NEWTON, Iowa (May 19, 2011) – Darrell Wallace Jr. and Sergio Peña take their Toyota Camry’s and the goal of protecting the top two spots in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East standings respectively into Iowa Speedway for the Pork “Be Inspired” 175 Saturday, while Revolution Racing teammates Michael Cherry and Ryan Gifford come into the race with plans to improve their 11th- and 12th-place point positions.

Wallace, driving the No. 6 U.S. Army Toyota Camry and the winner of the last race at Richmond International Raceway, leads Peña and his No. 4 Freightliner Toyota Camry by 26 points. Both Revolution Racing drivers have one win this season. Wallace has captured three wins in 13 NASCAR K&N Series East starts over two seasons.

Cherry, in his first full season of NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition is coming off an impressive seventh-place finish at Richmond International Raceway two weeks ago. He started his NASCAR’s Fueling Your Dreams Toyota Camry 16th and patiently worked his way to his first top-10 of the season and third in six career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts.

Gifford and his No. 02 Toyota Racing Development Toyota Camry hope to improve upon a 31st-place finish at Richmond. It marked Gifford’s lowest race result in 13 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts for Revolution Racing. His aim is to use Iowa to return to the form that led to top-five finishes in 40 percent of his starts last season.

[callout_left]We are only 25 percent into our season so we have a lot of racing to do, but with the reliability of our engines from the students at NASCAR Technical Institute and the overall performance of our Toyota Camry’s we don’t see any reason we can’t continue to excel.[/callout_left]The Pork “Be Inspired” 175 at the .875-mile Iowa Speedway will bring together the best teams and cars from both the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West. At least 60 cars are expected to attempt to qualify for the 40 starting positions.

Last year Wallace was Revolution Racing’s highest finishing driver at Iowa, coming home third. The defending winner of the race is Max Gresham.

Despite the standing of Cherry and Gifford outside the top-10 in driver points, having all four drivers inside the top 12 is a major accomplishment for the second-year program.

“Have four cars in the top 12 of a series as competitive as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East is a major testament to our drivers and crew members that support them,” said competition director Andy Santerre. “We are only 25 percent into our season so we have a lot of racing to do, but with the reliability of our engines from the students at NASCAR Technical Institute and the overall performance of our Toyota Camry’s we don’t see any reason we can’t continue to excel.”

“We have four drivers all highly motivated to win and make a name in NASCAR, so the friendly internal competition just to be the highest finishing driver in the company is healthy. Whoever wins that battle is usually also contending for a race win.”

Practice, qualifying and the race all take place Saturday. The race is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. CT. It can be heard live at NASCARhometracks.com Radio, Live and can be seen on a taped-delayed basis on SPEED June 2 at 6 p.m. ET.


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