Catchfence

LOUDON, NH (September 17, 2010) – Max Gresham just can’t seem to catch a break these days. For the third-straight NASCAR K&N Pro Series East event, Gresham was in position for a top finish only to have a late-race incident dash the effort.

This time, it was a wreck on a green, white, checkered flag finish that dealt the telling blow in Friday’s New Hampshire 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Running fourth on the restart, Gresham saw another top effort come to a grinding halt when the car in front of him didn’t come up to speed in the front of him. That stacked up the field with Gresham’s mount getting the worst of it in the melee.

His No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota too badly damaged to continue and on the wrecker headed toward the garage area, Gresham was credited with 24th in the unofficial NASCAR post-race scoring.

The weekend started on a high note for Gresham as he sat atop the qualifying leaderboard for most of Thursday’s time trials with a lap of 29.945 seconds (127.193 miles per hour average) on the one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval. Late in the session, Gresham lost a chance at his second K&N pole of the 2010 season when his JGR teammate Brett Moffitt grabbed the top spot with a 29.863-second clocking.

It marked the second-straight year Gresham started the NHMS K&N Fall race from the outside front row spot.

The 17-year-old Woodward Academy student made up for any qualifying disappointments pushing his Gresham & Associates sponsored Toyota into the top spot on Lap 1 of Friday’s race. Gresham continued to lead the 32-car field through Lap 16 before the first caution flag of the event slowed the pack.

On the restart, Kevin Swindell got the jump and the lead powering his way past Gresham. Over the next dozen laps, Gresham dogged Swindell for the point before the caution flag waived again, this time on Lap 32. That sent Gresham to pit road for a change of right-side rubber.

Gresham was 10th after another off-cycle pit stop for fuel but worked back to sixth by the half-way point of the 125-lap race. Gresham – a two-time winner in NASCAR K&N competition this season – then advanced up to third place through another round of pit cycles and was in a position for the win restarting fourth on the first green-white-checkered flag finish.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as the late-race wreck derailed yet another top effort.

Friday’s New Hampshire 125 will be shown on a taped-delayed basis on SPEED on Thursday, September 23.

Next up for Gresham will be the final race of the 2010 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season – the Sunoco 150 – at Dover (DE) International Speedway on Friday, September 24. Action will get underway with a pair of practices on Thursday, September 23, before Friday’s Sunoco 150 goes green at 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time.

For more information about Max Gresham, please visit www.MaxGresham.com.

- Gresham Motorsports Press Release