Rette Jones Racing (RJR) confirmed today that they will participate in Saturday afternoon’s ARCA Menards Series West season finale at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway with ARCA Menards Series East winner Max Gutiérrez at the wheel.
Gutiérrez will drive his familiar No. 30 TOUGHBUILT Ford Fusion in the Arizona Lottery 100.
The Mexico City, Mexico native heads to the desert of Arizona poised to make his first laps around the 1.0-mile Avondale race track and leave a mark in what is expected to be one of the most competitive ARCA Menards Series West fields of the season.
“I’m very grateful for this opportunity to get more experience in an ARCA car with Rette Jones Racing and TOUGHBUILT this weekend at Phoenix,” said Gutiérrez.
“2021 has been a huge learning experience for me and I know I will continue to learn with every lap completed at Phoenix this weekend.”
Gutiérrez, 18, recently wrapped up a full season on the ARCA Menards Series East schedule. In eight races, the rookie driver scored one win, two top-five and five top-10 finishes in eight races and finished a respectable fourth in the championship standings.
With a solid ARCA East season in the books, Gutiérrez heads to Phoenix not worried about points, but rather an opportunity to put his Rette Jones Racing team in Victory Lane.
“Experience is going to be important on Saturday, but we are going to Phoenix this weekend focused on an opportunity to win,” added Gutiérrez. “Mark (Rette, crew chief) has experience at Phoenix and that will be important for me.
“I know that we are going to start with a comfortable setup and just try to make forward progress from there. I’d like to think we can go to Phoenix and find ourselves in a similar circumstance like New Smyrna, where we ended up in Victory Lane.”
In addition to TOUGHBUILT. TekNekk and Jimmy Morales Escuderia TELMEX | TELCEL, Distributed Ledger Inc. (DLI), GoGig, Ford Performance, Goodridge Fluid Transfer Systems, Jones Group Demolition and Abatement and JRi Shocks join the Mooresville, N.C.-based team as partners this weekend.
No matter the outcome Saturday afternoon, Rette is happy with the efforts of his driver and team this season.
“We are going to Phoenix this week with the same mentality that we’ve had all season long,” Rette sounded. “We’re here to win. But if for whatever reason we can’t, we will do what we can to bring home the best finish possible for all of our partners and everyone who supports Rette Jones Racing.
“Max doesn’t have any prior experience at Phoenix, but he has shown that he can quickly adapt to new tracks and find himself in a fast and competitive pace. We only have one goal on Saturday and that is to win. If we can’t win, we’d love nothing more than to just collect another top-10 for Max’s resume and carry some momentum into the offseason and ahead of 2022.”
RJR is co-owned by Canadian entrepreneur and former race car driver Terry Jones.
For more on Max Gutiérrez, please visit maxgutierrez.com, like him on Facebook (Max Gutierrez Racing) or follow him on Instagram (@maxgutierrezmx). For more on Rette Jones Racing, please visit RetteJonesRacing.com, like them on Facebook(Rette Jones Racing) or follow them on Twitter (@RetteJones30). The Arizona Lottery 100 (100 laps | 100 miles) is the ninth of ninth races on the 2021 ARCA Menards Series West schedule. A combined practice and qualifying session is set for race day, Sat., Nov. 6 from 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. The race is set to take the green flag shortly after 12:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. ET). The event will be televised live on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold, the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM Satellite Radio (XM channel 391, online channel 981). ARCARacing.com will also stream live timing and scoring throughout the day’s festivities. All times are local (MT).
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