Toyota Racing: November Fast Forward. It All Comes Down to This!

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	Denny Hamlin took over the lead in the Chase with his Texas win.	Photo Credit: LAT

Toyota Racing: November Fast Forward. It All Comes Down to This!

Hey Toyota Racing Fans, The NASCAR® Sprint Cup Series™ and the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series seasons draw to a close this month and Toyota racers are leading both the Chase for the Sprint Cup and the Top Fuel "Countdown to the Championship"! To do that, the drivers and their teams will need one final push to get them over the top. Stay on top of their progress throughout the month on ToyotaRacing.com! COMING UP... THE CHASE AND THE COUNTDOWN ARE IN THE HOME STRETCH! NASCAR’s Chase and the NHRA’s Countdown will both conclude this month and Toyota drivers are poised to make history in both series. In the Sprint Cup Series, Denny Hamlin continues to be the driver most likely to end Jimmie Johnson’s reign as champion and bring Toyota its first ever Cup title. Last weekend at Texas, Hamlin picked up his eighth victory of the season and his second 2010 Chase victory in the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry to take over the lead in the point standings with just two races to go! Hamlin’s performance at the final two races of the season at Phoenix on November 14 and Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 21 will be critical. The good news is that Hamlin finished second last year at Phoenix and won the 2009 season finale at Homestead. If his performance resembles that this season, he will be the champion. Of course, Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota is also a Chase contender. While his chances of taking the title are somewhat more remote, Busch is always a threat to win, regardless of his position in the championship standings or whether he’s driving a Sprint Cup Series™ or Nationwide Series™ Toyota Camry or a Camping World Truck Series™ Toyota Tundra. You can bet he’ll pull out all the stops to finish as high as he can in the championship through the remaining Chase races as well. While Hamlin and Busch are Chasers in NASCAR®, Toyota-supported driver Larry Dixon is the man everybody has been chasing -- mostly in vain -- throughout the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. On the strength of a historic 12-win season in the Al-Anabi Racing Dragster, Dixon is in the catbird seat to clinch the Top Fuel title – which would be a first for Toyota – in the 2010 season finale at Pomona on the weekend of November 11-14. Dixon has the title all but wrapped up, but he’s taking nothing for granted, as he points out in this recent piece on ToyotaRacing.com. This month also sees the USAC National Midget Championship draw to a close for 2010 with an important stretch of California races to close it out as detailed here. Toyota-powered racers Jerry Coons Jr., Tracy Hines and Dave Darland are all among the top-10 in the point standings heading into the final three races of the season at Tulare, California on November 13, Ventura, California on November 20 and the prestigious Turkey Night Grand Prix at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on November 25. ONE TO WATCH:  TODD BODINE     Todd Bodine  (credit:  LAT)   In the NASCAR® Camping World Truck Series™, everybody has been chasing points leader Todd Bodine since May’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Buoyed by four victories and 16 top-five finishes, “The Onion” holds a comfortable lead in the driver standings and is poised to take his second Truck Series championship and first since 2006. The Truck Series wraps up this month with races at Phoenix on November 12 and Homestead on November 19. ONE TO WATCH 2:  THE NO. 18 JOE GIBBS RACING NATIONWIDE TEAM  Kyle Busch takes Nationwide win No. 12. (credit:  LAT)   Joe Gibbs Racing has had an amazing run in the NASCAR® Nationwide Series™ over the past three seasons. JGR’s No. 20 team claimed the owners’ championship in 2008 and last year, Kyle Busch took the drivers’ championship while the No. 18 team took the owners’ title. Bolstered by a Nationwide Series single-season record 12 victories for Busch, the No. 18 team is looking to bring Coach Joe Gibbs his third consecutive Nationwide owners’ title, which it will do with solid performances in the final two races of the season at Phoenix on November 13 and at Homestead on November 20. Click here for a recent ToyotaRacing.com story on why the team has been so successful and here for a look at how Coach Gibbs has been able to get the most out of his NASCAR® experience. ON THE WEB – SPONSAFIER 2 WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED AND TRUEX TRADES PLACES  Fay Knape's winning design in the inaugural Sponsafier contest. (credit: LAT)   The votes are in and the winner of the Sponsafier 2 contest will be announced this week as part of the festivities for the NASCAR® Sprint Cup Series™ Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway! In May at the NASCAR® Sprint All-Star Race in Charlotte, Texan Fay Knape became the inaugural winner of the Sponsafy Your Ride contest with her Praying for Karson design. Click here to learn more about Knape and the touching inspiration behind her design, and go to Sponsafier.com to check out all of the finalists for Sponsafier 2! Toyota Racing fans will also want to check out a recent ToyotaRacing.com video feature with Martin Truex Jr. and BASS fisherman Mike Iaconelli in which the two men exchange jobs for a day. Click here to see the video! REWIND... DENNY TAKES MARTINSVILLE, KYLE ADDS TO NATIONWIDE RECORD AND HELPS CLINCH TRUCK TITLE FOR TOYOTA, DIXON SCORES WIN NO. 12 IN TOYOTA SWEEP  Larry Dixon earned his 12th NHRA win at Reading (credit:  Gary Nastase)   It’s been another outstanding fall for Toyota racers in 2010. In the NASCAR® Sprint Cup Series™, Denny Hamlin took his seventh victory of the 2010 season at Martinsville to solidify his position as one of the top contenders in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Click here for video highlights of Hamlin’s home state victory. In the NASCAR® Nationwide Series™, Kyle Busch added to his NASCAR® Nationwide Series™ single-season win record with his 12th victory of the year in the No. 18 Camry at Auto Club Speedway on October 9. Click here to read all about that victory. Busch also returned to his winning ways in the NASCAR® Camping World Truck Series™, scoring back-to-back victories at Talladega Superspeedway on October 30 and Texas Motor Speedway last weekend. In fact, Busch’s Truck victory at Texas clinched the fifth consecutive Truck Series manufacturer’s championship for Toyota, which you can read more about here.  You can also find out more about Busch’s exciting final-lap Talladega victory over fellow Toyota racer Aric Almirola by clicking here. In the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, it was another great weekend for Toyota-supported racers at Reading as Larry Dixon scored his 12th Top Fuel victory of the season and extended his lead in the Countdown to the Championship, while Cruz Pedregon picked up the Funny Car victory in the Snap-on Toyota. Click here for more on that great weekend in Pennsylvania. For more exclusive insights into the 2010 racing season, check out Toyota Racing on Facebook and Twitter. NASCAR® is a registered trademark of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is a trademark owned by NASCAR, Inc., and Sprint. The NASCAR Nationwide Series logo and word mark are used under license by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc., and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is a trademark owned by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc., and Camping World, Inc.

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