MARTINSVILLE, Va.: NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series (NGOTS) rookie Codie Rohrbaugh and his CR7 Motorsports team head to their penultimate race of the season prepared to step up their short track game in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 at the famed Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Make no mistake about it, Rohrbaugh and his Doug George-led team have certainly showcased a lot of speed in their No. 9 Grant County Mulch Chevrolet – including a career-best qualifying effort of 11th in their recent outing at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
However, with just two races left on their docket, the Mooresville, N.C.-based team is ready to let their speed also to transition in their results as they aim for their first career top-10 in the penultimate short track race of the year.
“I’m so proud of this CR7 Motorsports team,” said Rohrbaugh. “It’s a shame we were caught up in someone else’s mess at Talladega – but our team showcased a lot of speed from practice to qualifying and throughout the race.
“I’m confident that we can continue to showcase that same speed in our trucks and look forward to doing that on Saturday at Martinsville.”
The Petersburg, West Virginia native will attempt to make his NASCAR debut at the tight
0.555-mile paperclip oval. After missing the race in the spring, Rohrbaugh and his team went back to work identifying their weak points and prepared to step up to the challenges in the highly contested fall challenges.
“We’ve been through leaps and bounds this year,” offered Rohrbaugh. “But even with the disappointments, there are positives to everything. We’re a better team because of the hiccups we faced throughout the season. The energy and leadership from Doug (George, crew chief) have made me a better drive and the guidance from my spotter Tim (Fedewa) has allowed me to enhance my craft.
“Martinsville is a tough short track – but I cut my teeth in the Pro Cup and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East on the short tracks and I hope I can apply some of those skills during Saturday afternoon’s race.”
“Martinsville is what we’re focused on this week, but we’re already looking ahead too. Homestead should be a good race for us and I’m already getting excited about 2020 – especially how well we ran on a superspeedway at Talladega.
“We’ll use Martinsville this week to gather as many notes as we can to continue to make steady gains in all aspects of our race team that we hope can be beneficial not only for Homestead but next year too. I want to get better as a driver and the best way to do that is to be on the track racing competitively and finishing races.
“Martinsville seems to be a lot about track position. It’s going to be a crowded field with not a lot of for error. I can’t wait to embrace that. We need track position to be on our side and make sure we’re managing our tires too. If we can keep up with that, we should be a good shape near the end of the race.”
CR7 Motorsports has nine NGOTS starts to their credit with a career-best finish of 14th at Kentucky Speedway (July 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. 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 Martinsville, CR7 Motorsports plans to return to the Gander Truck Series scene at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway for the Gander Trucks season-finale Ford EcoBoost 200 on Fri., Nov. 15, 2019.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 (200 laps | 105.2 miles) is the 21st of 23 races on the 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series schedule. Practice begins on Fri., Oct. 25 from 12:05 p.m. – 12:55 p.m. A final practice has been etched in from 2:05 p.m. – 2:55 p.m. Qualifying is set for race day, Sat., Oct. 26 beginning at 10:05 a.m. The 32-truck field will take the green flag shortly after 1:30 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90). All times are local (Eastern).
