TWIN FALLS, Idaho — March 29, 2010) Jonathon Gomez, driver of the Century Boatland/Heritage Cattle Co. Chevrolet from Twin Falls, Idaho scored his career best NASCAR K&N Pro Series finish Saturday night in a front of a capacity crowd at All American Speedway in Roseville, CA. Gomez qualified second and battled for the lead all race long leading on two different occasions but came up one car length short of the victory.
"We were there all night and had a shot at the win. This feels so good to lead laps and finish up front. "— Jonathon Gomez
Gomez, under the leadership of the Craig Raudman (crew chief) led crew, was among the fastest cars all day in practice and backed up his practice speeds with a second place qualifying effort. "I was real happy with the way the car handled," Gomez said. "I felt after the first few laps of practice we had a race winning car."
When the green flagged dropped just after 9pm, Gomez wasted no time in asserting himself by racing pole sitter Paulie Haaraka fender-to-fender for the first 10 laps. Gomez eased his Century boatland Chevrolet in behind Haaraka and just let the race come to him.
During the first third of the race, several cautions waved setting up double file restarts leaving Gomez on the outside on several occasions resulting in a loss of track position. But each time he was pushed back, he fought hard and reclaimed his position at the front of the field.
Over the course of the event Gomez led twice for 33-laps and gave eventually race winner Haaraka all he could handle including a thrilling side-by-side battle on the final Green, White, Checkered restart.
"I really thought we had this thing won," Gomez stated. "We were there all night and had a shot at the win. This feels so good to lead laps and finish up front. Craig (Raudman) and the crew gave me a car that could win and we came up a bit short but we have a lot of confidence going forward."
Over the winter the Gomez team has built and prepared new cars for the season. "We feel we are going to contend all season and this race proved we are on the right path," Gomez continued. "I can't wait for Phoenix."
For his part, Craig Raudman was thrilled with the outcome. "It is pretty awesome when you can come to All American and go nose-to-nose with Bill McAnally's teams," Raudman said. "I am real happy for John Gomez (Jonathon's father and team owner). He has put a lot into this program and to finish up front means a lot to the whole team and all their hard work."
Jonathon Gomez is in his fifth year of competitive racing having won local track titles at Magic Valley Speedway in Twin Falls and competed in various Late Model events the past couple of seasons. He has started nine NASCAR K&N Pro Series races since 2008 scoring four top ten finishes and currently sits second in the championship standings. Gomez started his successful weekend in California by finishing 8th in the 125-lap SRL Southwest Tour race that preceded the K&N event. Gomez will contest the entire SRL schedule as well as the NASCAR West schedule vying for two championships this season.
Jonathon Gomez is supported by Heritage Cattle Company, Century Boatland, J&C Custom Harvesting, and Gomez Farms. The race at All American Speedway will be broadcast on SPEED Channel on Thursday, April 8 at 3 PM PT. The next event for Jonathon Gomez will be Thursday, April 8 at Phoenix (AZ) International Raceway for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series Jimmie Johnson Foundation "100". For more information on Jonathon Gomez, please log onto his website at www.jonathongomez.com. you can also follow all of the best in West coast racing action by visiting www.racingwest.com.
