It’s been five years of watching from the sidelines as Ford and Chevy celebrate with the championship trophy. But for Toyota, that disappointing drought might finally be over.
Two races into the round of eight, Toyota has claimed half the available spots in the Championship 4, and no other manufacturer has a guaranteed a shot at the title at this point.
It’s the result of two strong performances. First, Denny Hamlin scored an emotional victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, grinding his way to the lead in a gritty final charge to grab the lead with three laps remaining. Second, Chase Briscoe earned his first superspeedway win at Talladega after a chaotic Overtime restart.
It’s also not the limit. Christopher Bell remains in Playoff contention and could be the third Toyota driver to earn a spot in the Championship 4. That looks increasingly likely, too, as Bell’s strong record of two top tens in both races of the round so far put him in the best position in the points standings of any driver without a win.
If Bell can do it, the odds will be more on Toyota’s side. The last time three Toyota drivers were in the Championship 4 was in 2019. That year it was a Toyota driver, Kyle Busch, who brought home the title.
That’s the last time a Toyota driver won a championship at all, ending a five-year hot streak in which the brand took home each of its three titles to date. That’s something the team doesn’t want to dwell too long on.
“You definitely don’t need to remind me,” joked Tyler Gibbs, president of TRD, when reminded how long since Toyota had won the championship earlier in the season after Denny Hamlin earned Toyota’s 200th Cup Series win at Gateway.
“It’s race by race, week to week. Anything can happen… We’re just going to focus one race at a time.”
A few races on and it looks more and more likely that both Tyler Gibbs and Joe Gibbs can be celebrating with a championship trophy.
Nevertheless, Briscoe said that he would rather be racing teammates since it gives the comfort of knowing that if the championship can’t go to him it more than likely can go to a fellow Toyota driver.
“Yeah, honestly if I’m going to go against anybody, I hope it is them because I feel like at the end of the day if one of us can’t win, we hope the other guy wins, right? It would be just a huge thing for our company to have a three-in-four shot.”
Toyota comes in with a strong position. While Ford has swept each championship at Phoenix since the introduction of the Next Gen, it was Christopher Bell in a Toyota who won at the track when the series visited earlier this year, and he carries momentum at the track.
If Hamlin, Briscoe, or Bell could win the title it would be huge. Not only for them, winning their first championships, but also for Toyota to get back to championship-winning form and put the drought to bed.
It would be a fitting conclusion to a strong season overall for Toyota. Its drivers have earned 14 wins and Toyota barely trails Chevrolet by just 16 points in the manufacturer standings despite having three teams to Chevy’s six in the Cup Series. A title would be the cherry on top of the season.
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