Late Race Incident Costs Max Gresham Top Finish In Lanier ASA Southeast Tour Event
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Braselton, GA (April 12, 2009) – Max Gresham will take many stands and learn many lessons during the 2009 American Speed Association (ASA) Southeast Asphalt Tour season. On Saturday at Lanier National Speedway, the 15-year-old driver experienced some of both.
“I feel badly about what happened,” said Gresham after being disqualified for rough driving in the Matt Hawkins Memorial 100. “We had a car that probably could have won the race, but I thought it was more important for me to stand up for myself. Based on the kind of car I had, it probably wasn’t the right thing to do. My car is torn up some and that’s extra work for my crew. I guess TJ’s (TJ Reaid) car is torn up pretty badly too. I definitely didn’t want that to happen – to either of us. Honestly, I don’t think I would do something like that again, but this week, I needed to stand up for myself. It was just time.”
Gresham became the youngest winner in ASA Southeast Tour history by winning the season-opening Ride-On Tire Protection System 100 at Mobile International Speedway three weeks ago. At Lanier, Gresham appeared to again have the right stuff to get to Victory Lane only to have the effort short-circuited in the late stages of the race.
“We started ninth out of 34 cars after qualifying just one-tenth of a second off of the pole,” said Gresham. “We were happy with that. We knew the car was good.”
Gresham fell back at the drop of the green flag on the high-speed, 3/8-mile paved Lanier oval, but then quickly made his way to the front of the field breaking into the Top-5 in the running order just past the half-way part of the race.
“We started on the inside line and that row really fell back as the start of the race,” said Gresham. “It took a little while to recover from that, but we were eventually able to race up to the fourth position. We had a really stout car and it hooked up very good. It was especially good on longer, green flag runs.”
Gresham and his No. 7-11 ASA Late Model Stock Car were in a position to race for the win with just under 25 laps to go when a bumping incident with Reaid ended any hopes of victory.
“When I got by TJ, we kind of body slammed,” said Gresham. “I didn’t mean to do it. We were both racing hard and it was under green flag conditions. It wasn’t intentional at all. Then, under yellow, TJ came up and ran into me real hard down in Turns 1-2. I retaliated and spun him out on the backstretch and because of that, I was black flagged for rough driving.”
Reaid, and a third driver in the backstretch incident, Parker Harmons, were also disqualified from the event by ASA race control.
While disappointed with the outcome at Lanier, Gresham was already distancing himself from the Lanier race and looking forward to the next event on the 2009 ASA Southeast Tour at Dillon (SC) Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 25.
“I know I have put this behind me and I hope TJ and his team can too,” said Gresham. “At this point, our Gresham Motorsports team is pointing toward the next race at Dillon. That’s all we are focusing on. I want to win there. I know we’ll have a great car, just like we did at the Lanier race.”
For information about sponsorship/partnering with Max Gresham and Gresham Motorsports, please contact Tony Gresham at tgresham@greshaminc.com