Choquette takes first race at Gresham Motorsports Park

JEFFERSON - Jeff Choquette etched a collection of firsts onto Gresham Motorsports Park’s clean slate Sunday afternoon. The Florida native rolled to victory at the 26th annual World Crown 300, the first race at the new Jefferson track.

In doing so, he became the first driver from outside the Peach State to win the World Crown event since 1999.

Choquette pulled to the bottom of Max Gresham and Beau Slocumb on a restart and made a three-wide pass with 25 laps to go. He steadily pulled away from Gresham to win by about a second.

Gresham finished second, with Paul Kelley, Colt James and Slocumb rounding out the top five.

Choquette couldn’t believe that his banzai move worked and that he had the car to hold off Gresham, he said after the race.

“Max (Gresham) was really strong,” Choquette said in victory lane. “I thought I could get by him, but I didn’t think I could hold him off.”

Choquette restarted ninth after a caution on lap 200 and sliced his way up to fifth in 30 laps. He had moved to third by Lap 267, when Austin Hill spun in Turn 4.

On the double-file restart, Choquette laid off Gresham’s bumper and then pounced as the green flag waved. The move caught Gresham, whose family owns the track, by surprise.

“I’m not too sure what happened on the last restart,” Gresham said. “But he got by us and then we got kind of tight.”

Hill&r

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