Catchfence

GRIFFIN, GA (March 22, 2011) – Last season, Max Gresham was looking to open the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season with a big bang. This year, Gresham hopes he’ll have a different kind of bang than the one that greeted him and his Joe Gibbs Racing team at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in 2010.

“We had a very good car for the race after having a poor qualifying effort,” said Gresham of last year’s race. “We were really fast coming all the way from 22nd to fourth before the final restart. Then we got rear-ended on that last restart and shoved into a wreck that ended our day. It was a bad sequence of events for us. We definitely had the car to win the race. We came though the field like a speeding bullet. We really had the car to beat. We just didn’t get to the finish.”

While Gresham’s first-ever NASCAR K&N Pro Series appearance at Greenville didn’t go as well as hoped, just about everything since has been on point for the 17-year-old Griffin, GA driver.

Gresham wound up winning two K&N events and poles last year finishing eighth in the final 2010 season championship standings. Along the way, he also stepped into the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) ranks and promptly won the Tim Richmond Memorial 200 at Mansfield (OH) Speedway in just his third career ARCA start.

This year, Gresham will return to the NASCAR K&N division as a ‘seasoned veteran’ of the series. Teamed again with Joe Gibbs Racing, Gresham is considered one of the favorites to win not only at Greenville this weekend, but is also thought to be one of the front-runners for the 2011 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship.

“I have more experience this year, there’s no doubt about that” stated Gresham, who will wheel a Toyota Camry at Greenville Saturday that was a part of the Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Nationwide stable in 2010. “Last year was a huge benefit for me both on and off the track. I went into the year really thinking we would win the championship. This year, I’m not going to say anything about that. Our goal is to win as many races as we can. Winning races and top-five finishes win championships. If we do that, the championship deal will take care of itself.”

While Gresham has his sights set on a successful season, the first hurdle he will have to clear is at the venerable Greenville-Pickens half-mile oval this Saturday. Originally opened in 1940, Greenville-Pickens has hosted NASCAR races since 1951 and many of its greatest champions – Bob and Tim Flock, Buck Baker, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, David Pearson and Richard Petty – have all won there in the past.

According to Gresham, he’d like nothing better than to add his name to that list of famous drivers with a win in Saturday’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series East event.

“To win a Greenville-Pickens and have my name on a list with guys like Tim Flock and Richard Petty would be pretty amazing,” said Gresham. “That would be very, very cool to say the least.”

Gresham will take the green flag in Saturday’s 2011 NASCAR K&N Pro Series season opener at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. The 150-lap event will follow a full day of action that gets underway with the first practice at 1 p.m.

The Max Gresham Fan Page on Facebook will have updates on Max and the JGR team throughout the day Saturday.

Meanwhile, www.NASCARHomeTracks.com will feature live Internet radio broadcast of the NASCAR K&N race at Greenville while SPEED will show the event on a tape-delayed basis on Thursday, March 31 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.

For more information about Max Gresham, please access www.MaxGreshamRacing.com.

Additional information about the Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR K&N Pro Series effort can be viewed at www.JoeGibbsRacing.com.

For information about sponsorship of or partnering with Max Gresham’s 2011 NASCAR racing efforts, please contact John Close at closefinishes@aol.com.

- Gresham Motorsports Press Release