Gresham and his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota won the pole Thursday and wasted little time getting to the front taking the point early leading until Lap 43 when he missed pitting under caution.
“My crew chief, Bryant Frazier, and I were talking on the radio and we never gave my spotter Curtis Markham a chance to tell me pit road was open,” said Gresham. “We just missed it. It was a little thing that we thought would hurt us in the long run, but we fought our way back. We drove our race and got back to the front. This Toyota Camry that Joe Gibbs Racing gave me was awesome.”
Gresham’s luck went from bad to worse when he pitted a one lap later for fuel. Exiting the pits, the 18-year-old Griffin, GA driver made contact with another vehicle damaging the left-front fender on his World Crown 300-sponsored racer. That forced Gresham to pit again where he took on right-side tires and had the damaged repaired.
Now mired in deep in the field as the race went back to green-flag conditions, Gresham methodically started working his way back through the pack picking off several positions before another caution, this on lap 59, sent him back to pit road for left-side tires.
The stop would prove to be critical later in the race as his rivals would complete the race with fresh right-side rubber only while Gresham had four new tires for the run to the finish in the 125-lap event.
Now 26th in the running order on Lap 62, Gresham rocketed back through the field breaking into the top-five with just under 40 circuits remaining. With 20 to go, Gresham was in second nipping at the heels of leader Brett Moffitt before he finally took the top spot for good at Lap 112.
From there, it was smooth sailing for Gresham as he rolled to his second NASCAR K&N Pro Series win of the season. Moffitt held on for second followed by Corey Lajoie, Brandon Gdovic and Benny Gordon.
The effort was Gresham’s seventh-consecutive top-five finish since coming home 21st in the season-opening division race at Greenville, SC. He is the only driver in the series to complete all 1,185 laps contested this season.
The victory also boosted Gresham’s lead in the 2011 NKNPSE championship point standings to 94 markers over Moffitt.
“It’s awesome to come from the back and win is very cool,” said Gresham. “Most people would want to get back to the front as soon as they could, but we just slowed down and ran our pace. We tried to get a car a lap, keep the tires under the car and keep the fenders clean. We knew if we could do that, we’d have something for them at the end. We were able to do that and it definitely paid off for us in the end.”
Gresham will stay busy in NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition traveling to Columbus (OH) Speedway next weekend for the Jegs 150. The event will mark just the third time the series has appeared in the state of Ohio and the first-ever at the Columbus oval.
The one-day show will open with practice at Noon Eastern with qualifying to roll off at 6 p.m. The Jegs 150 will take the green flag at 8:45 p.m. and can be heard on Internet radio at www.NASCARHomeTracks.com.
Additional information about Max Gresham can be accessed at www.MaxGresham.com.
- Max Gresham Motorsports Press Release
