Gus Dean on Fan4Racing Radio, Thursday, July 26, 2018, at 9 pm ET. Photo – WTR
Gus Dean is our guest on Fan4Racing NASCAR Weekend Preview, Thursday, July 26, 2018, at 9 pm ET. Call 929-477-1790 or tweet @Fan4RacingSite with any questions or comments during our LIVE broadcast.
LONG POND, Pa. – With the postponement of last Saturday night’s Primera Plastics 200 at Berlin (Mich.) Raceway, Gus Dean (@GusDean) and his Win-Tron Racing team head to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway still carrying the torch of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards most recent winner ahead of Friday afternoon’s ModSpace 150.
The momentum from Dean’s second career victory at Elko Speedway is still high and his Win-Tron Racing team look for another triumph in their return to the “Tricky Triangle.”
Dean will make his fifth career ARCA start at the 2.5-mile triangle aboard the No. 32 GREE Cooling Products | Baker Distributing Chevrolet.
“The more times I race at Pocono – the more I just love the place,” said Dean, a sophomore in ARCA competition.
“We had a really good No. 32 GREE | Baker Distributing Chevrolet in June and I think the tweaks my crew chief Jamie (Jones) has made will make us better for Friday.”
Dean’s spring trip to Long Pond was eventful – but had a good outcome.
After qualifying sixth, Dean hustled his GREE Racing Chevrolet to the top-three, got blocked on pit road by another competitor mistakenly in his pit stall and even spun during the race.
Despite all the setbacks, Dean used the waning laps of the race to climb from the middle of the pack to race to sixth.
On Friday, Dean looks for a trouble-free race but an even more satisfying finish.
“We ran out of laps in June,” added Dean. “Honestly, I felt like we were a top three car, just didn’t have enough time to get back through the pack to get a top-five or better. I think we’ll be able to accomplish that this week.”
June’s General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 was the turn around to Dean’s second season at Win-Tron Racing.
Showcasing speed in every event leading up to the seventh race of the season, the 23-year-old experienced hardship after hardship – posting one top-ten in the opening six races.
“Other than the bad luck we’ve had this season, we don’t have anything to complain about,” offered Dean. “From Daytona to even practice at Berlin last week. We’ve been fast. Jamie and I have been working well together and we got GREE and Baker a win at Elko.
“Just dumb things have happened or being at the wrong place at the wrong time has kept us from posting the finishes we know we are capable of. But this last eight-week stretch or so has been pretty kind to us – so we’ll just continue to embrace it and try and get another win before the end of the season.”
Team owner Kevin Cywinski says his team is looking forward to redemption at Pocono.
“Gus really adapted well to Pocono last year,” he said. “We had a top-five last spring and a sixth in June. While we had a top-ten in the summer race – we didn’t have the speed we were looking for.
“I think we’ll have speed this week. We just don’t have any time to waste. It’s 60 laps and they will go by in a hurry. It’s really like a one-stop race. So, we’ll just see how it the race plays out and let Gus and Jamie work their magic.”
In 40 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, while earning his second win at Elko Speedway in July 2018. Overall, Dean has two wins, 11 top-five and 23 top-ten finishes.
The ModSpace 150 (60 laps | 150 miles) is the 14th of 20 races on the 2018 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. Practice begins Fri., July 27 with an hour and a half session planned from 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. General Tire pole qualifying is set for later in the day at 1:00 p.m. The race is set to take the green flag that afternoon shortly after 4:00 p.m. The event will be broadcasted live on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), while ARCARacing.com will stream live timing and scoring throughout the day’s activities. All times are local (ET).