ECR Engines Enjoys a Great Weekend!

ECR Engines Goes 1-2 Twice in Same Weekend
Wins in Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway, Grand Am Series at Barber Motorsports Park
 
WELCOME, N.C. (April 2, 2012) – ECR Engines earned the top two spots twice on March 31, with first- and second-place finishes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and the GRAND-AM Series Daytona Prototype division at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Ala.
 
“It was a Saturday that couldn’t have gone much better for ECR Engines,” said Richie Gilmore, chief operating officer for ECR Engines. “We dominated both qualifying sessions so the front rows on the grid prior to the start of the races were a nice photo opportunity for us. To be so strong in both races, with completely different styles of engines on completely different types of race tracks, is a testament to how strong ECR Engines’ overall program is this early in the 2012 season. It was also an honor for ECR Engines to be the power behind Chevrolet’s first trip to victory lane with the new Chevy Corvette DP car.”
 
Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick (No. 2 Kroger/Tide Chevy) and Ty Dillon (No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy) provided the one-two punch at Martinsville. They qualified side-by-side on the front row for the Kroger 250, with Harvick grabbing his third pole in the series. The race was all Harvick. He dominated the field, leading 248 of the race’s 250 laps, a series record, and took the checkered flag ahead of Dillon by 0.953-of-a-second. It was Harvick’s 14th win and 46th top-five finish in 118 Truck Series starts. The runner-up showing for Dillon was a career-best in his brief five-race history in the series that also includes three other top-10 finishes.
 
“It’s been a long time since we’ve dominated like that and actually won,” said Harvick. “We made a lot of changes over the off-season, moving teams to RCR, and this is what we’d hope for — to make what was a good Camping World Truck Series team even better.”
 
A similar scenario occurred in the Porsche 250 GRAND-AM Series Daytona Prototype race at Barber Motorsports Park. The No. 90 Spirit of America Chevrolet Corvette DP team of Richard Westbrook and Antonio Garcia grabbed the pole just ahead of the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette team of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty. Westbrook and Garcia would then go on to lead 84 of 103 laps, with Garcia taking the checkered flag 2.326 seconds ahead of Gurney. It was the first win for the Troy Flis-owned team that has competed in the series since 1999.
 
“When I saw that the race was green all the way through, I thought to just stay [in position and] and not take so many risks because I thought that a yellow may come,” said Garcia. “For sure, it did. With two laps to go, I had a little bit of panic. But it really paid off because as soon as I pushed, [the pace] was there.”