Second for Dean in CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series Season Opener

Late-Race Traffic Thwarts Dean’s Charge to the Front at Southern National

The grandstands at Myrtle Beach Speedway this Saturday night will be full of Gus Dean #MASHONIT t-shirts when the young South Carolinian returns home to compete in the Dean Custom Air 250 CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series event.  From nearby Bluffton, South Carolina, Dean is prepared to battle at his home track for the first time in 2013 in front of many family and friends.  Free tickets for Saturday's event can be found at many local businesses in and around the Myrtle Beach area and can be printed now from CARSProCup.com. 

March 25

Gus Dean headed to the CARS X-1R

Pro Cup Series 2014 season opener

at Southern National Motorsports Park

(NC) hoping to bring home the

checkered flag.  Unfortunately, the

No. 56 team came up just a few laps

short and settled for an impressive

runner-up finish.

“We had an awesome car all weekend,”

said Dean.  “My crew really put in the

hours these last two weeks leading up

to that race and they did an excellent

job.  The car was performing perfectly

for me all weekend.  We made some

minor adjustments but other than that it

was a great racecar, very strong in the first half of the race.”

After qualifying third, Dean knew there was no need to push his No. 56 Chevrolet too hard as the field would be reset after the halfway point.

“I bobbled a little bit in qualifying giving us a third place starting position,” said Dean.  “In the first half we had a really strong car, but we didn’t want to advance too much.  I like staying back a little bit and knowing what we have for the second half – kind of using the first half like a test.  The whole field gets a redraw at halfway so there’s really no need to push too hard to get that first place spot in the first half.

“So we made some minor adjustments there at halfway and redrew fourth I believe,” explained Dean.  “On the restart the pace car was running kind of slow and I had to restart in second gear.  I just didn’t get through the gears quite as quickly as the other drivers did, that was my fault again.  But I got in line and ran into some traffic there trying to get back up to Caleb (Holman, winner) up there in first.  We kind of mixed it up there a little bit with the number two of Brady Boswell and that just cost me a little bit of time.”

Losing ground racing with Boswell forced Dean into a corner in the closing laps of the event leaving him little time to catch leader and eventual winner, Caleb Holman.

 

“I had to kind of push my car a little bit harder than I would have liked to a little bit sooner than I would have liked to,” said Dean.  “But we were still running Caleb down very quickly at the end and I feel like if we had a few more laps we would be sitting in victory lane.  But again I’m just very proud of my crew and pretty excited about Hickory.”

Up next for the CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series will be the Catawba Valley 250 on Saturday, April 5 at Hickory Motor Speedway (NC).