Upbeat about their performance this past Thursday evening at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Rette Jones Racing (RJR) and driver Spencer Davis look for a repeat performance in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series combination race Saturday afternoon at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Rewinding to Thunder Valley, Davis in his flashy No. 30 Rette Jones Racing Ford Fusion started third and a led a whopping 137 of the 150 laps of the race before being bounced from the bottom groove of the race track late in the Bush’s Beans 150.
Davis would get shuffled back to fifth in the final running order, but undoubtedly the team’s season-high performance at the “World’s Fastest-Half-Mile” gives the Mooresville, N.C.-team some much-welcomed momentum heading into the heart of Illinois.
“I’m not going to lie, Bristol was hard to swallow,” driver Spencer Davis said. “I really thought we had a win in the books, but it just wasn’t meant to be. I’m proud of Mark (Rette) and the Rette Jones Racing team for bringing me a good car and I’m hopeful we can go to Gateway this weekend and have an opportunity to finish what we started.”
The Dawsonville, Ga. native returns to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway as the defending NASCAR K&N Pro Series polesitter but the NASCAR Next alumnus is hoping to better his performance in the race, where has hindered by brake issues.
“Gateway is a fun race track,” added Davis. “I think we can go back there and get ourselves our first pole of the season and overcome the issues from a year and have another strong performance.
“Gateway is a fast race track for being just a mile and a quarter. Its straightaways provide great speed and momentum to pass in the sweeping corners. It’s a place that provides great racing in tight quarters. Can’t wait to get there.”
For his battle in the 10th race of the season, Rette has elected to bring back chassis No. 003, the same Ford Fusion the 20-year-old participated with at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway this season, yielding back-to-back top-10 finishes of seventh and ninth respectively.
“This is a good car for us,” sounded Davis. “We would have had a much better finish at Iowa if not for a botched late-race restart. Like Iowa, this is a combination race with the K&N East and West, so we take a little extra pride in these races to make sure we’re as competitive as possible.
“I feel very comfortable with the setup we’re going with and I just hope it equals speed on the race track.”
Season-long partners ALLPRO Corporation and Tower Sealants will return to their co-primary roles for Saturday’s double-header with the NTT IndyCar Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500.
ALLPRO Corporation is a business-to-business purchasing cooperative comprised of a network of independently owned paint and decorating product retailers. They serve over 280 such member retailers who represent approximately 1,400 storefronts located throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and parts of Europe.
Tower Sealants is a manufacturer of top-quality caulks and sealants. With the strong financial backing of M-D Building Products, Tower Sealants started construction of its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in September of 2005 and opened for business March 1, 2006.
“So proud of this team and especially Spencer after Bristol,” offered Rette. “We proved to everyone that we are on the verge of winning our first race. I think we can do it before the end of the season. This team is very determined and Spencer is driving his guts out.
“We had a strong car at Bristol, just got moved at the end. I think we can go to Gateway this week and have an equal performance as Bristol but finish what we started. Just can’t thank Spencer and our partners enough for sticking by our team this season.”
The Georgian enters the 10th race of the season with four top-five and eight top-10 finishes overall, including a season-high fourth-place run at South Boston (Va.) Speedway in May.
With three races remaining, Davis is fifth in the championship standings, 49 markers in the arrears to championship leader Sam Mayer. Just 10 points separate Davis from fourth in the championship standings.
In 41 career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts, Davis has earned one victory (Dominion (Va.) Raceway 2016), two poles, achieved 18 top-five and 30 top-10 finishes. He has also 361 laps led in event competition.
Davis also has eight NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series (NGOTS) starts to his credit – four in 2018 driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM), two in 2019 for Rette Jones Racing and one for Niece Motorsports. He earned three top-10 finishes including a career-best of seventh in his series’ debut at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
The Monaco Cocktails 125 presented by West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame (125 laps | 156.25 miles) is the 10th of 12 races on the 2019 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East schedule. Practice begins for the one-day show on Sat., Aug. 24 from 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Group qualifying is set for later in the day at 12:30 p.m. The race will take the green flag shortly after 4:35 p.m. The event will be televised live on FansChoice.TV, while on a tape-delayed basis on NBC Sports Network (NCBSN) on Thurs., Aug. 29 at 6:00 p.m. (ET).
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