News Director 
Story By: TRACI CYWINSKI / WIN-TRON RACING – NASHVILLE, TN – With Daytona behind him, ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards driver Gus Dean (@GusDean) heads to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville looking to rebound and earn a strong finish in Saturday night’s Music City 200 presented by Azure Foundation.
Cutting his teeth on grassroots short track racing should benefit the Bluffton, S.C. native this weekend, but while experience is often a sweetener, it’s never a guarantee.
Dean aboard his No. 32 GREE Cooling Products Toyota Camry for Win-Tron Racing vows to make his experience work.
“I’ve been ready for Nashville since the day after Daytona,” said Dean. “I have a great team, an awesome sponsor and a fast race car ready to get on the track and do work. More importantly, while I know we’ll have the speed in our GREE Toyota, we need to have a good recovery from the mishap at Daytona.”
While running inside the top-12 at Daytona, contact from another competitor sent Dean into the wall and out of the race.
Last year, Dean suffered a similar incident. The very next race for Dean at Talladega, he went to Victory Lane.
And while Dean will be negotiating a historic half-mile bullring on Saturday night compared to Talladega’s 2.66-mile monster, the 22-year-old would be fulfilled with the same result.
“Winning is what we’re here to do, but it’s never easy, no matter what series you run,” explained Dean. “I have a lot to embrace. A lot to experience and yes even a lot to learn – but I’m surrounded by great people who I know want the best for me and plan to help me succeed.”
In their attempt to succeed with his fourth career top-10 finish in ARCA competition, Dean and his Todd Myers led team really participated in an private test session at the 0.5-mile oval, where despite combating brake issues, the team was satisfied with the overall results.
“The test went pretty good, I was happy,” offered Dean. “With every lap I turn, I’m learning more about these composite cars and my Win-Tron Racing team. They want to win as bad as I do. They’ve been working on our car ever since the test and they really feel confident in what it can do.
“I have experience at Nashville, but nothing in a heavier ARCA car. Still, the fundamentals of racing at Nashville are the same. I’m hoping that my prior experience at Nashville will pay off and we’ll be in good shape when the checkered flag waves. Everyone at GREE deserves that.”
In 1991, GREE set out to make the world a cooler place. To this end, they’ve become a global leader in air conditioners, developing some of the most advanced commercial and residential air conditioners in the world.
Based in Zhuhai, China, GREE is now the world’s largest specialized air conditioner company integrating R&D, manufacturing, sales and service. It’s our mission to innovate and create new ways to help people live well and stay comfortable no matter where they live, work or play.
GREE will be joined by its master distributor for the US market, Tradewinds Climate Systems, as well as a number of their regional wholesalers, salespeople, and most importantly, fellow race fans. The company, which ranked 385th in Forbes’ Global 2000 possesses 18,000 active patents for products sold in 160 countries.
“The ARCA season is kinda slow to get going, but once we get into a good steady routine we have a lot of cool things planned,” sounded Dean. “I can’t wait to share them with everyone and I can’t thank GREE enough for opportunity to represent them and put our No. 32 GREE Toyota Camry on track.”
While gunning for the ARCA Racing Series driver’s championship this season, Dean has also registered to be a SCOTT Rookie of the Year candidate aboard the No. 32 GREE Toyota Camry.
In eight ARCA Racing Series starts, Dean captured his first career victory in his second career start at Talladega Superspeedway after starting second in Apr. 2016. Overall, Dean has one top-five and three top-10 finishes and has led 21 laps in ARCA competition.
The Music City 200 presented by Azure Foundation (200 laps / 100 miles) is the second of 20 races on the 2017 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. Practice begins Sat., Apr 8 with an hour and a half practice session planned from 1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. General Tire pole qualifying is set for later in the day at 4:15 p.m. The race is set to take the green flag later that night shortly after 8:00 p.m. The event will be televised live on MAVTV, while ARCARacing.com will stream live timing and scoring throughout the day’s activities. All times are local (Central).
