(In only his second start in a Super Late Model Byron Michigan Driver Eric Jones finished 5th against some of the toughest competition in the United States.)
Wisconsin’s Chris Wimmer Claims the 28th Annual Rheem World Crown 300 Victory at Gresham
JEFFERSON, GA (November 13th, 2011) – For the first time this century, a non-Georgia native has won the 28th Annual Rheem World Crown 300 at Gresham Motorsports Park. On Sunday, November 13th, Chris Wimmer, who hails from Wisconsin, was on point at the end of the first two segments of the 200-lap event, taking the checkered flag first by over Ross Kenseth and Chase Elliott.
“The car was perfect from the first lap and it was just awesome,” said Wimmer. “I was a little worried there with 25 to go. I wanted to put tires on, but when you’re leading it’s kind of hard to do. I thought it was a neat deal. It was neat to have the invert.”
The first 100-lap segment was fairly caution filled with the yellow flag flying eight times. Shortly after Stephen Nasse led the 34-car field to the green flag, Jeff Fultz and Clay Alexander got together and ended up hard into the inside wall on the front stretch. Two cautions later, Dwayne Buggay and Steve Legendre ended up in the wall high in turn one. Saturday nights’s Beau Slocumb Memorial 100 Pro Late Model race winner Bubba Pollard took over the top spot on lap 16. On lap 70 Pollard slowed suddenly and Wimmer went to the lead for the first time and held it until the end of the segment.
Based on a fan vote held on GreshamMotorsportsPark.com, the top-six cars were inverted for the start of the second segment. Daniel Hemric led the first few laps of the 75-lap segment before Wimmer regained the top spot. Pollard pulled into the pits on lap 127 after suffering a blown engine ending his chances of sweeping the weekend’s events.
On lap 160, Scotty Ellis rode the wall in turn one bringing out caution number nine of the race. Just a few laps later, Eddie Hoffman, Hemric, and Kenzie Ruston were three wide out of turn four with Ruston ending up in the front stretch wall with heavy front-end damage, ending her day early. After a two-lap dash, Wimmer won the second segment ahead of Elliott, who worked his way up to second from the tail-end of the field. Elliott was forced to start in the rear after flying in from Phoenix, Arizona, to start this race since he ran in the NASCAR K&N West Series finale Saturday night.
Wimmer dominated the final 25-lap segment. He pulled away and never looked back leaving Kenseth and Elliott to duke it out for second in the closing laps. The two drivers were side-by-side several times as the race wound down. The two racers bounced off one another on the front stretch with two laps remaining, but Kenseth kept the position and crossed the stripe two and a half seconds behind Wimmer. Elliott was third followed by Stephen Nasse, who recovered well from an early incident missing part of his right front, and Erik Jones, the 15-year-old driver from Michigan who sat on the pole for the Beau Slocumb Memorial 100 race Saturday night. Wimmer’s victory broke the Georgia-native winning streak that has continued since 1999.
For more information on the 28th Annual Rheem World Crown 300, visit the Gresham Motorsports Park website at www.greshammotorsportspark.com.
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Unofficial 28th Annual Rheem World Crown 300 Results
1. 52 Chris Wimmer
2. 25 Ross Kenseth
3. 9 Chase Elliott
4. 51 Stephen Nasse
5. 4 Erik Jones
6. 83G Cale Gale
7. 8 Eddie Hoffman
8. 98H Daniel Hemric
9. 97 Jimmy Garmon
10. 09 Randy Gentry
11. 00 Andrew Ponstein
12. 36 Rodney Benefield
13. 10 Steven Dorer
14. 91 David Quackenbusch
15. 1 Mike Garvey
16. 39 Kenzie Ruston
17. 99 Casey Smith
18. 83 Scotty Ellis
19. 29K Allen Karnes
20. 18 Bubba Pollard
21. 98 Russell Fleeman
22. 26 Johnny Henderson
23. 23 Dalton Grindle
24. 8D Mark Day
25. 91H Heath Hindman
26. 82 Donnie Wilson
27. 29 Andy Loden
28. 29T Austin Theriault
29. 45 Dwayne Buggay
30. 20 Steven Legendre
31. 71 Colt James
32. 84 Clay Alexander
33. 67 Jeff Fultz
34. 56 Gus Dean
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