Catchfence

GRIFFIN, GA (July 8, 2010) – There are some tracks that just fit a race car drivers particular style. For Max Gresham, that track appears to be Iowa Speedway.

“I’m not really sure why Iowa Speedway clicks with me,” said Gresham, who will compete in Saturday’s Prairie Meadows 200 Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) race at Iowa Speedway. “It’s a place that I enjoy racing at. It’s a premier facility and I really have a great time when I am there.”

Considering the success Gresham has had at the Newton, IA oval, it is little wonder that the 17-year-old Griffin, GA resident has enjoyed himself when he’s raced there. In his first-ever appearance at the track last September, Gresham wheeled a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a third-place finish in a NASCAR K&N Pro Series event.

In May, Gresham and his JGR mates returned to Iowa Speedway and won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series Goodyear Dealers 200. Coming off of those two stellar performances, Gresham and his No. 71 Gresham Motorsports team have high expectations in the ARCA event this weekend.

“We had a great test at Iowa Speedway last week,” said Gresham. “Once the driver figured out that he was in an ARCA car and not a NASCAR K&N car, we got to the point where we were posting competitive times. It was a successful day of testing and the results from the test will hopefully show up in the race.”

Saturday’s Iowa event will be only the second time Gresham has competed in the ARCA series in his young driving career. The teenage driving sensation made his division debut earlier this year winning the pole and finishing sixth in the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at Salem (IN) Speedway.

“I feel comfortable running in the ARCA series,” said Gresham. “Obviously, after just one race, I still have a lot to learn – how the cars drive, how the series is run, how the drivers race each other. I’m comfortable enough with all of that to go out and race hard this weekend.”

Gresham hopes to keep his string of good finishes alive at Iowa Speedway when Saturday’s ARCA Prairie Meadows 200 takes the green flag at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. To do that, he will have to master both a change in vehicles and the tricky .75-mile Iowa high-speed oval.

“The ARCA car is heavier and has 200 more horsepower than the K&N cars I have driven previously at Iowa Speedway,” Gresham stated. “The ARCA car gets down the straights a lot faster than the K&N car but when you get to the corner it doesn’t turn as well. There’s a compromise there. It’s a challenge to go from one car to another, but it isn’t anything that I can’t adapt to.

“Getting over the bumps in Turns 1 and 2 are the key to getting around that place,” Gresham continued. “You have to get over those as easily as you can. If you don’t, the car gets upset and you kill a lot of your speed. It’s the place on the track where you can gain a lot of speed – or lose it.”

Gresham will compete in a select schedule of ARCA events this season behind the wheel of his family-owned racer. Led by veteran NASCAR crew chief and team manager Gene Roberts, the organization has fueled Gresham’s rise through the US Legends International and Late Model Stock Car ranks to doorstep of a career in big-time Stock Car racing.

It’s an effort that hasn’t been lost on Gresham, who will be a high school senior student at Woodward Academy in College Park, GA this fall.

“The Gresham Motorsports guys have been putting in a lot of long hours and hard days,” said Gresham. “They’ve put a lot of effort into this ARCA program and it showed at our first race at Salem. They’ve really pulled it together and I can’t thank them enough for the kind of great cars they have always put on the track for me.

The Prairie Meadows 200 at Iowa Speedway will be telecast live on SPEED Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

- Gresham Motorsports Press Release