DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: With a healthy number of races planned for this year’s NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season, ARCA graduate Codie Rohrbaugh and his CR7 Motorsports team are ready to start their latest journey at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway for Friday night’s NextEra Energy Resources 250.
And while the team is aiming to make their first Truck Series start at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Rohrbaugh is banking on his prior experience at the “World Center of Racing” to aid him and his Doug George-led team.
“We’re so blessed to keep this CR7 Motorsports team kickin,” said Rohrbaugh who competed in nine Truck Series races last season. “We keep fine-tuning our team and trucks and we showed a lot of promise towards the end of the season last year. It’s our mission to keep moving forward.”
Rohrbaugh earned his first career top-10 finish last fall at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and since his family-owned team formed an alliance in the Truck Series with GMS Racing, the relationship has turned out to be extremely beneficial which has transitioned to speed on the race track.
The Mooresville, N.C.-based team hopes for more of the same in 2020.
“We made some huge strides last year, especially in the second half of the year and there’s a lot of people that have contributed to that,” added Rohrbaugh. “My group of guys is solid. They work hard, have a lot of fun but also are completely focused.
“There’s a lot of pressure when it comes to Daytona. The field will probably be one of the tightest on record with little room for error. We’re prepared for that, but we also know that we qualified a strong 11th at Talladega last fall and we’re hoping we can back up that effort during qualifying on Friday afternoon.”
Once in the race, Rohrbaugh will rely on his spotter and former NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Tim Fedewa for guidance from the spotters stand to negotiate the expected steadfast of passionate racing under the lights.
“The truck races are always intense because you only have a certain amount of time to get to the front because the races are relatively short,” Rohrbaugh added. “When it comes to these superspeedway races though – it’s also staying out of trouble. A lot like the ARCA races in the past. We’re just going to put ourselves in the best position possible and hope when the checkered flag falls, our No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet is where it belongs!”
In three prior ARCA Menards Series starts at Daytona, Rohrbaugh, a native of Petersburg, West Virginia earned a track-best of seventh in the 2019 season opener.
Following Daytona, CR7 Motorsports plans to return to the Truck Series scene for the Strat 200 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway on Fri., Feb. 21, 2020.
CR7 Motorsports has 11 NGOTS starts to their credit with a career-best finish of 10th at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (October 2019). An 11th place qualifying effort at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (Oct. 2019) is the team’s best time trials effort to date.
In 20 career ARCA starts, Rohrbaugh has a best finish of seventh twice at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (July 2018 and Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (February 2019). He has qualified a career-best fourth on four different occasions most recently at Kansas Speedway (Oct. 2018).
Marketing partnership(s) opportunities are available for the No. 97 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet and No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet for the 2020 ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series seasons and beyond. Interested inquiries are encouraged to contact at tonya@gcmulch.com or 304.257.8783.
The NextEra Energy Resources 250 (100 laps | 250 miles) is the first of 23 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races on the 2020 schedule. Practice begins on Thurs, Feb. 13 from 4:05 p.m. – 4:55 p.m. A final practice session is set for 5:05 p.m. – 5:55 p.m. Qualifying is set for race day, Fri., Feb. 14 beginning at 3:10 p.m. The 32-truck field will take the green flag shortly after 7:30 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90).
