Gresham Rebounds To New Hampshire Win – Overcomes pit miscue for K&N Pro Series East victory
LOUDON, N.H. — Max Gresham overcame an early pit-road miscue to win the New England 125 Friday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It is the second win of the season and fourth career victory for Gresham, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East points leader.
The Griffin, Ga., driver won the 21-Means-21 Pole Award presented by Coors Light in Thursday’s qualifying and led most of the early laps in Friday’s race. However, while most of the lead cars pitted on Lap 48, miscommunication between Gresham, his crew chief and spotter caused the Joe Gibbs Racing development driver to stay out a lap longer. The miscue meant Gresham restarted 21st after the cycle of pit stops and he had to work his way through the field.
Gresham took the lead from runner-up Brett Moffitt on Lap 112 and pulled away over the closing laps.
Corey LaJoie finished third, followed by fellow rookie Brandon Gdovic and Benny Gordon.
Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, Sergio Pena, Eddie MacDonald and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10.
Gresham led a race-high 53 laps. Championship contenders Matt DiBenedetto (27th) and Darrell Wallace Jr. (30th) allowed Gresham to push his points lead to 94 over Moffitt, who moved to second. DiBenedetto dropped to third in points, 125 behind, and Wallace is fourth, 139 back. Sergio Pena rounds out the top five.
The New England 125 will be broadcast on SPEED on Thursday, Aug. 4 at 6 p.m. ET