Tricon Garage secures long-term future with major partnership deal ahead of Phoenix title fight

TRICON Garage has locked in a multi-year contract extension with Toyota ahead of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.

TRICON currently fields four full-time Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entries with Tanner Gray and Corey Heim, and rookies from the Toyota driver program, Gio Ruggiero and Toni Breidinger. The team's fifth car runs part-time for multiple drivers this season.

The team shared the announcement on Instagram, writing:

"There's plenty more to come. 🤝 TRICON has signed a multi-year contract extension with [TOYOTA GAZOO Racing North America] to continue serving as its flagship NCTS operation."

TRICON Garage's partner and general manager, Kevin Ray, also commented on the partnership extension and said in a statement:

"It has been a pleasure to work alongside Toyota for the last three seasons. We are beyond excited to extend our partnership for multiple years and appreciate the support and trust Toyota has in TRICON to represent their program at the highest level on and off the track."

TRICON Garage launched in 2017 under a different name. Owners merged assets and staff to form a new team that later raced as David Gilliland Racing and DGR-Crosley. The team first ran Toyota equipment in 2018 and 2019, switched to Ford in 2020, and then returned to Toyota in 2023 as part of a rebrand to Tricon Garage.

The team also announced a new hire on its competition staff earlier this week. Jeff Stankiewicz, a veteran championship-winning crew chief, joined the team this Tuesday. Stankiewicz spent recent seasons with CR7 Motorsports and has multiple Truck Series wins and an ARCA title on his resume.

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Corey Heim leads TRICON Garage's NASCAR Truck program

TRICON's No. 11 truck driver, Corey Heim, has had a dominant season with 11 wins so far. He broke the previous single-season series record and has made just two finishes outside the top-10. At Martinsville Speedway, he led 77 laps and edged out Kaden Honeycutt by 0.451 seconds in overtime. Heim also helped Toyota win the Manufacturer's Championship with a victory at the short track in Virginia last week.

Tanner Gray, who returned for his sixth full-time Truck Series season in the No. 15 Toyota Tundra for TRICON Garage, recorded his career-best second-place finish at Pocono Raceway in June. He also posted the fastest lap of the session in Michigan.

Meanwhile, rookie Gio Ruggiero secured his first career win at Talladega Superspeedway. He started on pole, led 37 laps, and held off competition in overtime. Earlier in the season, he consistently posted top-10 finishes but missed a playoff berth by about 31 points. The team's other rookie, Toni Breidinger, has yet to record a top-10 finish. Her best recent result so far was 18th at Rockingham.

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Edited by Riddhiman Sarkar