Catchfence

KANSAS CITY, KS (October 7, 2011) – A late-race caution derailed a sure victory as Max Gresham rolled to a fourth-place finish in Friday’s Kansas Lottery 98.9 Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) race at Kansas Speedway.

Gresham, the 2011 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion, won the pole for the event and had a 20-car length lead when the caution flew with a dozen laps remaining.

On the restart, Gresham was a sitting duck falling to fourth as his old tires gave up in the final laps.

Gresham served notice in qualifying that he would be the man to beat later that evening rolling to his second ARCA pole of the season with a lap of 31.371 seconds on the 1.5-mile Kansas oval.

A tight handling condition off the corners forced Gresham to fall back to fourth in the early stages of the 99-circuit contest. Later, a pair of out of sync pit stops had the Griffin, GA driver back in the eighth spot on a Lap 65 restart.

Gresham quickly righted his No. 25 Rheem World Crown 300 Chevy roaring into the runner-up spot on Lap 73. He then made quick work of leader Ty Dillon blasting into the top spot on the 81st-circuit.

The 18-year-old Gresham, who was competing in just his third career superspeedway event, rocketed away from the field and appeared to have the victory in sight only to have a caution on Lap 88 slow the field.

The green flag then came back out a final time and now Gresham, racing to the finish on 70-lap tires, was no match for the cars with fresh rubber behind him falling to fourth over the final circuits.

With Gresham’s NASCAR K&N and ARCA seasons complete, he’ll now head to the next level – the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – making his series debut this coming Saturday, October 15 in the Smith’s 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Gresham will wheel the No. 66 Turn One Racing Chevrolet in the event.

Fans can also follow Gresham throughout Friday’s Truck Series practice and qualifying sessions on Twitter@MaxGresham and on Facebook at Max Gresham Fan Page.

Fans can come out and meet Max Gresham – along with their other favorite NASCAR Truck Series drivers – as part of an autograph session at the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Friday, October 14, from 7:30-8:30 p.m. local time.

Saturday’s Smith’s 350 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race will take the green flag at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The event will be telecast live on SPEED and broadcast live on Motor Racing Network and NASCAR SIRIUS/XM 90.

Additional information about Max Gresham can be accessed at www.MaxGresham.com.

- Max Gresham Motorsports Press Release