Toyotas turning heads with speed in NASCAR playoffs. 'They're ridiculously fast,' Joey Logano says

When Toyota entered NASCAR’s premier series in 2007, the manufacturer was concerned more about making races than winning 200 of them.

In its first year, Toyota drivers suffered through nearly 100 failed qualifying attempts — but the lack of speed didn’t dissuade Joe Gibbs Racing from signing with the automaker for the 2008 season despite its drivers’ concerns.

“Certainly, I was worried when we switched over,” JGR driver Denny Hamlin said Sunday after winning at World Wide Technology Raceway to make Toyota the fourth manufacturer to reach the 200-victory mark in Cup. “Obviously, it was a big leap of faith by everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. The drivers were kind of like an innocent bystander. We were going to live and die by those decisions that JGR made. It turned out to be the best partnership that they could imagine.”

Two races into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Toyota’s blazing pace in trying to end a six-year championship drought has emerged as a prevailing storyline.

After Toyota swept the top four and took six of the top seven spots in the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, Hamlin and teammate Chase Briscoe claimed the top two spots at the 1.25-mile oval outside St. Louis that commonly is known as Gateway.

Toyota’s Camrys have led 515 of 607 laps in the playoffs, and their all-around performance has left defending series champion Joey Logano marveling at the gap with Ford and Chevrolet.

“They’re ridiculously fast,” Logano said when asked about Toyota after his No. 22 Ford took fifth at Gateway. “They’ve got a lot of grip, and they’ve got a lot of horsepower. We’ve got a lot of work to do to catch up. We’ve got to be absolutely perfect in every category to contend, and we need them to make mistakes, which they do. We have the potential to do it, it’s just going to be really challenging.”

Logano has won two of the past three titles for Team Penske by winning the season finale at Phoenix, a track that is similar in size and shape to Gateway.

After failing to lead a lap at Phoenix in his past two Championship 4 appearances in 2020-21, Hamlin is hopeful of being a factor again after leading a race-high 75 of 240 laps at Gateway.

“I remember showing up to the championship race in 2021 knowing we had no shot, that we weren’t good on the short tracks,” he said. “I do feel like our cars are good right now. This is a track that you can draw some connections to Phoenix, the distance and the banking. You just never know. The Penske cars have come out of nowhere the last few years when you didn’t think they had the speed. They just showed up one week and, poof, they had it.

“You just never know in this sport. It ebbs and it flows.”

Toyota Racing Development president Tyler Gibbs also is cautiously optimistic about the consistency across the manufacturer’s nine-car lineup. Though Joe Gibbs Racing is Toyota’s winningest organization with 166 victories (56 apiece by Hamlin and Kyle Busch, who won the most recent title for JGR and Toyota in 2019 ), 23XI Racing won the Brickyard 400 with Bubba Wallace (who has five top-10 finishes in seven races), and Legacy Motor Club has three top fives in the past three races.

“The tracks have suited us well and our drivers well,” Gibbs said. “I think execution is going to be what wins races in the playoffs and is going to win the championship at Phoenix. The cars are so close, and that execution can take all that away. We’re just going to keep our heads down and keep preparing the way we have. The work that the teams have done is incredible. We had some stumbles at the beginning of the year, and we worked really hard to eliminate those and be ready for the playoffs.”

Hamlin reaffirmed after his 59th career victory that “the countdown has begun” to the end of his driving career. After signing a two-year extension through 2027 in June, he has 70 races remaining — the eight left on the 2025 schedule, plus the next two 36-race seasons — and he said the timeline is helping him stay motivated to remain in top form.

“I’m just not going to leave this sport on my deathbed, just leaking oil and running in the back of the pack,” Hamlin said. “I have way too much pride for that. I’m way too cocky for that. There’s just no way. I want to be able to win my last race. To do that, I’m going to have to retire when I’m racing like this.”

Ryan Blaney rallied for fourth at Gateway despite falling to 18th after being spun by Kyle Larson with 105 laps remaining. Blaney still was miffed after a postrace apology from Larson, who said he misjudged the distance from his No. 5 Chevy to Blaney’s No. 12 Ford entering Turn 3.

“He just said he made a mistake, and that’s fine, but at the end of the day, I still got turned,” Blaney said. “He came from all the way on the bottom of the racetrack and hit me in the left rear. I know he most likely didn’t mean to do it, but it happened anyway. And so that’s just one I’ve got to remember.”

This story has been corrected to show that Joey Logano finished fifth, not fourth, at Gateway.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Denny Hamlin, center, celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at World Wide Technology Raceway, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Madison, Ill. (AP Photo/Connor Hamilton)

Denny Hamlin (11) and Christopher Bell (20) compete during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at World Wide Technology Raceway, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Madison, Ill. (AP Photo/Connor Hamilton)

Denny Hamlin, second from left, celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at World Wide Technology Raceway, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Madison, Ill. (AP Photo/Connor Hamilton)

Denny Hamlin (11) wins a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at World Wide Technology Raceway, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Madison, Ill. (AP Photo/Connor Hamilton)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)