Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
Running solidly in the top-10 throughout the Pinty’s Grand Prix of Toronto, Gary Klutt was able to cross the finish line in the sixth position.
Klutt entered the weekend excited, set to tackle the 11-turn street circuit for the first time in his career.
“I like the fact no one can test there; I think that hurts us a lot when we go to Quebec and those guys test a lot,” he said. “But I think it will be one of those ones with a couple guys more experience, but it’ll be one of those ones where you show up and drive what you have as hard as you can and that’s how it’ll go.”
For Klutt, it marks his second straight top-10 finish after posting a pair of finishes outside of the top-10 to start the year.
“It’s pretty frustrating. We really wanted to win Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsports Park),”: he said. “We had a really fast car, qualified fourth but blew up every session. That’s frustrating, and also frustrating as far as a points day in wanting to get that win.”
While things haven’t gone as well as hoped on track, the Ontario native has made waves off the track, being named in the NASCAR Next program this year.
“It’s huge for me,” he said. “I knew a little bit about program, but then when I got down to Charlotte – it hit me how cool it was, and hanging out with different teams and guys I look up to. They were excited about me being apart of NASCAR Next so it hit home, and being in Charlotte is such a cool atmosphere. So the first trip down there got me excited and with guys like Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott coming out of the program, it means a lot.”
With gaining the extra attention, it’s easy to understand why Klutt hopes to have a solid second half of the season.
“I think we are just going to keep our head down and work as hard as we can like we have been,” he said. “I’m excited about the road course stuff – this weekend, three rivers. We’ve had two DNFs there, but always fastest guy from Ontario. I want to do well there, and do well here, and obviously do well at Mosport. I had a lot of fun at Saskatoon last year. I was running fourth when we got into the side of Dumoulin and broke the panhard bar with 50 to go. So I’m excited to get back to Saskatoon, as well as Kawartha.”
