Gus Dean at 8:40 pm ET on Monday, May 2, 2016
Photo – Courtesy of Talladega Superspeedway
Gus Dean is our guest on Fan4Racing NASCAR & Race Talk on Monday, May 2, 2016 at 8:40 pm ET. Call 929-477-1790 or tweet @Fan4RacingSite or @Sal_Sigala with any questions or comments during our LIVE broadcast.
Driver of the No. 98 GREE Chevrolet for Mason Mitchell Motorsports (MMM), Gus Dean earned his first career ARCA win in the General Tire 200 at the 2.66 mile Talladega Superspeedway.
The Bluffton, South Carolina native selected the outside line for the afternoon’s final restart coming with four to go. Veteran Tommy Hessert gave Dean a big push down the backstretch pulling him even with Josh Williams. A wreck behind the leaders would end the race and send the ARCA officials to the video monitor which declared Dean as the race winner.
“I can’t thank GREE and Mason Mitchell Motorsports enough, they gave me a second chance and we didn’t disappoint,” Dean stated in victory lane.
“We had a top-notch car all day long in practice, qualifying and the race. It got pretty wild towards the end, especially on the final restart but we were able to stay out of trouble and end up in victory lane.”
“Mason and the team made an excellent pit call during our only pit stop. We lost a little bit of track position and had to comeback through the field. We worked the draft right and everything aligned for us to go to victory lane”
Dean qualified second for the fourth ARCA race of the 2016 season and positioned himself up front all afternoon long before capturing the win.
The race ended three laps early due to severe weather approaching the track.
In February at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) Dean’s ARCA debut lasted a mere two laps as he was caught in the ‘big one.’
The win comes in only Dean’s second career ARCA Racing Series event and his first race with new marketing partner GREE. Dean led 21 laps en route to victory. The win also marks the first restrictor plate win for third year team Mason Mitchell Motorsports.
The ARCA Racing Series will have two weekends off before heading to ARCA’s home-track, the Toledo Speedway in Toledo, Ohio for the Menards 200. The race will be live on the American Sports Network beginning Sunday, May 20th at 2:00 pm ET. Arcaracing.com will have live timing and scoring for all on-track activity from the half-mile track.