Pena Wins, Gresham Takes K&N Points Lead At Langley

Sergio Pena makes the winning pass on Max Gresham during Saturday night's K&N Series East event. Photo by Tom Whitmore/Getty Images for NASCAR

The inaugural VisitHamptonVA 175 checkered flag went to a Virginian during Saturday night NASCAR K&N Pro Series East action at Langley Speedway as Sergio Peña found Victory Lane for the second time in 2011.

In a spirited battle with Griffin, Georgia’s Max Gresham, Peña used lap traffic to his advantage on Lap 117 and held on the balance of the 175-lap event in the No. 4 Freightliner Toyota for the victory.

From Winchester, VA, both of Peña’s wins this season have come in his home state as his previous triumph was gained at South Boston Speedway in April.

“This run was unbelievable,” Peña said. “Being able to lead the most laps was awesome. Racing hard with Coleman Pressley, Matt DiBenedetto, and just everybody, it was really fun.”

Peña, who competes for Revolution Racing as part of Drive for Diversity, led 40 laps during the first half of the race, but the team decided to save tires for the stretch run.

Sergio Pena celebrates with his Revolution Racing teammates. Photo by Tom Whitmore/Getty Images for NASCAR

“In the beginning I was trying to save tires as much as I could and that’s when DiBenedetto and the others flew by me and pretty much left me,” Peña said. “Then my spotter and crew chief told me to step it up a little bit. I was able to get by them before that last caution and that’s what put me in position.”

Peña led a race-high 99 laps in the series’ first visit to the .396-mile speedway.

Brett Moffitt, who cut a tire on the first lap of the race and found himself two laps down, was recipient of the free past twice and was able to put on a furious late-race charge to rally for second place.

“About 40 to go we got back on the lead lap back to where we could pass some cars and make up some positions,” Moffitt said. “We were up on the wheel, and we weren’t making any friends in the process, but we ended up second and it was a great night to turn around our championship hopes.”

Moffitt’s run did not end up improving his position in the season standings – fourth – but it did end a two-race skid.

Gresham, DiBenedetto and Dawsonville’s Chase Elliott rounded out the top five behind Peña and Moffitt. For Gresham, the Langley performance was his sixth-straight top-five, which vaulted him to the points lead. He led 33 laps on Saturday.

Griffin, Georgia's Max Gresham came away from Saturday night's event with the points lead in the K&N Series East division. Photo courtesy Gresham Motorsports

Gresham now leads the division championship chase by a 17-point margin (1125-1,108) over DiBenedetto.

“I led the points early in the season last year and later we took a pretty big downhill tumble,” said Gresham. “I’m happy to be leading the points now, but I’m more pleased with the way we have been able to do it – with top five after top-five finish. It’s given the team all kinds of confidence because we feel like we can have that kind of finish every week. Now we just need to keep working on getting more wins.”

Meanwhile, second generation driver Chase Elliott’s fifth place run earned him his second “rookie of the race” award for the year.

The 15 year old started from seventh place on the grid, moving into the top five on lap 78.  He would make it as high as fifth at one point before settling back into fifth by the finish.

“We are making gains every time we race,” Elliott said. “Our communication was better this week all around from my understanding of what I need and (crew chief Ricky Turner) making the adjustments.”

Alex Bowman, pole-winner Coleman Pressley, Corey LaJoie, Darrell Wallace Jr. and D.J. Shaw brought home the top 10.

There were four lead changes among four drivers and the race was slowed six times for just 25 laps.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East returns to the track on Friday, July 15 in Loudon, N.H., with the New England 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.