LEBANON, Tenn: Max Gutiérrez’s up and down day at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway ended on a strong note with an impressive top-10 performance in Friday night’s Racking Roofing 200.
In his second Truck Series start for AM Racing, Gutiérrez paced the 30th fastest lap in his first laps around the 1.33-mile speedway in a short 20-minute practice session before qualifying.
Qualifying saw Gutiérrez’s No. 22 Inspectra Thermal Solutions Chevrolet Silverado RST produce an extremely fast lap that kept him atop of the board for much of the session. Unfortunately, once qualifying was complete, the team failed post-qualifying inspection which sent Gutiérrez to the rear of the field for the start of the 150-lap race.
From the drop of the green flag, Gutiérrez with support and encouragement from spotter Tony Raines maneuvered his truck through the field and marched into the top-20 by the end of Stage 1.
Stage 2 saw adjustments from crew chief Jamie Jones improve the handling of his race truck allowing Gutiérrez to climb inside the top-15 where he stayed until the end of the stage.
The night only continued to get better for Gutiérrez in Stage 3 as he methodically worked the traffic and overcame a stumble on a restart at Lap 135 where he made contact with Hailie Deegan.
The former NASCAR Mexico Series champion, however, was able to put the incident behind and utilized a restart with 10 laps to go to vault from 13th to inside the top-10.
Gutiérrez battled past three-time NASCAR Truck Series champion Matt Crafton and set his sights on a top-five finish battling Christian Eckes – but his truck broke loose during the battle which dropped to eighth when the checkered flag flew at Lap 150.
Gutiérrez’s previous Truck Series start occurred at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway last month where he finished 26th in a second truck for AM Racing.
The Mexico City, Mexico’s performance was a season-best for the Statesville, N.C.-based AM Racing who has struggled since producing two top-10 finishes at the beginning of the season with mainstay driver Austin Wayne Self.
“I cannot tell you what this means to me,” said Gutiérrez after the race. “I am very happy for everyone involved. We had a new sponsor for this race with Inspectra Thermal Solutions and my longtime partners TOUGHBUILT, Telcel, BolsaDX and all my partners this was really what I needed.
“We had a good day at Nashville. We learned a lot in practice, we were good in qualifying but had an issue and the truck was particularly good for the race. I was patient and tried to race my competitors with respect.
“I did not mean to get into Hailie (Deegan) on the restart but I believe she lifted and I had nowhere to go.”
Adapting from the ARCA Menards Series to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is a steep curve but Gutiérrez credited the people around him for allowing his Nashville Superspeedway debut to be successful.
“I am very thankful to my personal team, AM Racing, Rette Jones Racing and everyone who allowed me to get on the track. I am super happy, but soon I’ll be heading to the airport to get back on a plane and return to Mexico for a race on Sunday.”
On Sunday, Gutiérrez will compete in the NASCAR Mexico Series race at Cajititlan International Trioval where Gutiérrez’s younger brother Fico Gutiérrez will also be participating at the same Jalisco, Mexico race track, but in the developmental NASCAR Challenge Series class.
Gutiérrez is hopeful to return to the Truck Series next month at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, the final race of the regular season.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
