Gus Dean Claims First Career Pro Cup Series Win at
Memphis International Raceway
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series
www.carsprocup.com
Contact: Chris Ragle
chris@carsprocup.com
Mooresville, NC 4/28/14- Nineteen year old Gus Dean has finished in the runner up position so many times in his career he has probably lost count. The Bluffton, South Carolina driver, in his third year of full time competition, finally put it all together at the biggest track he’s ever raced at to score his first career X-1R Pro Cup Series win Saturday afternoon at Memphis Int’l Raceway (MIR) winning the KOMA Unwind Liquid Relaxation 150.
“This is what I’m talking about,” exclaimed an emotionally excited Gus Dean after exiting his car. “It’s been a long time coming for this team, my family, and just everyone that’s helped me get to where I’m standing at right now. My crew chief Petey (Hinson) gave me a good car that was good on the long runs and it was just enough to hold off Caleb (Holman). I would have never thought my first win would come at a track like Memphis. It’s the biggest place I’ve ever been on so it took a little while to get use too. We had even thought about not coming here (MIR) but I’m sure glad we did.”
Dean’s win didn’t come easy as he did all could to hold off a hard charging Caleb Holman on the final turn of the final lap. Holman, the current series points leader, started on the pole after capturing first place on the starting grid during MAHLE pole qualifying. From there Holman quickly took the lead with the field in tow. Youngsters Dean and Brady Boswell quickly formed a side-by-side battle with Boswell eventually taking the second position.
With Holman stretched out in the lead and field single file the first yellow flag waived on lap forty-three when Reid Wilson, who showed to have a fast racecar all weekend, slowed coming off turn two when the suspension of his #66 machine let go. The caution bunched the field up but it was Holman once again who flexed his muscle retaining the lead position. However, two time champion Benny Gordon had a car on the move, after a disappointing qualifying effort, cracking the top five by the competition caution on lap seventy-five.
The halfway point redraw put Jeff Oakley and JP Morgan on the front row and delegated Holman to the third position. Gus Dean meanwhile went to the fourth position after taking the halfway yellow in second. The restart proved to be one of the most intense times of the event when the #23 ride of Morgan’s rear end locked up and propelled Morgan hard into the inside wall of the front stretch ending his day. Dean and rookie of the year contender Codie Rohrbaugh also received damage in the melee.
The complete restart put Holman on the front row and that was all he needed to get back to leading the field. With Holman’s #75 machine out front it was Dean who went to work on getting his first career win moving to the second place position on lap eighty-nine. Just seventeen laps later a side-by-side battle would ensue between Holman and Dean with contact on several occasions before Dean eventually came out on top. The South Carolina driver did all he could from there to open as big as gap as possible over the veteran Holman.
Despite closing an almost five car length gap Holman didn’t quite have enough to get to Dean drawing to his inside quarter panel coming to the checkered flag off of turn four. An exciting side-by-side battle for third that was even closer, and saw veteran Jeff Oakley score his first podium finish of the season after edging Brady Boswell by a nose at the line.
Next up for the X-1R Pro Cup Series is the Heritage Truck Centers 250 at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Virginia on Saturday June 7th. For more information on this event and the entire X-1R Pro Cup Series visit www.carsprocup.com or contact the series directly at 704-662-9212.
CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series
KOMA Unwind Liquid Relaxation 150
Memphis International Raceway-Millington, TN
Unofficial Results
#56 Gus Dean
#75 Caleb Holman
#6 Jeff Oakley
#2 Brady Boswell
#25 Benny Gordon
#05 Codie Rohrbaugh
#23 JP Morgan
#66 Reid Wilson
Photo credit: Tony Stevens/CARS Pro Cup Photos
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Chris Ragle
Director of Operations/Marketing
CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series
www.x1rprocup.com
Office: 704-662-9212
Phone: 940-393-3167
Fax: 704-662-9207
Email: chris@carsprocup.com