ES: Greenville-Pickens: Max Gresham preview

Max Gresham, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Have Big GoalsFor NASCAR K&N Series Effort

GRIFFIN, GA (MARCH 23, 2010) -- You can't fault Max Gresham for being excited about the upcoming NASCAR K&N Pro Series East division and a full-time seat in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

"I feel like I have the best team in the series," said Gresham of his JGR team. "They work [Max%20Rear%20tire%201300.jpg] hard every day. They were really strong last year throughout the season with Kyle Busch and Matt DiBendetto and in the four races I did with Joe Gibbs Racing. It's a great team and I feel really fortunate to be with it fulltime this season."

Gresham returned the good fortune in spades to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2009 finishing fifth in his first K&N Series race with the team at South Boston (VA) Speedway last May. He then backed it up with a solid third-place effort at Iowa Speedway. For good measure, the 16-year-old Griffin, GA driver qualified on the outside pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and finished ninth in his first-ever 'big track' race.

"Going to the first race at South Boston last year and finishing as well as we did was a big confidence booster for me," said Gresham. "Honestly, I wasn't sure how well I would do in these cars, but that race, along with the others we ran well at last year, has given me a lot of confidence going into this season. I feel like this team can dominate races and achieve some of the goals we've set."

According to the rising senior high school student at Woodward Academy in College Park, GA, he and the team have some lofty ambitions in 2010.

"The goal is to win at least a couple of races in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series this year," stated Gresham. "Hopefully, I can also win the Rookie of the Year title and we can win the team championship as well. That would be great for everyone associated with Joe Gibbs Racing if we could do all of that. But really, the biggest goal is to win races. Everything else will take care of itself."

-source: max gresham/jgr