That’s the mission for Gus Dean and DLP Motorsports as they filed a last-minute entry to compete in Saturday night’s Carolina Pro Late Model Series event at Dillon (S.C.) Motor Speedway.
Dean, a native of Bluffton, S.C. has transitioned well to the tour winning in his last two Carolina Pro Late Model Series starts in the Prelude to Darlington Raceway at Florence (S.C.) Speedway in May and most recently at Franklin County (Va.) Speedway earlier this month.
With the confidence of his DLP Motorsports team, Dean is confident about his chances to bring home another trophy in the 100-lap showdown Saturday night.
“I’m having a blast right now in the Carolina Pro Late Model Series,” said Dean. “The series is great itself with a lot of great people. The competition is also stout but the guys at DLP Motorsports are bringing me fantastic race cars capable of leading a lot of laps and winning.
“Our goals haven’t changed. We’re just going to run our pace and hope the result is the same as our last two starts.”
Like Franklin County, Dean is no stranger to Dillon (S.C.) Motor Speedway.
During his competition in the X-1R Pro Cup Series (now CARS Tour), Dean, who recently got engaged to his fiancé Briar Foran competed in two events where he carried two top-five finishes including a track series best of second in 2012.
The following year, he finished a competitive fifth after starting sixth driving both races for his family-owned Dean Racing team.
While it’s been a while since Dean has visited or competed at the 4/10-mile oval, he is confident that his track knowledge will be an advantage.
“Dillon is a unique race track, but it seems to fit my driving style,” added Dean. “The track is somewhat egg-shaped with Turns 3 and 4 much different than Turns 1 and 2. With that being said, you have to be able to get into a solid rhythm to continue at a good pace.
“Buggy” and all the DLP Motorsports are very comfortable with knowing what I need in a race car, and I think we’ll have a good setup that we can start with and roll from there.
“As I have said before, we’ve certainly have had many blessings in racing, but nothing feels better than capturing that checkered flag and climbing out of the car celebrating. Winning again is our priority on Saturday night, but it is going to be a stacked field, so we will stay humbled and focus and hope it all works out again.”
While Dean, 26, still plans to have a presence in NASCAR this season, his Dean Racing team is also working hard to keep him behind the seat of Late Models too.
“We have a lot going on right now behind the scenes and I look forward to making some announcements soon,” Dean continued. “Racing is everything to me and we are working hard to make sure that when I get on the track this summer, fall and we even have started working on 2022 already. Anything I climb into will give me the opportunity to showcase my ability and challenge for that checkered flag.”
David “Buggy” Pletcher, owner of DLP Motorsports is thrilled to have the popular driver back on board this weekend.
“There isn’t another driver I would want behind the wheel of our race car than Gus Dean,” Pletcher said. “Gus is a wheelman and isn’t afraid to make moves to get to the front and stay there. He has shown that a lot this year.
“I believe he has turned a lot of heads in this series in a very short amount of time and definitely earned the respect of his competitors. When they see Gus at the track, they know he’s going to be a threat.
“I’m again excited about the car we are bringing him and feel like we have a shot to continuing our winning ways on Saturday night.”
Dean is a two-time winner in the ARCA Menards Series with victories at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and Elko (Minn.) Speedway, respectively.
Practice begins for the Carolina Pro Late Model Series on Sat., July 24, 2021, at 1:30 p.m., with qualifying set for 4:30 p.m. and racing beginning at 6:00 p.m.
DLP Motorsports PR
