Codie Rohrbaugh, CR7 Motorsports continues mission for Joshua Shirk at Kentucky

Coming off a Holiday weekend break, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series (NGROTS) driver Codie Rohrbaugh and his CR7 Motorsports team trek to Kentucky Speedway asking the NASCAR community to continue show to their support for an eight-year-old West Virginia native recovering from a near-fatal kayak accident seven weeks ago.

On May 17, 2020, eight-year-old Joshua Shirk was kayaking with family in rural West Virginia.

While on the water, the kayak capsized and Shirk became trapped under the water in debris.

When family was finally able to pull him to safety, the young boy had no pulse.

Quick work by medical workers at a local hospital were able to revive him but he remained in critical condition.

Shirk was later transported to WVU hospital in Morganton, West Virginia where he has made vast improvements but still needs the love, prayer and support of many.

Since Pocono, Shirk has been able to come off a breathing machine and has started intense physical rehabilitations with a focus on head control this week.

Rohrbaugh’s partner Grant County Mulch has again given up their space for Saturday night’s Buckle Up Your Truck 225 for Shirk. The No. 9 Chevrolet Silverado has been designed with a western-theme scheme, personally selected by Shirk.

The hood carries a special touch with Shirk displaying a message of his own that he wrote before the accident, “I am a child of God. He saves me. I talk to he.”

With prayer, love and support working, Rohrbaugh hopes others will now pledge their support alongside his CR7 Motorsports team uniting strength in numbers and the power of prayer.

“This is really important to me,” said Rohrbaugh. “I’ve been heartbroken for a while now and even though Joshua is making strides, he still has a long road to recovery. I am asking the NASCAR community to support him by offering their thoughts and prayers to his family. It really means a lot to me.”

Shirk’s family and friends have created a Facebook page (Facebook.com/FightingandBelieving) and slogan, “He’s Fighting, We’re Believing!”

Rohrbaugh will make his second NGROTS start at Kentucky Speedway Saturday night and he is fired up to back up his solid 14th place finish from last July.

“We had a really good truck last July,” he said. “We were still a young team then and we’ve made great strides since then. I’m looking forward to going back to Kentucky this weekend and having the opportunity to get our season back on track and more importantly raise some awareness for Joshua.”

After six races, Rohrbaugh is 17th in the championship standings, 77 points from 10th.

CR7 Motorsports has 17 NGOTS starts to their credit with a career-best finish of third at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (February 2020). Additionally, the team owns another top-10 finish at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in October 2019. An 11th place qualifying effort at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (Oct. 2019) is the team’s best time trials effort to date.

In 20 career ARCA starts, Rohrbaugh has a best finish of seventh twice at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (July 2018 and Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (February 2019). He has qualified a career-best fourth on four different occasions most recently at Kansas Speedway (Oct. 2018).

Marketing partnership(s) opportunities are available for the No. 97 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet and No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet for the 2020 ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series seasons and beyond. Interested inquiries are encouraged to contact at [email protected] or 304.257.8783.

The Buckle Up Your Truck 225 (150 laps| 225 miles) is the seventh of 23 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races on the 2020 schedule. The 40-truck field will take the green flag shortly after 6:00 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90). All times are local (Eastern).

CR7 Motorsports PR