Denny Hamlin earned the 200th NASCAR Cup Series victory for Toyota by winning the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday afternoon.
The milestone triumph marks Joe Gibbs Racing‘s 166th for the Toyota brand. Kyle Busch earned the company‘s first victory in March 2008 at EchoPark Speedway — then known as Atlanta — driving the No. 18 Toyota for JGR and later scored Toyota‘s 100th Cup victory at Pocono Raceway in July 2017.
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“It’s a testament to what’s gone in over the last 19 years,” Tyler Gibbs, president of Toyota Racing Development, said Sunday. “The team we have at TRD, the team we have at TMNA (Toyota Motor North America), the team we have on the track. When you look at JGR, 23XI, Furniture Row, Red Bull and Michael Waltrip Racing combining for over 200 wins is just incredible for us.”
Hamlin has been part of many historic moments for Toyota, driving a Camry in all but 79 of his 713 (including through Gateway) Cup starts. Now tied with Busch for the most Toyota wins in the Cup Series with 56, the significance of delivering another such moment isn‘t lost on Hamlin, who has raced at JGR since late 2005 and in their Toyotas since 2008/
“It’s super special because they’ve been such a big partner of Joe Gibbs Racing for such a long time,” said Hamlin, who co-owns fellow Toyota team 23XI Racing. “And certainly, I was worried when we switched over 17 years ago from Chevy to Toyota, but obviously it was a big leap of faith by everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and the drivers were kind of like innocent bystanders in it. We were gonna live and die by those decisions that JGR made on that day, and it turned out to be the best partnership that they could have imagined, being the top team. Now that I’ve got 23XI, I’ve formed a different relationship with them. And so I’ve got Toyota running through my blood.”
“The next few wins — knock on wood, if I can get some — are gonna be very, very special to me. So this is the next step to getting that done.”
The Cup Series returns to action at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
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