Max Gresham Wins NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Race at Gresham Motorsports Park
- Jun 14, 2011
Gresham led a race-high 98 laps en route to his first K&N Pro Series East win of the season and the third of his career. He won the pole for the Slack Auto Parts 150 and survived a green-white-checkered flag finish battling Darrell Wallace and Matt DiBenedetto to the end. "To win at home in front of all the fans at Gresham Motorsports Park, I couldn't be any happier," Gresham said. "I can't thank my Joe Gibbs Racing teammates enough they work so hard on this car." The start of the race was delayed for 2 1/2 hours because of rain. When the race started, Gresham was out front for the first 42 laps. Wallace, who graduated from high school in North Carolina the day before the race, took the lead from Gresham on lap 43 and held it for the next 56 laps.
Gresham took the lead back in lap 99 and held it to the end when rookie Alex Bowman hit the wall on lap 144, setting up the green-white-checker finish. Gresham and Wallace raced side-by-side and allowed DiBenedetto to make it a three-car battle on the closing lap. Gresham was able to to pull away from the other two drivers. "I kind of expected Darrell to do what he did when we went down into Turn 1," Gresham said, "and I would do the same thing in a green-white-checkered finish." DiBenedetto, who won the K&N Pro Series East race at Bowman Gray Stadium last weekend, ended second, behind Gresham. "It was definitely interesting at the end," DiBenedetto said. "It was a pretty quiet race the whole time. We had about a third-place car, a good car. The front two were pretty exceptional. We kind of evened out with them at the end. We got decent, but just not quite as good as the 18 (Gresham). He had the dominate car for sure. He deserved to win." Andrew Smith snuck up to pass Wallace for third place. Wallace crossed the finish line in fourth, followed by Corey LaJoie in fifth. "That was a blast. This is a fun track," Smith said. "I worked hard trying to save my tires, make 'em good at the end. There at the end we raced hard with some lapped cars, with some other cars and it kind of burned a few of them off. We had to muscle it there at the end, kind of bounce off a few and did the best we could. We needed this after the last couple of weeks." Wallace remained atop the K&N Pro Series East standings after six races. He has a five-point lead over Gresham and a 12-point lead over DiBenedetto. The Slack Auto Parts 150 will be broadcast on Speed on Thursday at 6 p.m. ET. The next K&N Pro Series East race will be at Langley Speedway in Hampton, VA, on Saturday. Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
