Sponsor gives Bluffton driver additional start in ARCA series

Gus Dean is adding one more ride to his ARCA Racing Series schedule, with primary sponsor GREE agreeing Friday to send the Bluffton driver to next weekend’s Indianapolis stop in hopes of picking up a second victory.

Dean, who won at Talladega last April in his second career ARCA start, will drive the No. 78 Chevrolet next Friday in the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 at Lucas Oil Raceway. It’ll be his fourth start on the developmental circuit, and first of back-to-back weekends.

The 21-year-old driver already is entered for the July 29 race at Pocono Raceway, which serves as a lead-in for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup race two days later.

“We’ve brought GREE into a racing series where they are seeing a return on their investment,” Dean said. “As a team, we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing and everything else will hopefully fall into place.”

GREE, with Tradewinds Climate Systems as its master U.S. distributor, is the world's largest manufacturer of specialized cooling and heating products. The company ranks 385th on Forbes’ Global 2000 list with business in 160 countries.

The manufacturer teamed up with Mason Mitchell Motorsports in time for the April race at Talladega, where Dean won a video review as the race ended under caution.

“Our experience at Talladega was unbelievable,” Tradewinds president Dave Pearson said, “and we’re happy to be back for the first of two back-to-back races. We wish Gus and the team the best of luck in the race.”

Dean followed up his victory with a seventh-place finish when the circuit raced at Toledo Speedway in May. Discussions are ongoing in hopes of securing full-season sponsorship for next year, according to Dean and MMM officials.

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Sponsor gives Bluffton driver additional start in ARCA series."