 | Hey Toyota Racing Fans,
Summer is winding down and temperatures may begin to cool off somewhat in the month of September, but this month’s racing action can’t get any hotter for several Toyota racers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, as both series’ versions of the playoffs get underway this month.
Will this be the year that Toyota-supported drivers finally take elusive Sprint Cup and Top Fuel titles? September will go a long way toward answering that question. To keep up on the progress Toyota Racing and its drivers throughout this critical month, be sure to stop by ToyotaRacing.com regularly!
COMING UP… BRING ON THE CHASE AND THE COUNTDOWN!  NHRA Top Fuel superstar Larry Dixon. Credit: Gary Nastase In both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Toyota-supported racers start the playoffs this month among the favorites, if not THE favorites, to win their respective championship.
In the Sprint Cup Series, there isn’t a driver any hotter than Kyle Busch. Busch heads into the month of September and the beginning of The Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship on the heels of a history-making weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway last month and has turned up the wick at a perfect time as the 10-race Chase starts on Sunday, September 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Barring an early September miracle for David Reutimann, who isn’t giving up yet as chronicled in this recent ToyotaRacing.com story, Busch and his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry will be one of two Toyota drivers in the Chase this year. The other will be Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry. Both have been Chase contenders before and both have shown the ability to go on prolonged streaks of victories and strong results. That mix of experience and talent could be what it takes to bring home the Sprint Cup.
The final “regular season” race at Richmond on September 11 will go a long way in determining where Busch, Hamlin and the rest of the Chase contenders will be seeded when the chase starts in New Hampshire on the following week. The second race in the Chase will be at Dover’s “Monster Mile” on September 26.
Meanwhile, Larry Dixon has clearly established himself as the man to beat for the NHRA Top Fuel title with an unbelievable regular season in which he scored nine victories in the first 17 races and heads into the six-race Countdown to the Championship as the number one seed in the 10-driver field in his Al-Anabi Racing dragster.
If Dixon is going to bring Toyota its first Top Fuel title and his third championship, he will have to overcome a field of tough competitors, including fellow Toyota-supported racers Antron Brown, who enters the Countdown as the No. 5 seed in the Matco Tools Dragster, No. 7 seedShawn Langdon in the Lucas Oil/Speedco dragster, and Morgan Lucas, who is the No. 8 seed in the GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil Dragster.
While Toyota has four top contenders in Top Fuel, Del Worsham is the only Toyota-supported racer in the Funny Car Countdown. Worsham enters the Countdown as the No. 9 seed in the 10-driver field in the Al-Anabi Racing Funny Car and will look to bring Toyota its second Funny Car title in three years. Cruz Pedregon earned Toyota’s first Funny Car title in 2008.
The Countdown began last weekend at the prestigious U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis and will also visit zMax Dragway in Charlotte on the weekend of September 16-19 and the Texas Motorplex near Dallas on September 23-26.
While there isn’t a Chase or Countdown for the NASCAR Nationwide Series or , there will certainly be a playoff atmosphere throughout the month as both of those series also head into the home stretch of their respective 2010 seasons. The Nationwide Series races this month at Richmond on September 10 and Dover on September 25, while the Trucks visit New Hampshire on September 18 and Las Vegas on September 25.
September will also be highlighted by races for all three national USAC divisions (Silver Crown, Sprint Car and Midget) at the legendary Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio on September 25. Other USAC races this month are as follows:
USAC National Sprint Car Championship
- Putnamville, Indiana - September 10
- Terre Haute, Indiana - September 11
USCA National Midget Car Championship
- Columbus, Ohio - September 18
- Pontoon Beach, Illinois - September 30
ONE TO WATCH: DENNY HAMLIN 
Denny Hamlin. Credit: LAT Chesterfield, Virginia’s Denny Hamlin has had a knack for performing well at a number of racetracks in the Sprint Cup Series, but he’s been particularly adept at the two tracks in his home state, Richmond International Raceway and Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin owns two Cup Series victories in Martinsville and picked up his first Cup victory at Richmond last September.
Click here to read about Hamlin scoring a win in what he calls “his house,” and tune into ABC at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 11 to see if Denny can do it again this year!
ON THE WEB: ON THE ROAD WITH TOYOTA AND SPONSAFIER 2
In Chicago and Sonoma earlier this summer, ToyotaRacing.com cameras followed top Toyota-supported NHRA drivers as they sampled food and drink for which those areas are renowned.
Chicago has long been known as a hotbed for great pizza and Top Fuel racers Morgan Lucas and Antron Brown took the opportunity to check out some of the best pizza spots in and around the Windy City when they were in town for the race weekend at Route 66 Raceway in early June. Click here to join Lucas as he visits Bacinos Pizza and here to join Lucas and Brown as they taste other Chicago pizzas.
Sonoma, located in California’s Napa Valley, is known all over the world for its wineries. Top Fuel racers Larry Dixon and Shawn Langdon, as well as Funny Car driver Del Worsham, got an up close and personal look at a couple of Napa Valley’s finest when they visited the area for the race at Infineon Raceway in mid-July. Click here to join their tour of Rombauer Winery and REWIND... BUSCH MAKES HISTORY AND DIXON, HUSEMAN AND GREAVES STAY HOT  Kyle Busch made history at Bristol. Credit: LAT The NASCAR world is still abuzz following Kyle Busch’s historic week at Bristol Motor Speedway in mid-August. Busch became the first driver in history to sweep races for all three of NASCAR’s top divisions at the same event with wins in the Camping World Truck Series, Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series.
Busch got his Bristol week off to an outstanding start with a victory in the Truck Series race on Wednesday, August 18.Click here to read all about that victory, which turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.
On Friday, August 20, Busch took his second step toward the history book with a victory in the Nationwide Series race. Click here for more on that victory, which was also a milestone 50th win in Nationwide Series competition for Toyota.
Busch saved his best for last in the Sprint Cup race on Saturday, August 21 when he pulled away late to score the unprecedented Bristol triple. Relive that victory through these video highlights.
Just for good measure, Busch closed the month of August with another Truck Series victory at Chicagoland Speedway, which you can read all about here, and he also made his Traxxas TORC Series off-road debut at Route 66 Raceway.
Speaking of TORC, the championship battle in Pro 4x4 went down to the wire between Toyota Tundra drivers Rick Huseman and Johnny Greaves. Huseman and Greaves each earned a victory in the doubleheader at Route 66 Raceway, as detailed here, setting the stage for a showdown in the Labor Day weekend season finale at Crandon. Find out how it ended right here.
Huseman also swept a mid-August doubleheader in Bark River, Michigan in Pro 4x4 while Supercross legend Jeremy McGrath drove a Toyota Tundra to his first career TORC victory in Pro 2WD on the same weekend. Click here for the full Bark River report.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points leader Todd Bodine took significant steps toward his second career Truck Series championship with wins at Nashville Superspeedway and Darlington Raceway in August. Click here to read about “The Onion’s” Music City triumph and here for a recap on how Bodine won on “The Track Too Tough To Tame.”
Australian driver Marcos Ambrose made a little history of his own in the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen International last month. Ambrose scored his third consecutive Nationwide win at The Glen to become just the second driver in history to win three straight races at the historic road circuit in upstate New York. You can read all about it here.
For more exclusive insights into the 2010 racing season, check out Toyota Racing on  and 
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