World Crown
With Nashville in the 7-11’s rearview mirror, Max and the Gresham Motorsports team focused on what lay ahead of them and were excited to travel back into familiar territory this weekend for the prestigious World Crown 200 at the Peachstate Speedway.
On Saturday morning, Max attended the Georgia Asphalt Series “Breakfast of Champions” banquet where he was awarded his 5th place points finishing honors along with the Sportsman of the Year award. Later, he qualified the 7-11 in the 22nd position in an ultra-competitive field of 40 cars. Although it would not be easy, Max knew that he and the Gresham Motorsports crew could conquer the odds and hopefully wear the crown at the end of the weekend.
From there he set his eyes on the 200 laps that lay before him. After a brief autograph session with the fans, Max strapped into his 7-11 and rolled off 22nd. In the first 100 laps Max held steady in the top ten, getting as high as 5th, before making a mandatory pit stop at lap 100 with the rest of the field and the 7-11 returned to the racetrack in the 8th position. Max spent the second segment of the split 200 lap event rising through the field before pitting for a late race tire stop, a strategy that has won this event in previous years.
However, Max was only able to race his way back up to the 9th position before the checkers flew. “It was a lot of fun out there. We decided to go with a late tire stop since that’s how Paul [Kelley] won here last year but we just didn’t have enough time.”
Max and Gresham Motorsports will be back in action at the Allen Turner “Snowflake 100” in Pensacola Florida at 5 Flags Speedway on December 6.