red Horse Racing and ThorSport Racing — all contributed to the NCWTS manufacturer’s title.  This season, Tundra drivers have combined for 12 wins, five pole positions, 42 top-five results and 88 top-10 finishes with one race remaining on the 2013 schedule.  In addition, Toyota drivers have led 1,278 laps (of 3,243) in NCWTS competition this season — almost 40 percent of the total laps.

“Everyone at Toyota and TRD are extremely proud of earning another manufacturer’s championship and it demonstrates our company’s continued commitment to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series,” said Les Unger, Toyota’s national motorsports manager.  “We’ve been extremely fortunate to partner with championship-caliber teams and exceptionally talented drivers that enable our Tundras to prove their excellence on the race track.”

Highlights from the season include ThorSport Racing driver Johnny Sauter starting the year by winning the first two races on the schedule (Daytona and Martinsville), and then earning a sweep of the superspeedway races when he was victorious at Talladega.  Darrell Wallace Jr. and his Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) Tundra made NASCAR history with his first career series victory at Martinsville Speedway — becoming only the second African-American to win a NASCAR national series race.  Jones’ Phoenix victory in a KBM Tundra enabled him to become the youngest winner in series history.  Other Tundra drivers with victories during the season included Kyle Busch (four wins), Timothy Peters (two wins) and points-leader Crafton (one win).

“It’s an honor to be associated with Toyota and TRD, and be a part of their sixth manufacturer’s championship,” says Crafton.  “Since ThorSport Racing started fielding Tundras last year, we’ve formed a great partnership and constantly work together to improve our on-track performance.”

A total of 33 different drivers have participated in the Camping World Truck Series in Tundras this year, including seven — Joey Coulter, Crafton, Peters, German Quiroga, Sauter, John Wes Townley and Wallace — who have competed in all 21 events driving Toyotas.

Since joining NCWTS competition in 2004, Toyota has won 111 races and captured 91 poles in 242 races.  Busch (28) has the most victories driving a Tundra.

About Toyota

Toyota, the world’s top automaker and creator of the Prius, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands.  Over the past 50 years, we’ve built more than 25 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ nearly 40,000 people (more than 37,000 in the U.S.).  Our 1,800 North American dealerships sold more than 2.3 million cars and trucks in 2012 – and about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today.Toyota partners with philanthropic organizations across the country, with a focus on education, safety and the environment.  As part of this commitment, we share the company’s extensive know-how garnered from building great cars and trucks to help community organizations and other nonprofits expand their ability to do good.  (NYSE:TM)  For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

About TRD, U.S.A. (Toyota Racing Development)
Powering all of Toyota’s American racing programs is TRD, U.S.A. (Toyota Racing Development) in Costa Mesa, Calif., and Salisbury, N.C.  A subsidiary of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., TRD serves as the North American racing arm for design, development and assembly of Toyota’s factory racing engines.