TALLADEGA, Ala.: With one of his best finishes of the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series season in the books in the most recent race at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, Codie Rohrbaugh and his CR7 Motorsports head to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway hoping for a strong superspeedway debut in Saturday afternoon’s Sugarlands Shine 250.
Following Talladega, the Mooresville, N.C.-based team plans to compete at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Oct. 26 and the season-finale at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway on Nov. 15.
After missing the season-opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in February,
Rohrbaugh and his team have worked vigorously on their superspeedway program over the past eight months and feel they are in a much better position with their Grant County Mulch Racing team than before.
“We’ve made a lot of improvements to our team since February,” said Rohrbaugh. “We’ve made our trucks better and enhanced our personnel. With the strength of my crew chief Dough George – who has a lot of experience at Talladega and confidence from our team manager Mark Huff, I feel pretty good about going to Talladega this weekend and having a good performance.”
While a rookie at Talladega in trucks, the 2.66-mile superspeedway is no stranger to Rohrbaugh.
In 2017 and 2018, the Petersburg, West Virginia native made two ARCA Menards Series starts at the famed Alabama track earning a best finish of 14th in his track debut in 2017.
He returned a year later and was in contention to contend for his first ARCA win but was eliminated in what should have been the last lap of the race.
This time around, the 25-year-old is focused out the windshield and bringing his team their best Truck Series finish in their seventh race of the year.
“There are a lot of factors when it comes to Talladega, everyone knows that,” added Rohrbaugh. “A lot of it is luck, but I’m confident in my guys bringing me a fast No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet Silverado and the advice of my spotter Tim (Fedewa) for his guidance up above.
“Our season is slowly coming to an end – but we still have a lot of work to do. We want to get ourselves a top-10 finish by the end of the year. That’s our main goal before we get focused on 2020.
“Talladega is a great opportunity to accomplish that goal and carry some momentum into the short track race at Martinsville. Just thankful for my guys, teams and our partners.”
CR7 Motorsports has eight NGOTS starts to their credit with a career-best finish of 14th at Kentucky Speedway (July 2019). A 14th place qualifying effort at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (May 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. 7 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet and No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet for the 2019 ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series seasons and beyond. Interested inquiries are encouraged to contact at tonya@gcmulch.com or 304.257.8783.
Following Talladega, CR7 Motorsports plans to return to the Gander Truck Series scene at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for the NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 on Sat., Oct. 26, 2019.
The Sugarlands Shine 250 (94 laps | 250.04 miles) is the 20th of 23 races on the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series schedule. Practice begins on Fri., Oct. 11 from 11:35 a.m. – 12:25 p.m. A final practice has been etched in from 2:35 p.m. – 3:25 p.m. Qualifying is set for race day, Sat., Oct. 12 beginning at 9:35 a.m. The 32-truck field will take the green flag shortly after 12:30 p.m. with live coverage on FOX, the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90). All times are local (Central).
