TWIN FALLS, IDAHO (May 1, 2011) Jonathon Gomez, driver of the Heritage Cattle Co./Century Boatland Toyota, left the NASCAR's K&N Pro Series event at Miller Motorsports Park (Toole, UT) Saturday with his first career top five series finish on a road course and confirmation that his team is a championship contender.
Gomez qualified his new road course Toyota in the ninth position for the 50-lap/110-mile contest on the 2.2-mile "East" course at MMP. While track position is vital on a road course, so is pit strategy, as most races on road courses will come down to fuel mileage.
Over the opening laps, Gomez maneuvered through the field getting up to the third spot when the first caution flew on lap ten. Several of the leaders opted to pit but Gomez stayed out on course choosing to pit around lap 25.
A second caution on lap 20 changed Craig Raudman's (crew chief) pit strategy and he had Gomez duck into the pits for fuel only. Gomez would restart in the 16th position. The strategy would leave Gomez on track the rest of the race without changing tires and as long as the race went the scheduled distance, fuel would not be an issue.
By lap 29, Gomez had moved back up to the tenth position and by lap 35 he was in the top five running fourth. Then with five laps to go, Gomez and Brian Wong waged a spirited battle for position but Gomez was able to hold the advantage until a caution flew on lap 49 of 50 setting up a green, white, checkered finish.
The race was restarted on two occasions but before the field could complete a lap, caution flew for incidents on the track upping the lap count and causing concern for all of the front runners. An extended caution for an incident in turn 6 lengthened the race beyond most team's fuel calculation and several front runners started to run out of gas between lap 55 and the eventual final lap of 63 pushing the lap count to 13 past the scheduled number and more than 26 miles past the scheduled distance (11 of the 13 extra laps were run under caution).
The Heritage Motorsports crew held their collective breath for nearly 20 minutes hoping they had enough fuel but Gomez crossed the finish line running on fumes and in the forth position to record his second top five finish of the season.
"That was crazy," Gomez said. "When we decided to only take fuel we thought we would be OK but with no tires I had my hands full. Craig made a great call and I am just so happy for the team and for finally getting a top five on a road course."
For his part, crew chief Craig Raudman knew it would come down to track position. "We were committed to staying out," Raudman said. "I just did not want to give up track position even though new tires would have been a big plus. Jonathon drove a heck of a race and he showed just how good he is. The team did an awesome job this weekend."
The finish propelled Gomez up to third in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series championship standings after three races this season just 54-points out of second place and 112-points out of the point lead. Gomez has started 23 NASCAR K&N Pro Series races scoring five top five and eleven top ten finishes. He has also been running at the conclusion of every race completing 99.6% of all laps contested in his career.
The next event for Jonathon Gomez and the Heritage Motor Sports team is Saturday, May 21 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. In last season's East/West combination event, Gomez finished 8th overall but second among competitors from the West series. "I am really looking forward to Iowa," Gomez offered. "It is a fantastic racing facility and the fans are great. We have run really good there in the past and we have a car I believe that will contend for the win."
Jonathon Gomez is supported by Heritage Cattle Company, Century Boatland, J&C Custom Harvesting, United Oil, Modern Machinery, DJ Safety, and Gomez Farms. Jonathon Gomez is the 2010 SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Champion and is also a winner on the CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series as well as in the Mustang Challenge Series at Miller Motorsports Park. For more information on Jonathon Gomez, please log onto his website at http://jonathongomez.com or NASCAR Hometracks.
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