GMS Racing NCWTS Iowa Preview

Additional Info
– Coughlin will pilot chassis no. 118 at Iowa Speedway this weekend, a chassis that the No. 2 team has utilized two times already this season, including for Coughlin’s best finish so far of the 2018 NCWTS season of sixth at Dover. GMS Racing teammate Johnny Sauter also used this same chassis in five races in 2017, collecting one win and four top-five finishes.
– After rallying to an eighth-place finish last weekend at Texas, Coughlin remains 11th in the NCWTS driver point standings.

Quote
“Iowa (Speedway) is its own unique place. Being a short track, you need to have drive off the corner. Last year I struggled there a bit, but I know when we go back this time we’ll have a better run. GMS Racing has been working hard on their short track program and I know that we’ll have a good grasp on the track as soon as we unload.”

JOHNNY SAUTER
No. 21 ISM Connect Chevrolet Silverado

Iowa Stats
11 starts, 7 top-fives, 8 top-10s

2018 Season Stats
8 starts, 4 wins, 7 top-fives, 7 top-10s

Additional Info
– Sauter will pilot GMS chassis no. 313, a brand new chassis for the No. 21 team.
– With his win at Texas Motor Speedway, Sauter matched his career-best total for wins in a single season with four.
– Sauter is now one win behind Todd Bodine (5th, 22 wins) on the NCWTS all-time wins list.
– The Necedah, Wis., native has built up a 77-point lead in the NCWTS driver point standings.

Quotes
“I would say Iowa compares favorably to Richmond. You know, Richmond was one of my all-time favorites and obviously we don’t race there anymore, so Iowa is the next best thing. Iowa has really widened out. I found myself last year moving up and running a truck-width off the wall and it felt like they put four brand new tires on my truck. I didn’t figure it out. I had to have one of those young guns coming behind telling me where they were running and I obviously moved up there and saw the difference.

That track has a lot of character and a lot of age, and grip is a premium there. It’s hard to go to a place you’ve been racing for years and find that you have to rethink the way you run it. A lot of times you’ll hear you’re racing against rookies who don’t have any experience, but most times it’s the preconceived notions that veterans will have that gets them in trouble. You’ve got to be open-minded and stay on your toes or you’ll never progress. I think that’s something we’ve done well. I’ve just stayed open-minded, taken in the feedback from the other GMS teams and what we’ve seen at track and that’s certainly helped us get to a place where we can find success week in and week out.”

JUSTIN HALEY
No. 24 Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet Silverado

Iowa Stats
1 start, 1 top-10 finish

Season Stats
8 starts, 3 top-fives, 5 top-10 finishes

Additional Info
– Haley will climb behind the wheel of chassis no. 302 this weekend, a chassis that the No. 24 team has run five times between the 2017 and 2018 NCWTS seasons. It was last utilized at Dover earlier this year, where Haley qualified fourth and finished third
-Aside from his one previous NCWTS start at the half-mile track, Haley has raced there four other times in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, finishing in the fourth position three consecutive times.
-Haley will be running double duty this weekend at Iowa, first in Saturday’s NCWTS race and then on Sunday when he makes his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut running the No. 23 Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet Camaro. He will pilot chassis no. 215 that has been used two previous times in 2018 by the No. 23 team, at ISM Raceway and Richmond Raceway.
– After his third-place finish in Texas, Haley is eighth in the NCWTS driver point standings, 34 points above The Playoff cut line.

Quote
On racing at Iowa Speedway:
“With these new engines we run, I think the racing has been crazy because the engines don’t have the RPMs to run on the bottom late in the run, so we all shift up top to keep momentum. Goodyear usually brings a tire where the left side doesn’t wear but the right sides do. At Kansas, we were ripping along the top, and I think we will see the same thing this weekend in Iowa. Iowa runs like a mile-and-a half track it’s just shrunk down and has a really abrasive surface. We were fast there last year and it was always a good track for me in the K&N Series. We’ll have a big group of supporters in Iowa as well with the Fraternal Order of Eagles, so hopefully we can put on another good show for them.”

On making his Xfinity Series debut:
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime to be intop notch Xfinity Series equipment,” said Haley. “I can’t say enough about how much the Gallagher family has helped my career over the past few years in the Truck Series. I’m excited to get to Iowa and run a double header with The Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE) onboard. FOE, along with my family, have been nothing but supportive of me since the beginning. I am humbled to have the support to take the next step into the Xfinity Series, after always being unsure if it would ever happen. Thank you to the whole GMS organization.”

DALTON SARGEANT
No. 25 Performance Plus Motor Oil Chevrolet Silverado

Iowa Stats
This will be Sargeant’s first NCWTS start at Iowa Speedway.

2018 Season Stats
8 starts, 2 top-10s, 7 top-15s

Additional Info
– Sargeant will pilot GMS chassis no. 308 at Iowa Speedway. This chassis was raced to a sixth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March and was piloted by Sargeant at the Iowa Speedway rookie test in April.
– Though Sargeant is making his Iowa NCWTS debut this weekend, he has previous starts in the K&N Pro Series East (2 starts, 1 top-10) and the ARCA Racing Series (2 starts, 1 win, 2 top-fives). In last year’s ARCA Racing Series event at Iowa, he led 41 laps en route to his second win of the 2017 season.
– After an impressive Texas Motor Speedway debut that saw Sargeant drive from last to 11th following a tough qualifying outing, the 20-year-old is ninth in NCWTS driver point standings and currently leads the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings.

Quote
“I love Iowa. It’s definitely one of my favorite race tracks that we’ll go to and it produces some really good short track racing. I have a win there in ARCA in the past, so I feel like that’ll be one of our strong suits. There’s a lot that can be transferred over from the car to the truck just as far as knowing what to expect from the track, but with that there’s going to be quite a difference between the two. How they drive, the setups and still working through the learning process of a new team and what we’ve been doing so far this season will for sure come into play. But there’s a confidence that comes with knowing you’ve run well at a track and I hope that brings some peace of mind as we go back to a track that I really enjoy.”

ABOUT GMS RACING
GMS Racing competes full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with drivers Cody Coughlin, Johnny Sauter, Justin Haley and Dalton Sargeant, and in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Since the team’s start in 2014, GMS Racing has grown to occupy several buildings located in Statesville, N.C. The campus also includes operations for GMS Fabrication.

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