Jonathon Gomez Shines with SRL Victory; On Fumes at Portland

Gomez Inches Closer to SRL Title and Finishes 12th in NKNPS Event
TWIN FALLS, IDAHO (July 20, 2010) Jonathon Gomez of Twin Falls, Idaho scored his second career SRL Southwest Tour victory Saturday night to move within seven points of the championship lead after six races. His celebration at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, CA was short lived though as he and the team chartered a flight back to Portland, OR where he competed on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series event on Sunday afternoon. Gomez ran in the top ten all day and was looking at a top five finish only to run short of fuel on the 1.98-mile road course and finish in the twelfth position.

Gomez started the weekend out practicing at Irwindale on Friday night where he was among the fastest cars in all sessions. He then flew to Portland for practice on the road course in the NKNPS cars before heading back to Irwindale on Saturday afternoon where he qualified third for the SPEARS Manufacturing "100" on the half-mile paved oval.

The top ten cars were inverted so Gomez would start the 100-lap race from the seventh position. Coming off a sixth place finish at Toyota Speedway two weeks ago in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, Gomez was confident about his chances.

He used the early laps to let the field sort out then quickly began to establish himself in the race. Over the first dozen laps he steadily moved his way into the top three and by lap 18 he took the point and never looked back. Although, over the closing laps he faced repeated challenges, he never wavered and dominated the race.

"It was an awesome run for the team" Gomez said. "Ron Copeland and the rest of the guys did a great job and this car was a blast to drive."

Gomez then headed to the airport and flew to Portland where he qualified tenth for the 64-lap Bi-Mart Support the Troops "125" on Sunday. Gomez finished 11th in the last series road course event back in June at Infineon Raceway and applied lessons learned to run in the top ten the entire race.

The flat layout of PIR is a much driver as it is set-up and the Craig Raudman led crew hit their marks all weekend. While running sixth over the closing laps, Gomez was in position to post a top five finish only to run short on fuel during a green, white, checkered finish. He remained on the lead lap but dropped to 12th in the final running order.

"It was disappointing but fuel is always a gamble on road courses," Gomez offered. "We had a great weekend and a great car and we'll go onto the next event and try to get some of the points back. We have two really great teams and this has really be a fun season and I can't wait until the next event."

Gomez lost one position in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series-West standings and now sits fourth, just 19-points out of third place and 137-points behind the series leader. After seven races he has scored two top five and four top ten performances with his best finish this season of second place at Iowa Speedway back in May.

Jonathon Gomez is in his fourth year of competitive racing having won local track titles at Magic Valley Speedway in Twin Falls and competed in various Late Model events the past couple of seasons. He has started 15 NASCAR K&N Pro Series races since 2008 scoring eight top ten finishes and is in his first full-time season in the NKNPS. Gomez will contend for championships in both the NASCAR K&N Pro Series as well as the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour this season where he second in the championship standings (7-points out of first) after scoring his second series win this past weekend.

Jonathon Gomez is supported by Heritage Cattle Company, Century Boatland, J&C Custom Harvesting, United Oil, Modern Machinery, DJ Safety, and Gomez Farms. The NASCAR K&N Pro Series from Portland will be televised on SPEED Channel Thursday, July 29 at 3PM PT. After a long break, the next event on the SRL schedule is September 4 back at Toyota Speedway. Next up for Gomez is the CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series event July 31-Aug 1 for the Idaho "200" weekend at Stateline Stadium Speedway in Post Falls, ID. For more information on Jonathon Gomez, please log onto his website at www.jonathongomez.com.