Gallagher Scores His Career-Best Second-Place Finish at Gateway

Spencer Gallagher posted his career-best NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) result, finishing second at Gateway Motorsports Park (GMSP) in the Drivin’ For Linemen 200. The rain-delayed event saw Gallagher out perform his previous career highlight of third from Talladega Superspeedway in 2014. The career highpoint for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender comes in his 20th NCWTS start and his first at the Illinois 1.25 mile oval.
 
Starting from the 14th position, Gallagher maintained a consistent race pace, quickly advancing to 12th, and held the position until the event’s first caution period at lap 54. Under the caution, crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz gave Gallagher four tires, fuel air pressure and track bar adjustments to alleviate a tight handling balance. Throughout the entire 160 lap affair, Gallagher battled a tight condition, which was aided by the timely and precise adjustments by Stankiewicz and the Allegiant Travel team. 
 
Gallagher continued to look for a way inside the top 10, running 12th at the halfway mark. The team’s chance came during a lap 116 caution when Stankiewicz elected to take two tires to gain track position under the yellow. The call paid off as Gallagher restarted second, and ran in the top five during the ensuing laps. After avoiding a spin on lap 143, Gallagher restarted sixth on a lap 151 restart. Gallagher navigated the hectic traffic and avoided a wreck involving the front runners to advance to fourth for the final restart. By taking advantage of a restart with five laps to go, Gallagher jumped to second and maintained his position to the checkered flag. Cole Custer grabbed Chevrolet’s second victory of 2015 in the series’ second consecutive visit to GMSP.
 
The runner-up result is a season-best and career-best finish for Gallagher, and ties the best finish for GMS Racing in the organization’s two-year NCWTS history. As a result, Gallagher jumped to seventh in points, the highest the 25-year old rookie driver has been through eight events in 2015. 
 
SPENCER GALLAGHER QUOTE:
“What a wild evening for our Allegiant Travel Chevy. We started off a little further back than what we would have liked. In practice we couldn’t find much speed, but kept making adjustments on it. We got ourselves in the right track position, made the right moves, and it turned out. It’s one spot short of where we would really like to be, but from where we started out tonight, that’s what I’ll call a ‘win’ for our Allegiant Travel team. This is a great night for our GMS Racing guys, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.” 

GMS Racing PR