DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: Racing in the memory of their fallen team member Mark Huff, CR7 Motorsports and driver Codie Rohrbaugh return to the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway Road Course for Friday night’s BrakeBest Brake Pads 159 looking for back-to-back top-10 finishes to open up the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) season.
In his typical superspeedway fashion, Rohrbaugh aboard his No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet Silverado flew under the radar for much of the race’s 100 laps, but as the checkered flag neared, the veteran driver made his move through the field and even withstood some last lap carnage to earn his fifth career top-10.
“Eighth wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but we’ll take it,” said Rohrbaugh. “It has been an emotional few weeks for everyone at CR7 Motorsports so to leave Daytona over the weekend with a top-10 in Trucks and a solid finish in ARCA, it’s some motivation for our team for the upcoming races.”
With the team still grieving the loss of former general manager Huff, Rohrbaugh says the team will return to the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway Road Course still motivated to race in his honor.
“We are still grieving the loss of Mark,” added Rohrbaugh. “It is a pain that is not going to just go away one or two races in. His loss will carry with us the whole year, but we will race in his honor and we are determined to find our way into Victory Lane for him.
“He would want us to continue to race and to do it well and leave nothing on the table, so that is exactly what we are going to do.”
Although the Daytona Road Course presents a greater difficulty of mastering than the track’s traditional 2.5-mile circuit, Rohrbaugh is eager to continue to improve his road racing skills and improve on his 29th place finish last August.
“We ran into some trouble during the race, so our finish I don’t think reflected our on-track performance,” sounded Rohrbaugh. “I think as a team though, we’re better prepared to return to the Daytona Road Course and I think I’m a much better driver since last August.
“It may take some strategy, but I think we can keep our No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet Silverado on the track — we can roll into the off week with momentum still on our side and a confident outlook towards our upcoming races.”
The CR7 Motorsports team will also race in honor of their general manager Mark Huff who passed away last week after a brief illness.
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There is a huge void left by the passing of Mark Huff,” added Rohrbaugh. “He wasn’t just a friend or a worker, he was family. He will be deeply missed and we will race in his honor not only at Daytona but all year.”
Planning to compete in most of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races this year, Rohrbaugh hopes to avoid the string of midseason blues and keep his Statesville, N.C.-based team on the radar for their on-track performances and determination.
“We learned a lot as a team through a pandemic and all,” added Rohrbaugh. “We had some ups, and we had some downs, but we still grew as a team and that’s the biggest positive. We strive to be better with each race we run.
“We know what we need to do to go fast at certain tracks and have work to do at others.
“Our team will put forth the effort, we just need everything to come together from luck to equipment and even the driver not making any mistakes. When we did that last year, we had some good days.”
CR7 Motorsports has 29 NGOTS starts to their credit with a career-best finish of third at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (February 2020). Additionally, the team owns four other top-10 finishes at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (fifth) in October 2020, Richmond (Va.) Raceway (sixth) in September 2020, Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (eighth) in February 2021 and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (10th) in 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 A.L.L. Construction | Grant County Mulch Chevrolet and No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet for the 2021 ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series seasons and beyond. Interested inquiries are encouraged to contact at tonya@gcmulch.com or 304.257.8783.
The BrakeBest Brake Pads 159 (44 laps | 158.85 miles) is the second of 22 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races on the 2021 schedule. The 40-truck field will take the green flag on Fri., Feb. 19, 2021 shortly after 7:30 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90.
