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Steven Blakesley/ RTD Motorsports, Inc.
 North Highlands,
Calif.
–
Mike
Gallegos of
Wheat Ridge,
CO scored his second-straight top-ten finish in the
NASCAR Camping World Series West, Saturday, at Thunderhill
Raceway in
Kyle,
TX.
Gallegos, the 25 year-old Drive for Diversity and RTD
Motorsports, Inc. driver, finished ninth in the Allstate
Texas Thunder 150 at the 3/8ths mile speedplant in eastern
Texas.
The
team was coming off an eighth place finish last week at
Phoenix.
“The
guys are all excited and I’m excited,” Gallegos said.
“We’ve had some good runs and I’m learning so much. We
really have cars capable of top-fives.”
The #34
car unloaded strong and qualified 12th out of
the 22 car field.
Gallegos was able to work his way up near the top-five,
but double-file restarts proved to be a crutch.
“We
were better than ninth place,” Gallegos said. “We were on
the outside for all but about two restarts, so it was a
tug of war kind of deal.”
A
mid-race crash in front of Gallegos shuffled him back to
14th place, but he had no problem slicing
through to get back to ninth.
Gallegos currently sits 13th in the series
points after three starts, but is only 39 points out of
third.
“The
points race is so tight right now,” Gallegos said.
“Obviously when you run better your expectations get
higher. We understand that top-tens aren’t out of the
question and now top-fives aren’t unreasonable.”
The
young Gallegos has benefited from the help of mentor Craig
Raudman, an experienced driver and crew chief.
“That
guy has so much experience, you just have to be a sponge,”
Gallegos said. “He’s so savvy, it’s crazy. I’m fortunate
to have Craig and Rob (Dixon) to learn from.”
Team
confidence will be at a high as the new team now prepares
for the combination race with the Camping World Series
East at Iowa Speedway.
“The
guys genuinely believe in me and it’s an awesome deal,”
Gallegos said. “It’s nice to know you get into something
competitive and can run competitive.”
Gallegos and team owner Rob Dixon both have extensive
experience at the former Pikes Peak Raceway, a one-mile
oval outside Denver that highly resembles Iowa Speedway.
The
team is eager to take advantage of the three-week break to
prepare for Iowa and the rest of the summer.
“We got
to get some stuff freshened up, let Rob take short
breath,” Gallegos said. “Iowa is a spitting image of Pikes
Peak and I loved Pikes Peak.”
RTD
Motorsports, Inc. and Mike Gallegos will be competing at
Iowa Speedway in Newton, IA on May 18th. A huge
crowd is expected for the combination race with the
Camping World Series East and West.
Race
fans can learn more about RTD Motorsports, Inc. by
visiting
www.rtdmotorsportsinc.com
RTD
Motorsports is presented by these fine sponsors: TriCo
Welding Supplies, Inventory Sales Company, Gone Racin’,
TCS Adwear, PCB Solutions, PVC Specialties, JDA, Longacre,
Steve’s Transmissions, Carmichael
Towing, DC Racing Engines, and Blakesley Sports Media.
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