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Toyota Joins Knoxville Raceway as First Time Partner for 56th Annual Knoxville Nationals

The drivers who strap in the 410 ci winged sprint cars know how important their qualifying night of the Knoxville Nationals is to reaching Victory Lane on Saturday and so does Toyota. The world's top automaker is going to a new place and will sponsor the Thursday night program, officially Toyota Qualifying Night, of the 5-hour ENERGY® Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores on August 11.

The partnership is Toyota's first venture into winged sprint car racing and the prestigious Knoxville Nationals.

"Toyota's support of the Knoxville Nationals comes from our belief in the young talent found across many forms of motorsports and the importance of driver development," said Keith Dahl, General Manager, Motorsports and Marketing Management for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. "The historic Nationals are the perfect opportunity for Toyota to highlight some of the young talent who will continue to develop into stars within our Toyota Racing program and across motorsports. We're also looking forward to bringing some of our Toyota showroom to the loyal Knoxville fans through a fan engagement area at the raceway during the race weekend."

Toyota Qualifying Night will feature half of the teams entered into the 5-hour ENERGY® Knoxville Nationals. The teams will compete in a full program including qualifying, heat races, consolation and feature events. Drivers earn points for their finishes in each event. The points they earn on Toyota Qualifying Night determine where the driver will start in Saturday's finale.

"I'm excited that an organization like Toyota has the opportunity to support the Knoxville Nationals which is the biggest sprint car race of the year with the best drivers in the country," said Toyota NASCAR driver Rico Abreu and driver of the No. 24 sprint car. "I believe they can help take sprint car racing to another level.

"The two qualifying nights of the Knoxville Nationals are the toughest because of the competition and the format based off passing points. You've got to be perfect every time you get on the track. It sets the tone for your whole week."

The 56th annual 5-hour ENERGY Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores kick off on Wednesday, August 10 and conclude on Saturday, August 13. The event features more than 100 drivers from around the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Nearly 21,000 spectators converge upon Knoxville for the event.

Tickets for Toyota Qualifying Night of the 5-hour ENERGY® Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores are available for purchase at www.knoxvilleraceway.com or by calling 641-842-5431. Four-day ticket packages are also available.

More information about Knoxville Raceway, Toyota Qualifying Night and the 5-hour ENERGY® Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores can be found at the aforementioned website, on Knoxville Raceway's Facebook page, @KnoxvilleRaces on Twitter and Knoxville Raceway on Instagram. The Knoxville Raceway app is also a free download for all Apple and Android phones and features live timing and scoring for every event.

ABOUT TOYOTA: Toyota (NYSE:TM), the world's top automaker and creator of the Prius and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands. Over the past 50 years, we've built more than 30 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (1,500 in the U.S.) sold more than 2.8 million cars and trucks (nearly 2.5 million in the U.S.) in 2015 - and about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today.

Toyota partners with philanthropic organizations across the country, with a focus on education, safety and the environment. As part of this commitment, we share the company's extensive know-how garnered from building great cars and trucks to help community organizations and other nonprofits expand their ability to do good. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

ABOUT KNOXVILLE RACEWAY: Located on the Marion County Fairgrounds in Knoxville, Iowa, Knoxville Raceway is a 1/2-mile dirt track that hosts winged 305, 360 and 410 sprint car racing every Saturday night from April to September. The "Sprint Car Capital of the World" also hosts the Knoxville Nationals, sprint car racing's most prestigious event, as well as the Late Model Nationals and 360 Nationals. Knoxville Raceway is the third-largest outdoor stadium in Iowa with 24,612 seats and 32 luxury suites.

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