Codie Rohrbaugh Readies NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Return At New Hampshire

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Codie Rohrbaugh can sum up his 2016 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season up thus far in one word.

Disappointing.

However, after a rough start to his part-time schedule in K&N Pro Series East competition (NKNPSE) for Grant County Mulch Racing (GCMR), Rohrbaugh and his family-owned team head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s United Site Services 70 not only looking to turn their season around, but earn Rohrbaugh another top-10 finish.

“I can’t begin to describe how frustrating the start to our 2016 season has been,” said Rohrbaugh. “We started off the year with high hopes. We had a good car in practice at New Smyrna, but then had some problems during the race and we’ve never been really able to recover.

“Since Bristol in April, we’ve taken a lot of time to work on our equipment and get back on the strait of narrow. Heading to New Hampshire this weekend, I feel optimistic about our chances, but have a good feeling that we’ll have a good run in Saturday’s race.”

In Rohrbaugh’s last race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway nearly three months ago, the Petersburg, West Virginia native had one of the worst crashes of his racing career, but credits NASCAR and his team for allowing him to walk away uninjured, despite a heavily damaged No. 7 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet in the PittLite 125.

“Everything happened so fast, I didn’t have time to react,” Rohrbaugh recalled. “It definitely was one of the worst crashes of my racing career. The car was virtually destroyed and it’s a shame, because it was a good car. Thankfully, NASCAR mandates the teams build safe and sound race cars and that allowed me to walk away a little bruised, both mentally and physically, but otherwise fine. I can’t thank my guys enough for building a soundproof race car.

“Hopefully, that was the last of our bad luck for the season and it will all be positive and beneficial moving forward.”

While the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East results have been mixed this season, a recent win in his home state of West Virginia gave the 22-year-old some much needed confidence he’s hoping will carry over to the 70-lap slugfest Saturday night.

“Anytime you can win, it helps with the confidence,” sounded Rohrbaugh. “I want to win in K&N so bad though. I know we are putting some nice No. 7 Grant County Mulch Chevrolets together, we just need to have a little luck on the race track and I know we can show our potential.

“New Hampshire is a very tight schedule. You literally practice and qualify within a three-hour period. That doesn’t leave much time for adjustments and whatnot, so we need to be on our game and ready when practice starts Friday night. I have two starts at New Hampshire and with a best finish of 19th – we’re looking for a lot more than that Saturday. Hopefully, our regrouping period has paid off.”

Motorsports veteran Mark Huff will serve as crew chief of the No. 7 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet in Saturday’s United Site Services 70, the 13th career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race for Rohrbaugh.

In his 12 previous NKNPSE starts, Rohrbaugh has a best finish of ninth at Stafford (CT.) Motor Speedway in August 2015. A ninth-place qualifying effort at Bristol Motor Speedway in April 2015 is his best time trials effort to date.

Codie Rohrbaugh PR

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