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  • “Drivers Start Your Engines” Irwindale Event Center Announces Opening Night and Welcomes NASCAR as the Sanctioning Body

    “Drivers Start Your Engines” Irwindale Event Center Announces Opening Night and Welcomes NASCAR as the Sanctioning Body

    speedFour of the most recognized words in motorsports will once again be heard throughout one of the Nation’s most recognized racing facilities, after being closed for the entire 2012 season.

    A breath of fresh air along with a management team that is dedicated to serving the drivers, as well as the fans are on the top of the priority list when Irwindale Event Center opens its gates for the 2013 racing season on April 6th.

    The opening night schedule will include, NASCAR Super Late Models, Late Models, Super Stocks, Mini-Stocks and an evening-ending fun-for-all Demolition Derby. Team 211 Entertainment’s President/CEO Jim Cohan is beginning his tenure at the track with a very strong statement, which will serve as the catalyst and the backbone to a very promising season of racing in 2013 and beyond.

    Months and weeks of planning have gone into making sure the right people and the right formula would be utilized to make this a successful venture for everyone involved, including the right attitude to work with both drivers and the fans.

    “I absolutely want to hear from the racers and fans. You’ve got a guy at the helm in me, and I am a PEOPLE person first and foremost. To work with me, folks have to leave their egos someplace else,” said Cohan when talking about the planning that has been taken place.

    Cohan also added that, “We care and that we appreciate every single one of them, and that the old regime is dead and over. I want excitement in the air not only because racing is back at Irwindale, but also because folks know the group running it CARES about them and considers them family.”

    Along with the schedule announcement for the 2013 racing season, Cohan also signed a deal with NASCAR this past week to fully sanction all the divisions that will be racing on the asphalt paved ovals.

    “NASCAR is pleased to bring our Home Tracks program back to Irwindale Speedway,” said Duvall, NASCAR’s Senior Director of Business Development.

    Duvall also added that, “This facility hasn’t changed physically in any way; it’s the same great race track. What has changed is the management group and spirit of teamwork that Jim Cohan’s people bring to the effort, they’re all top pros, and I’m really looking forward to working with them.”

    “We met with Bob Duvall from NASCAR yesterday at our offices in Irwindale,” said Cohan.

    Cohan finished with, “He really understands our mission to bring great short track stock car racing back to southern California and he’s very supportive of that goal. Bob made his presentation, answered all of our questions, we signed the sanction agreement, and he got back on a plane and took the papers back to Daytona Beach.”

    With NASCAR once again as the sanctioning body, the crowning the state or national champion is a very good possibility. For the drivers along with the fans, racing is back in the Southern California area and it’s great to see the facility finally has a person in charge that cares.

    “We plan to give it all we’ve got. Challenges may come and obstacles may get in the way but you and the entire community have my word that my team is totally committed to doing everything in our power to make this the very best it can be,” said a very confident Jim Cohan.

    An announcement is forthcoming for meetings with car owners and drivers for each division by Irwindale Competition Director, Mike Atkinson.

    Full racing schedule will be announced later on today, and the speedway office is now accepting applications for 2013 NASCAR licenses for drivers and crewmembers.

  • NASCAR’s Greg Pursley Goes Wire-To-Wire For Fourth Win of The Season

    At this stage during last year’s racing season, Parker, Arizona’s Greg Pursley was sitting sixth in points with only one top-five finish, and a total of 27 laps led in five starts. Pursley who drives the No. 26 Gene Price Motorsports sponsored Ford Fusion in NASCAR’s K&N Pro West touring series, would eventually close out the 2010 season fifth in points with two wins, four top-fives, and seven top-10 finishes while leading a total of 151 laps.

    [media-credit id=50 align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]The 43 year-old driver knew his team had the talent and determination to compete at this level, and proved it by going to victory lane twice in the last three races of the season. Pursley began the season finale by winning the Coors Light Pole award, while surpassing the record time he set at the one-mile Phoenix track in 2009.

    Pursley would pull away on a final restart with seven laps remaining to capture his first victory at the track he called his “absolute favorite,” which capped off a season plagued by bad luck that would carry over into the following year.

    The Newhall, California native got an early jump to start the 2011 season when he picked up where he left off the previous season, by going to victory lane in the season opener at Phoenix, for back-to-back wins at the Arizona one-mile track. In his first five starts, Pursley went to victory lane four times, with his only flaw coming at Roseville back in April where led a race high 133 laps before finishing third.

    What a difference a year has made when you not only look at the fact Pursley has already doubled the races he won, but also the amount of laps he has led with nine races still remaining on the schedule. Pursley said that, “Time has allowed our team to gel. Communication and preparation is the key and we have both going for us right now,” when talking about some of the changes that were looked at during the off-season.

    With an average finish of 1.4 and a 201 point lead over second place driver Moses Smith, Pursley’s blistering pace clearly makes him the driver the beat this season, and even more so after Saturday’s dominating performance in the O’Reilly 200 at the bullring in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once the teams unloaded for Saturday night’s feature race, Pursley wasted no time setting the pace when he broke the track record with a pole winning speed of 90.144 mph.

    Pursley who went out in the 16th qualifying spot, bettered that of his 16 year-old teammate Dylan Kwasniewski by 0.467 mph, who went out eighth and finished the race in second. After the pre-race festivities took place, the only thing left for the 27 drivers was to see who would prevail after 200 laps of fighting the Nevada heat once the green flag was waved to start the race.

    Pursley took the lead on the first lap of the race, as survival became the order of the night for the other 26 drivers when the first of 10 yellow flags for a Stan Silva solo spin less than 25 laps into the race. A total of 69 laps would be run under yellow before the end of the race, but none of that bothered Pursley as he dominated the race and became the only driver since 2009 to win a race from start to finish.

    The last wire-to-wire win in the series was by Eric Holmes at Roseburg, Oregon. As the laps clicked away and the Nevada heat began to slowly dissipate behind a nice warm breeze, Pursley continued to heat up the track once his biggest threat, Eric Holmes who is the three-time and defending series champion left the race because of mechanical problems.

    “Holmes was gonna be pretty good but I still kept the pace I wanted to keep and if he was gonna push me harder he would have had to go around me on the outside because I was not gonna give up the bottom and it probably would have been a good race.” Pursley said after the race.

    With 34 laps left to go, Taylor Cuzick spins coming out of turn two to bring out the final caution of the night. On the final restart of the night, Pursley pulled away from his 16-year-old teammate and never looked back leaving Kwasniewski, Jason Fensler, and Michael Self to battle for the second position.

    Pursley went on to win the race by 0.872 seconds over Kwasniewski who finished second, but more importantly extended his points lead along with picking-up his fourth win and setting the standard for the rest of the season.  “Finally when the last caution came out with about 30 to go I had to go. It showed at the end the guys at the shop gave me a great car and I can’t complain,” said Pursley.

    Pursley added this about his race winning strategy, “We had a great car strategy was to save the tires until lap 150. The good part about it is you when you start out front. You can pick your way around and I ran the pace I wanted to run and the guys behind me were pressing kind of hard and I didn’t let it bother. This was a dream for me.