Taking a few weeks off to prepare for their summer stretch of competition in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series (NGOTS), Codie Rohrbaugh and his CR7 Motorsports team head to Kentucky Speedway for Thursday night’s Buckle Up Your Truck 225 determined to get down to business.
In his three NGOTS starts this season at both Texas Motor Speedway races and Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway respectively, Rohrbaugh and his Doug George-led team have ramped up speed in their No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet Silverado, but ahead of their fourth start of the year, the Mooresville, N.C.-based team is ready to deliver finishes equal of their effort.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to work this week at Kentucky Speedway,” said Rohrbaugh. “Doug and all the guys on this CR7 Motorsports team have been working hard over the last few weeks to get this truck ready.
“We’ve showcased a lot of speed in our trucks the last couple of times we’ve been on track, we just haven’t been able to capitalize on with our finishes. Just a lot of bad luck – hopefully we can turn things around on Thursday night.”
Knowing his family-owned team is making a huge investment in their transition from the ARCA Menards Series to the Gander Trucks, Rohrbaugh knows once the hiccups settle, they’ll be able to contend for top-10 finishes.
“We have plenty of races left this season, a lot of them on the bigger tracks, but this is still a building year for our organization, and I think it’s important for everyone to keep that in mind,” Rohrbaugh added.
“We’ve made some huge leaps forward and that’s important, but it’s equally important that as we take these steps forward that our performances shows that.
“A top-15 finish would be huge for our team and something to build on for Pocono later this month.”
A native of Petersburg, West Virginia – Rohrbaugh is leaning on his two prior starts at Kentucky to assist him in his Gander Truck debut at the 1.5-mile track. In those two starts, he earned a track-best of 13th in his ARCA Series debut in 2016.
A year later in 2017, he qualified eighth but was relegated to a 16th-place finish after being collected in a late-race crash, seven laps from the finish.
“I like Kentucky and it’s speed,” offered Rohrbaugh. “Typically, it’s a race track that provides plenty of grooves to race. It’s surface is worn and aged so while it has some bumps, the competition ramps up and provides great racing.
“I think these trucks will race a bit different than the ARCA cars – especially with the draft. We’ll have just two practices to dial our truck in and then focus on qualifying and the race. We just need to run our race and bring home a good finish.”
In 20 career ARCA starts, Rohrbaugh has a best finish of seventh twice at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (July 2018 and Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (February 2019). He has qualified a career-best fourth on four different occasions including at Kansas Speedway (Oct. 2018).
Marketing partnership(s) opportunities are available for the No. 7 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet and No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet for the 2019 ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series seasons and beyond. Interested inquiries are encouraged to contact at [email protected] or 304.257.8783.
Following Kentucky Speedway, the 25-year-old plans to return to the Gander Truck Series scene at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway on June 27.
The Buckle Up Your Truck 225 (150 laps| 225 miles) is the 13th of 23 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series races on the 2019 schedule. Practice begins on Thurs., July 11 from 9:35 a.m. – 10:25 a.m. A final practice session is set for 11:05 a.m. – 11:55 p.m. Qualifying is set for later in the day beginning at 4:05 p.m. The 32-truck field will take the green flag shortly after 7:30 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90). All times are local (Eastern).
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