Catchfence

HUNTERSVILLE, NC (AUGUST 30, 2011) – After nearly a six-week break in the middle of the 2011 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season, you can’t blame Max Gresham if he has gotten a little tired of not being at the racetrack.

“It’s really been kind of boring,” said Gresham, driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in NKPSE competition this season. ”It’s hard to enjoy the break when you have this much time off. Usually, it’s go, go, go during the season. Then to have almost six weeks off is a little hard to adjust to. Fortunately, I started college at Belmont Abbey and it’s given me time to get used to being in school and on campus. So far, I like it a lot. Still, I’d like to be racing more too.”

You can’t blame Gresham for looking forward to being behind the wheel of his World Crown 300-sponsored JGR Toyota when the K&N Pro Series East revs back into action on Labor Day Monday at Greenville-Pickens Speedway. In the first nine races of the season, Gresham has sped his way to a pair of wins, seven top-five finishes and four pole positions.

Based on that solid performance, Gresham owns an 80-point lead in the division championship standings heading into the series stretch run at Greenville-Pickens, New Hampshire Motor and Dover International Speedways.

To prepare for Monday’s Greenville event, Gresham tested at the venerable half-mile South Carolina oval late last week.

“We had a long test, a full 11 hours,” said Gresham. “We worked on several front-end and rear-end packages and we wound up with a set-up that we liked pretty well. Hopefully, that will be the ticket to a good finish for us next Monday.”

At the very least, Gresham hopes it will translate into a better finish than the 21st-place effort he and his JGR mates posted in the season-opening event at G-P in March. The finish has been Gresham’s worst of the 2011 campaign.

“We’re hoping to have a solid run,” said Gresham of Monday’s race. “Honestly, Greenville-Pickens hasn’t been one of our best tracks in the past, so to finish all the laps like we have been doing all year is really the goal. Another win would be nice, but we’ll be looking to finish well and build some momentum going into the final two races of the season at New Hampshire and Dover.”

The Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 140 at Greenville Pickens will be held in conjunction with the South Carolina State Fair and will feature qualifying at 3 p.m., an autograph session at 3:45 p.m., and green-flag racing at 5 p.m. (all times Eastern).

The event can be heard live on www.NASCARHomeTracks.com. Meanwhile, SPEED will televise the event on a tape-delayed basis on Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.

Fans can also follow Gresham throughout the event at Greenville-Pickens on Facebook at Max Gresham Fan Page and on Twitter@MaxGresham.

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

- Max Gresham Racing Press Release