Jonathon Gomez Back in Driver's Seat in Spokane

TWIN FALLS, IDAHO (August 31, 2011) Jonathon Gomez, driver of the Heritage Cattle Co./Century Boatland Chevrolet, makes his return to the driver's seat this weekend as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series returns to action at Spokane (WA) County Raceway this Saturday night. Gomez has five starts this season but has not been in his race car since June in Las Vegas.




Instead, Gomez has spent time logging laps in the driver's seat of both his trucking operation in North Dakota and farm equipment in Idaho. The second generation entrepreneur made the difficult decision to step away from racing for the summer and concentrate on the family's growing business operations. But now that the late summer harvests are well under way, he will return to the track for the first of two races to close out the 2011 campaign.



What makes his return special this weekend is that his dad, John Gomez, grew up south of the Spokane area and was stationed at Fairchild AFB (less than two miles from SCR) while serving in the United States Air Force. The Gomez' have a lot of family and friends from the area that will be in attendance Saturday night when the NASCAR K&N Pro Series returns to the fast half-mile for the first time since 1979 (The series did contest a race through the streets of Spokane in 1986).



The hiatus from the race track allowed crew chief Craig Raudman and car chief Blaine Bergen to go through all of the cars front to back restoring them to like brand new. The crew is often forgotten in the headlines, but John Gomez has assembled a top notch crew headed by crew chief Craig Raudman. Raudman has won as a driver and crew chief and is as gifted as anyone in the series. The team will have to rely upon Raudman's experience this weekend as Gomez will visit SCR for the first time.



"I am excited to get back to the track," Gomez said. "I know a lot of family and friends will be there and I know Craig and the team have prepared a car that can win."



Part of the winning combination may well come from Gomez' spotter Dave Reed. Reed, a NASCAR championship winning car owner (with Craig Raudman behind the wheel) has also been a spotter for much of the last 15 years. "Jonathon's a great driver with really good instincts," Reed offered. "I just try to keep him pumped up and let him know what is going one around him. He can absolutely drive the wheels off the car."



The race on Saturday night is scheduled for 200-laps and while 200-laps can give a driver some time to make a move to the front, starting up front is key in the series. "We have been pretty good qualifying the last couple of years," Gomez said. "Qualifying is important but having a car at the end is most important and we feel pretty good about our car."



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. Gomez is also a winner on the CarbonX Rocky Mountain Challenge Series and in the Mustang Challenge Series at Miller Motorsports Park. Gomez has 25 career NASCAR K7N Pro Series starts with five top five and 11 top ten performance with a career best finish of second. For more information on Jonathon Gomez, please log onto his website at http://jonathongomez.com or NASCAR Hometracks.