Toyota set to serve as Englishtown title sponsor for first NHRA event

TOYOTA SET TO SERVE AS TITLE SPONSOR FOR FIRST NHRA EVENT – This weekend’s Toyota SuperNationals will mark Toyota’s first-ever title sponsorship of an NHRA event. The Englishtown sponsorship joins Toyota title sponsorships of IndyCar’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and NASCAR’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 in Sonoma, Calif.

NEW CAMRY FUNNY CAR COMING ON – With a full contingent of four cars at Topeka, the new 2012 Toyota Camry Funny Car continued to impress. Cruz Pedregon won the pole position and appeared to be heading to the semi- finals with a victory over Robert Hight before an oil line broke, oiling his tires and sending his Camry across the center line just before the 1,000-foot mark, disqualifying him. In addition, Jeff Arend had advanced to the semi-finals at each of the two previous races.

Cruz Pedregon: “We definitely have one of the quickest cars and the new Camry body has been great. The TRD guys at Toyota really did a nice job with the design of the new body.”

BERNSTEIN CONTINUES TO SURGE – After five consecutive first-round losses, Brandon Bernstein has bounced back with consecutive semi-final appearances in the last two events as he continues to adapt to his new Morgan Lucas Racing team. Bernstein qualified third at Topeka and now has led four of the last eight Top Fuel qualifying sessions, earning 12 valuable bonus points over the past two events. At Topeka, Bernstein advanced to the semi-finals only to have a fuel line burst during the burn-out, leaving him unable to make a semi-final run when he appeared to be a strong contender for the victory.

Brandon Bernstein: "We really thought we had the car to beat at Topeka. It's just unfortunate it broke when it did. It's now two races in a row where we've gone to the semi-finals. Both of those races were there for us to win. It's put a lot of confidence into the guys. They know we've got a great race car and we'll keep plugging at it until we break through for that win."