Late Race Accident Stalls Top Finish For Max Gresham In Greenville NASCAR K&N Pro Series Event
For Immediate Release
Greenville, SC (March 28, 2010) - Max Gresham and his No.18 Joe Gibbs Racing team picked up right where they left off in 2009 at Saturday’s season-opening NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the same results.
Gresham, who posted three top-10 finishes in four starts with the JGR team in 2009, was running fifth in the final laps of the Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150 when he was caught up in an accident on a late restart.
“We were coming off a restart and I was in fourth gear going off in the corner when it appeared that Ryan Truex missed a shift and stopped pretty much going into the corner,” explained Gresham. “The car in front of me hit him and I had my car slowed down to where I wasn’t going to run into them. Then I got hit from behind and ended up not being able to avoid them. When I came into the pits, the crew found that we had a hole in the radiator and that ended our day.”
The result was a disappointing 24th-place finish for Gresham and his JGR mates.
“I thought we were going to win the race,” Gresham stated. “I could pass two cars a lap on the restarts. We were the fastest car on the track. We just got caught up in somebody else’s mess at the end of the race.”
Gresham started out slowly at Greenville Saturday qualifying 22nd in the 30-car starting field. Confident he had a car capable of making it to the front in race trim, Gresham methodically made his way to the front of the field using the high groove to gain ground on the tight half-mile Greenville oval.
“My crew chief, Mike Sibley, put a car underneath me that was a rocket ship inside or outside,” said Gresham of his JGR Toyota. “We probably made 90 percent of our passes on the outside of other cars. We were just able to roll up on the outside and get it turned and really rocket off the corners. It was one of those cars that it was a shame you didn’t win with. We definitely had a car to beat there at the end.”
Next up for Max Gresham and his Gresham & Associates sponsored No.18 Toyota will be the South Boston 150 at South Boston Speedway on April 3. Gresham finished fifth in his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut at the historic South Boston track last year and will be looking to better that finish this time around.
“This Joe Gibbs Racing team is great,” stated Gresham. “ We’ve got some new people as well as a few that were with us last year. They worked very well together and I think it’s going to be a great season. I can’t wait for next weekend to drive the great car they put underneath me at South Boston.”
The Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150 at Greenville will be shown on a tape-delayed basis on SPEEDTV on Thursday, April 1 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
The South Boston weekend will feature both the NASCAR K&N Pro Cup Series East and NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Series. Grandstand gates will open on Saturday, April 3, at Noon Eastern Time with qualifying for the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour set for 12:20 p.m. Qualifying for the NASCAR K&N Pro Cup Series is scheduled at 1 p.m. and will be followed by an autograph session.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Cup Series race will start the afternoon of action off at 3 p.m. and will be followed by the 150-lap event for the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour.
For information about sponsorship/partnering with Max Gresham and his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and ARCA efforts, please contact Tony Gresham at tgresham@greshaminc.com.