Source: RTD Motorsports
Date: 04/21/2008

NORTH HIGHLANDS, California – 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 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.

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