Gallagher scores his career-best second-place finish at Gateway

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Gallagher Scores His Career-Best Second-Place Finish at Gateway

 

Event: Drivin' For Linemen 200
Date: June 13, 2015
Venue: Gateway Motorsports Park
Start 14th
Finish 2nd
Laps Led 0
Points Position 7th

Spencer Gallagher posted his career-best NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) result, finishing second at Gateway Motorsports Park (GMSP) in the Drivin For Linemen 200. The rain-delayed event saw Gallagher out perform his previous career highlight of third from Talladega Superspeedway in 2014. The career highpoint for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender comes in his 20th NCWTS start and his first at the Illinois 1.25 mile oval.

Starting from the 14th position, Gallagher maintained a consistent race pace, quickly advancing to 12th, and held the position until the events first caution period at lap 54. Under the caution, crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz gave Gallagher four tires, fuel air pressure and track bar adjustments to alleviate a tight handling balance. Throughout the entire 160 lap affair, Gallagher battled a tight condition, which was aided by the timely and precise adjustments by Stankiewicz and the Allegiant Travel team.

Gallagher continued to look for a way inside the top 10, running 12th at the halfway mark. The teams chance came during a lap 116 caution when Stankiewicz elected to take two tires to gain track position under the yellow. The call paid off as Gallagher restarted second, and ran in the top five during the ensuing laps. After avoiding a spin on lap 143, Gallagher restarted sixth on a lap 151 restart. Gallagher navigated the hectic traffic and avoided a wreck involving the front runners to advance to fourth for the final restart. By taking advantage of a restart with five laps to go, Gallagher jumped to second and maintained his position to the checkered flag. Cole Custer grabbed Chevrolets second victory of 2015 in the series second consecutive visit to GMSP.

The runner-up result is a season-best and career-best finish for Gallagher, and ties the best finish for GMS Racing in the organizations two-year NCWTS history. As a result, Gallagher jumped to seventh in points, the highest the 25-year old rookie driver has been through eight events in 2015.

SPENCER GALLAGHER QUOTE:
"What a wild evening for our Allegiant Travel Chevy. We started off a little further back than what we would have liked. In practice we couldnt find much speed, but kept making adjustments on it. We got ourselves in the right track position, made the right moves, and it turned out. Its one spot short of where we would really like to be, but from where we started out tonight, thats what Ill call a win for our Allegiant Travel team. This is a great night for our GMS Racing guys, and I couldnt be more proud of them.

ABOUT GMS RACING, LLC: GMS Racing LLC, competes full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards with drivers Spencer Gallagher, Brandon Jones, and Grant Enfinger. Formerly based out of Las Vegas, Nevada, home of Allegiant Travel, GMS Racing is now housed in a state of the art 51,000-square-foot shop in Statesville, North Carolina.