Gus Dean; GREE Racing ride momentum to Madison - Speedway Digest

Fresh off their season-best finish this past Friday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway, sophomore ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards driver Gus Dean (@GusDean) and his Win-Tron Racing team return to short track racing looking for a win in Friday night’s Herr’s Potato Chips 200 at Madison (Wisc.) International Speedway.

Riding the confidence aboard his No. 32 GREE Cooling Products | Baker Distributing Chevrolet and gelling with new crew chief Jamie Jones, the Bluffton, S.C. native hopes his return to Madison has a silver lining.

“After a tough start to the season, we’re feeling pretty good right now,” said Dean who sits sixth in the championship standings after eight races. “We’ve showcased over the last two races that we’ve had a fast-enough No. 32 GREE Cooling Products | Baker Distributing Chevrolet capable of winning and I hope we’re able to continue that trend Friday night at Madison.

An accomplished short track racer from the south, Dean hopes he’s able to better his performance from last year at the 0.5-mile paved oval where he finished ninth after starting seventh.

“Madison is one of those race tracks where we just missed it a little bit last year,” said Dean. “Jamie and I have discussed what we need to do to be better with our car this weekend and I believe that we will be. It’s 200 laps short-track style – so we just have to be around for the finish and earn another good result.”

With every position putting crucial points on the board, Dean says he knows his Win-Tron Racing team is on the verge of winning. And with a little luck in Madison, the 23-year-old could tally his second career ARCA Racing Series victory.

“Right now, it’s all about the wins,” said Dean. “With our bad luck at the start of the season, we’ve been playing catchup. The last two weekends we were able to earn some strong finishes and reap the benefits of the points that come along with that. It’s a tight field though right now. There’s a lot of strong cars.

“We just need to find our own rhythm and continue to believe that we’ve turned the corner and look out the windshield and hope the rest of the dominoes will fall in place. A win is around the corner, I really believe that.”

For the fourth short track race of the year, the Win-Tron Racing will roll out chassis number 717 which last saw competition at Toledo Speedway. Nearly a month ago, Dean’s GREE Racing Chevrolet was headed towards the front when he was a collected in an accident battling for fifth.

The team has been diligently repairing the car and has it ready to return to battle.

“This is a really good car,” sounded Dean. “I was just riding at Toledo when two cars got together, and I had nowhere to go. The car had some pretty good damage, but Jamie and Kevin wanted to get it fixed quickly because it was a fast race car. Excited to have this chassis back.”

Win-Tron Racing car owner Kevin Cywinski says the team’s fourth-place run at Michigan was a huge boost but says it’s important for his Mooresville, N.C.-based team to show the speed and finesse on the short tracks as well.

“The vibe has been great around the shop this week,” added Cywinski. “The guys are pumped up and Gus is focused as ever. He’s working out and constantly communicating with Jamie with ideas about how to make us even better at the race track.

“Hopefully, we can go to Madison this weekend and keep putting ourselves near the front knowing that sooner than later, it’s (hopefully) going to be our turn in Victory Lane.”

In 35 career ARCA Racing Series starts, Dean captured his first career victory in his second ever start at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway after starting a career-best second in Apr. 2016. Overall, Dean has nine top-five and 20 top-10 finishes.

The Herr’s Potato Chip 200 (200 laps | 100 miles) is the ninth of 20 races on the 2018 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. Practice begins Fri., June 15 with an hour and forty-five-minute session planned from 1:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. General Tire pole qualifying is set for later in the day at 5:00 p.m. The race is set to take the green flag later in the day shortly after 8:00 p.m. The event will be broadcasted live on MAVTV, while ARCARacing.com will stream live timing and scoring throughout the week’s activities. All times are local (CT).

For more on Gus Dean, please visit his all new website at GusDean.com or like him on Facebook. Dean tweets too. Follow him on Twitter @GusDean.

For additional information on GREE Racing, please like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @GREE_Racing.

Learn more at Win-TronRacing.com, Facebook or on Twitter @WinTronRacing.

Gus Dean PR