Producing four straight top-six finishes in ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards competition, sophomore driver Gus (@GusDean) and his Win-Tron Racing team head to Chicagoland Speedway for a Thursday night showdown and hopefully their first win of the season in the SCOTT 150.
Officially at the halfway point of the ARCA season, Dean, a native of Bluffton, S.C. native is determined to continue to produce strong results in the No. 32 GREE Cooling Products | Baker Distributing Chevrolet and believes Chicagoland is another venue to continue the team’s upward pace.
“I’m ready for Chicagoland,” said Dean. “We have some really good momentum right now, but we won’t be satisfied even with all of these strong finishes until we put our No. 32 GREE Cooling Products | Baker Distributing Chevrolet in Victory Lane.”
Dean credits crew chief Jamie Jones who paired with the 23-year-old at the beginning of the season for the impressive speed from the Win-Tron Racing camp. With Jones doing all he can to put a fast race car underneath his young driver, Dean expresses the rest is up to him.
“There isn’t a race where we didn’t showcase speed all year long,” added Dean. “Yes, we’ve had some bad luck along the way, but it hasn’t been anything that Jamie could control. Some of it is just racing.
“He’s one of the most humble guys I know. He’s inspired me to be a better race car driver and I’ve made the promise to him that this second half of the ARCA season is going to be our time to shine. That includes Chicagoland Speedway.”
Dean made his debut in the Windy City last September. While spending a majority of the race inside the top-10, the avid late model competitor fell victim to late-race mechanical gremlins and was forced to salvage his night with a 14th place finish.
This weekend, Dean is hungry for his second career ARCA win or his third top-five performance of 2018.
“Jamie is really excited about the car we’re bringing to Chicagoland this weekend,” added Dean. “I like Chicago. We practiced well there last year, qualified inside the top-10 and look assured at a top-10 run before we experienced some engine woes late in the race.
“Jamie was apart of a really good team last year that was extremely fast at Chicagoland last year and I’m hoping that we can unload with our No. 32 GREE Cooling Products | Baker Distributing Chevrolet in a similar capacity.
“Hopefully when push comes to shove on Thursday night, we’ll be right there contending for the win.”
Win-Tron Racing car owner Kevin Cywinski says the team continues to perform during a crucial stretch of the season and he is confident that will continue at Chicagoland Speedway.
“I’m really proud of this race team,” Cywinski said. “Gus and Jamie are really hitting on all eight cylinders right now and the team’s morale is very high, especially after our performance during this huge stretch.
In 37 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 10 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes.
The Scott 150 (100 laps |150 miles) is the 11th of 20 races on the 2018 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. Practice begins Thur., June 28 with a two and half hour session planned from 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. General Tire pole qualifying is set for later in the day at 5:35 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 FOX Sports 1, while ARCARacing.com will stream live timing and scoring throughout the week’s activities. All times are local (CT).
Win-Tron Racing PR
