Truck Series Competition And Martinsville A Real Challenge For Gresham

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In: NASCAR Truck Series News

Max Gresham is quickly finding out that the long-time ‘Tough Trucks’ motto of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series isn’t just a bunch of PR hype.

Gresham, the 2011 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion, discovered that firsthand Saturday as he wheeled his No. 66 Rheem World Crown 300/Flat Bill Mafia Chevrolet to a 25th-place finish in the Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway.

According to Gresham, the combination of the trucks and the tricky Martinsville ‘paperclip’ layout provided a special brand of racing.

“The level of competition throughout the field in the truck series is pretty amazing,” said Gresham. “You’re always battling with someone, especially at a place like Martinsville. The track is so small, so you are always in close quarters racing. It doesn’t matter if you are at the front or back of the pack, you’re always around someone. It makes it a lot of fun – it’s really challenging to race.”

Gresham got rolling Saturday morning in qualifying posting a time of 20.240 seconds (93.557 miles per hour) and took the green flag in his Turn One Racing Chevrolet Silverado from the 24th position later that afternoon.

The 18-year-old Griffin, GA driver quickly worked his way forward racing up to the 15th position in the first 30 laps. Later, Gresham ran as high as fourth after electing to take track position instead of new tires under caution on lap 39.

Gresham fell prey to his competitor’s fresher tires on the restart. Now again back in the pack later in the run, the tiny .526-mile Martinsville oval bit Gresham twice. The first came just past the halfway point of the event on lap 104 when Gresham spun entering turn one. The second came only eight circuits later when he again looped his truck, this time in turn two.

“I was trying to save myself from running into a couple of trucks in front of me that slowed down a lot quicker than I thought they were going to,” said Gresham of the two spins. “I’m pretty sure what got me was having too much rear brake in the truck. Both times, having to lock it up got the truck to slow down and got me real loose and I just couldn’t catch it.”

Gresham pitted several times under caution to repair tire, fender and grill damage suffered in the second incident. Now two laps down to the field, Gresham managed to race his way back from 29th to 25th at the finish. He completed 198 of the 200 laps never dropping another lap to the leaders after his two spins.

“I don’t feel bad about the finish,” said Gresham. “Of course, you want to do better and it’s unfortunate we haven’t had better finishes in our first two truck races. We’ve been better than what the finishes show. We’ve just had some bad luck – some of it of our own making. We’re running solid laps; we’ve just got to work on getting a little bit better luck.”

Gresham will return to the seat of the No. 66 Chevrolet when his Turn One Racing team heads to Florida for the Ford 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday, November 18.

Turn One Racing PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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