CHINA GROVE, N.C. (Nov. 1, 2010) – R3 Motorsports has entered this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway with Josh Wise as their driver.
Wise, who has competed mostly in the NASCAR Nationwide Series ranks the past four seasons, will be making his first NSCS qualifying effort with the team. This will be the second Cup attempt by R3 Motorsports in 2010, which is fielding the No. 23 North Texas Pipe Toyota at TMS.
Leading the team’s NSCS effort will be veteran racer Walter Giles, who has been the crew chief for R3 Motorsports No. 23 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series ranks the past few weeks. Giles was a seven-time championship driver in Australia before coming to the USA to continue his motorsports career.
With that, Steve Plattenberger will return to his crew chief duties with Robert Richardson, Jr. in the NNS race on Saturday.
Wise, 27, is a native of Riverside, Calif. who cut his teeth in the USAC ranks becoming the series youngest champion at age 16 before making the move to full-fender cars. This year, he started out with the No. 61 Ford of Specialty Racing in Nationwide competition. He was then tapped by JR Motorsports to drive their No. 7 Chevrolet in nine races.
Through 25 NNS starts this year, he has earned two top-10 finishes, led three laps and made three top-10 starts.
Josh Wise quotes: “This year has been all about me gaining as much experience as possible driving everything I could at various tracks. When I got the call from Mr. Richardson of R3 Motorsports, I figured this was a good opportunity to learn something else in driving his No. 23 Toyota for the Cup race at Texas.
“I like a big, fast track like TMS and am looking forward to working with Walter. I know Pops (Tony Eury, Sr.) and Tony Jr. from JR Motorsports worked with him during their DEI days together. So, we’ll go out there and see what we can do to make the show and have some fun.”
