USAC Midget/Sprint Car

IRWINDALE, Calif. (Nov. 27, 2008) – Bobby Santos Jr., made a late-race pass on the way to winning the Turkey Night Grand Prix Thursday night to give Toyota its second consecutive Thanksgiving win in one of USAC’s most prestigious events at the Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, Calif.

Santos’ qualified eighth, but fell back to the middle of the field during the early going. The Western Speed racer then began a charge through the field roughly a quarter of the way through the race and steadily climbed through the ranks. He eventually moved into third place on Lap 67 and then made a Turn Four pass on Bobby Hamilton on Lap 90 of 98 to take the lead for good on the way to the victory.

Santos led a strong Toyota contingent that registered four of the top-seven finishers and placed five in the top-10 on Thursday night. Following the race winner were Darren Hagen in third for Nine Racing, Jason Leffler in fifth in a one-off for his own team, Kody Swanson in sixth for Nine Racing, Josh Wise in seventh for Cruz Pedregon Racing and Santos’ Western Speed teammate Billy Wease in 10th.

On the strength of Santos’ victory, the #45 Western Speed Racing won the $25,000 Toyota Challenge three-race championship within a championship first prize of $15,000. Close behind was the #19 Nine Racing team in second, while a second Western Speed Racing entry, the #80 placed fifth.

"Winning both the Turkey Night Grand Prix and the Toyota Challenge makes it so much sweeter,” said Santos Jr. “We struggled a little in Indianapolis in the first two rounds and didn’t run as well as we wanted, but we were consistent. When the last Toyota Challenge race was rained out in September and we knew it was coming here, I was really excited because we knew we’d run strong here. This is a great event and the track here at the Toyota Speedway just breeds awesome racing.”

Nine of the 10 Toyota-powered cars entered in the event qualified for the 33-car feature among the 64-car field with Nic Faas in 13th, Dave Steele placing 14th and Paul Zimmerly in 15th to round out the Toyota contingent.

Results for Toyota Powered Entries for The Toyota Challenge Racing Classic, qualified/finished:

#45 Santos 8/1

#9 Hagen 9/3

#38 Leffler 5/5

#19 Swanson 2/6

#75 Wise 20/7

#80 Wease 7/10

#40 Faas 19/13

#91 Steele 17/14

#60 Zimmerly 23/15

#75A Jones DNQ