Catchfence

CLERMONT, IN (JULY 29, 2011) – It would be wrong to assume that Max Gresham had an uneventful day after practicing, qualifying and finishing 11th in the Ansell Protective Gloves 200 at Lucas Oil Raceway Thursday evening.

In reality, the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) event was anything but uneventful for the driver of the No. 25 Venturini Motorsports Chevy.

“It was a very unusual day and I gained a lot of experience,” said Gresham of his ninth career ARCA start. “I made a ton of pit stops and had a lot of opportunity to practice getting on and off pit road. I also learned a lot about Lucas Oil Raceway itself, so all in all, it was a great learning experience for me. We would have liked to done better, but I am here to gain a bunch of knowledge and I certainly did that.”

Sweltering hot weather conditions featuring heat indexes in the 115-degree range greeted Gresham and his Venturini Motorsports mates as the ARCA Series invaded the .686-mile Clermont, IN raceway Thursday. The blazing heat didn’t stop the 18-year-old Griffin, GA driver from posting the 11th-best time out of 46 entries in the 90-minute practice session.

“Honestly, the heat wasn’t as bad at this race as it has been at other events this year,” said Gresham. “It was definitely a hot day, but you try to make up for it by taking plenty of fluids and being careful not to overwork yourself. You just try to be in the top condition that you can be when it’s time to go race.”

Gresham went out 33rd in qualifying and posted a solid lap of 22.865 seconds – a full half second faster than he practiced – but again he wound up 11th on the final time trial rundown.

At the drop of the green flag, Gresham rocketed his World Crown 300 sponsored mount into the top-10 running as high as eighth in the early going. With crew chief Billy Venturini calling the shots, Gresham was one of the first to come to pit road pitting during a Lap 35 caution.

“I was hoping that five rounds on the trackbar would fix our tight condition, but I was really surprised that the changes didn’t fix the car and make it as loose as I wanted it to be,” stated Gresham. “That was a huge surprise that the car didn’t change.”

Now 15th in the field and on a different pit and tire strategy than the rest of the field after the stop, Gresham again worked his way back up to the front-runners driving his way to the sixth position by Lap 60.

Another pit stop for fuel and more chassis adjustments on the 65th circuit put Gresham on a different tire strategy than the rest of the field for the next segment of the race. Content to ride and keep the leaders in sight, Gresham got the break he needed when the yellow flag flew on Lap 117.

After yet another pit stop and now on the freshest tires of any car in the race with just under 80 laps remaining, Gresham again blasted his way from the back of the pack racing up to the 10th spot when a major wreck on a restart ended any hopes of a late charge to victory.

“That wreck really changed the rest of the race for us,” said Gresham, who barely slid through the multi-car incident. “That was our last set of new tires and we flat-spotted them trying to avoid that wreck. I was pretty excited before that happened because I thought we had a pretty good car. We had to pit again and put on an older set of tires after that. The wreck kind of dialed us out.”

His tire strategy evaporated, Gresham had no choice but to ride out the final portion of the event eventually settling for an 11th-place finish – an effort that ironically bookended his practice and qualifying positions.

“We definitely had a top-six car,” said Gresham. “Unfortunately, we kept on coming off of pit road in the back of the field and at that place, track position is everything. Our finish really didn’t indicate how good our car was. I can’t thank Venturini Motorsports enough. They put in a lot of hard hours at the shop and at the track and we didn’t come away with much to show for it.”

Gresham and Venturini Motorsports will next head to Pocono Raceway for the Pennsylvania ARCA 125 on Saturday, August 6. The event will mark the first time Gresham has competed on the giant 2.5-mile Pocono oval. The event will be telecast live on SPEED TV at 3 P.M. Eastern Time and can also be heard as it happens on Internet radio at www.arcaracing.com.

For more information about Max Gresham, please log on to www.MaxGresham.com.

Information about Venturini Motorsports can be obtained at www.VenturiniMotorsports.com.

- Max Gresham Motorsports Press Release