Characterized as one of the strongest NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (NKPSE) teams on the circuit right now, Rette Jones Racing (RJR) and driver Spencer Davis (@SpencerDavis_29) head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) for Saturday afternoon’s Apple Barrel 125 looking for back-to-back triumphs.
Last month, Davis drove the Mooresville, N.C.-based team to their first career K&N Pro Series East victory at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in a late-race restart.
The Gateway victory capitalized on the team’s super performance at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway where the team led a whopping 137 laps.
Returning to New Hampshire’s “Magic Mile”, Davis alongside crew chief and co-team owner Mark Rette look to improve on their seventh-place finish in the penultimate K&N East race of the season.
“We are still riding the momentum of our performances the last couple of races, especially the Gateway win,” said Davis, a native of Dawsonville, Ga. “I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of this team.“Everyone has put a lot of man-hours at the shop to get our cars turned around between Bristol and Gateway and to be able to bring home the checkered flag was the perfect reward for our efforts.”
While New Hampshire is one of Rette Jones Racing’s nine top-10 finishes in 10 races this season, the 20-year-old says his team has to be better in order to live up to the team’s expectations of the last month and a half.
“We feel pretty confident going back to New Hampshire,” added Davis. “Mark and I felt like we know what we were missing at New Hampshire in July and we can go back there and be a lot more competitive. The weather is going to completely different than what we experienced this summer and with New Hampshire being a temperature-sensitive track – I think we can make gains and contend for back-to-back wins.”
“We’re 43 points out of the lead, I feel like that’s a stretch, but Chase is only 13 points ahead of us, so while we want to get two more wins this season, we have to think about points too,” sounded Davis. “These K&N East races have the tendency to get frantic in the closing laps, so as a team we need to be prepared for anything.
“The goal for us at New Hampshire is to do what we’ve been doing lately. Qualify strong, led laps and be around when it counts.”
Season-long partners ALLPRO Corporation and Tower Sealants will return to their co-primary roles for Saturday’s triple-header with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the NASCAR Pinty’s Series respectively, all apart of the track’s Full Throttle Fall Weekend.
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.
“I couldn’t be prouder of this team and Spencer after Gateway,” offered Rette. “We wanted to go to Gateway in the K&N combination race and finish what we started at Bristol and Spencer got the job for us. I think we can do it again this weekend at New Hampshire.
“I know that we didn’t have the best finish in July, but we have a plan and learned so much as a team since then that we should be in great shape on Saturday afternoon. Like I mentioned before, this team is very determined, and Spencer is driving his guts out.”
For Saturday’s race, RJR will carry a decal in remembrance of former Modified champion Mike Stefanik who perished in a plane crash on Sept. 15.
The Georgian enters the 11th race of the season with one win, five top-five and nine top-10 finishes overall, including Rette Jones Racing’s first career K&N Pro Series East victory at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Aug. 24.
With two races remaining, Davis is third in the championship standings, 43 markers in the arrears to championship leader Sam Mayer. Just 13 points separate Davis from the runner-up position in the championship standings.
In 42 career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts, Davis has earned two victories (Dominion (Va.) Raceway 2016, Gateway 2019), two poles, achieved 19 top-five and 31 top-10 finishes. He has also 364 laps led in event competition.
Davis also has nine NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series (NGOTS) starts to his credit – four in 2018 driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM), three 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 Apple Barrel 125 (125 laps | 125 miles) is the 11th of 12 races on the 2019 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East schedule. Practice begins for the two-day show on Fri., Sept. 20 from 2:50 p.m. – 4:05 p.m. Group qualifying is set for race day, Sat., Sept. 21 at 9:30 a.m. The race will take the green flag later that day at approximately 1:20 p.m. The event will be televised live on FansChoice.TV, while on a tape-delayed basis on NBC Sports Network (NCBSN) on Wed., Sept. 25 at 6:00 p.m. (ET).
RJR PR
