Bobby Gerhart

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Bobby Gerhart bigraphy, stories - American stock car racing driver

Bobby Gerhart : biography

July 21, 1958 –

Bobby Gerhart (born July 21, 1958, in Lebanon, Pennsylvania) is a driver on the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. He has won nine times on the circuit, eight of those victories coming in the season-opening ARCA Daytona 200 at Daytona International Speedway (2012, 2010, 2006, 2005, 2002 and 1999). Presently, he drives the #5 Lucas Oil Chevrolet owned by his brother on a part-time basis. Gerhart owns Bobby Gerhart’s Truck World, a used truck dealership in his hometown.

Gerhart began racing at Linda’s Speedway, where he won his first feature race. He eventually competed in many dirt modified series throughout his home state of Pennsylvania, often competing at Penn National and Susquehanna Speedway. He eventually moved to ashpalt racing and competed at Pocono Raceway. He made his NASCAR debut in 1983 at Pocono, finishing thirty-eighth in the Henley Gray-owned Buick. He ran Winston Cup races at Pocono, Dover International Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, and Daytona International Speedway over the next five years in the #71, #85, #25, and #59 Chevrolets with a best finish of 19th.

ARCA Racing Series

Gerhart’s #5 car competing at [[Kentucky Speedway.]] In 1988, Gerhart began competing in the ARCA series and was named Rookie of the Year that season. He has competed in that series on a regular basis since then, returning to NASCAR in 1996 to drive in the Craftsman Truck Series. He and his #85 Chevrolet Silverado qualified three times and had a best finish of 15th. He returned to Cup in 1998 attempting to qualify the #54 and eventually the #89 Chevrolet after picking up sponsorship from Kewadin Casinos. He was unable to qualify for those three attempts, but was able to win the season-opening ARCA race at Daytona in 1999, and went on to finish 3rd in points that year. He made his first starts in the NASCAR Busch Series in 2001, driving four times in his #65 and having a best finish of 22nd.

Since that time, Gerhart has competed in a mostly limited schedule in ARCA. The lone exception was the 2006 season where he ran full-time and finished second in points. From 2005-2007 and again in 2010, he won the season opening race at Daytona.

In 2009, Gerhart returned again to NASCAR in the Nationwide Series to drive the #75 for Bob Schacht. At his first race at Talladega Superspeedway, he qualified fifth and ran in the top-twenty for most of the day before wrecking. In 2013, it was announced that Gerhart would attempt to qualify for the Drive4COPD 300 in a car owned by him and his brother William Gerhart. The cars number will be 85.