Zach Gott

Zachary A. Gott (born July 15, 1985 in Circleville, Ohio) is an American stock car driver for Gravity Racing, Inc. He is currently competing in the ARLA Elite Series & ARLA Tornado Alley Truck Series for GRI, driving the #71 Proto-Call JLC Prototype in the ATATS and the #7 Proto-Call Volpi SR560 in the ARLA Elite Series. He is the older brother of CRL Modified Division competitor Amanda Johnson. He also has several nicknames, including "Zach Dogg", "Pac Man", and "Zach Attack".

Bio
Gott first met future TM Master Cup Series driver Packer Carroll when the two were still in high school. The two became fast friends, and Gott was one of the first employees hired by Packer when he formed Gravity Racing, Inc. in 2002.

2009 Season: Chronic Bridesmaid
In 2009, Gott was hired to drive the #71 Shiny Wax truck in the ARLA Thunder Trucks. He was hit or miss for much of the season, but was close to victory several times, finishing 2nd on three occasions: Carbondale, Sears Point, and Rockford. He finished 14th in the final points standings.

Also, when GRI acquired the assets of the #00 ARLA Elite Series team from FatBurgerKid Motorsports (now Grease Burger Racing), Gott was hired as a part time driver. He attempted three races, and qualified for one, at Pocono, where he scored his best career finish to date, 4th. He was moved to the crew chief role when Henrietta LaVerne was hired to drive the #00 car.

2010 Season: Second Verse, Same as the First
2010 was much the same story for Gott. He continued to be the crew chief of the #00 in the Elite Series, but made a slight change in the Thunder Trucks, now driving for M&J Racing. But he experienced a downturn in performance, with a best of 6th at Gateway, just 4 top 10s, and led just 2 laps. Ironically, he finished 14th in the final standings, exactly where he finished the previous season.

2011 Season: First Taste of Victory
In 2011, Gott moved back to the #71 GRI truck, while still retaining his crew chief status on the #00 team, now with driver Anthony Griffith behind the wheel. His Thunder Trucks campaign saw an upturn in performance, as he scored 2 top 5s and 4 top 10s in 7 starts, and finished a respectable 11th in the standings. But he still could not find his first win as a driver. He did, however, score his first victory as a crew chief, when Griffith won race 1 of the 2011 Verdugo 250.

Gott also started 3 ARLA Elite Series events in a reserve driver role. He drove the #3 car at Alaska when Eric Jackson was injured at Alberta Superspeedway the week before, and finished 15th. He started at Appleton and Decatur in the #7 car when Bruce Wilkinson was kicked out of the car for failing a drug test.

Gott also qualified for the 2011 Rockford 200 in the #7 car, but relinquished his spot for Packer after Packer failed to qualify for the event. Zach said after he made the decision, "It would be criminal if Packer wasn't allowed to start his 50th race."

2012 Season: TM Lights
Gott was hired to drive the #71 Subway Bolden in the TM Lights for the 2012 season.

Gott finished 31st in his TM Lights debut at Las Vegas, a similar feeling to his first two Thunder Trucks season debuts. He bounced back with a 13th place finish at Road Atlanta, before earning his first career top ten at Carbondale, where he finished 10th despite being one lap down. He scored a second straight 10th place finish at Piqua.

Gott had his best career qualifying effort at Peoria (4th), and was running in the top 10 all race until Lap 47. He was involved in a three-wide situation off of turn 4 and was spun down the frontstretch, with the entire field coming at him. He took three or four hard hits, but managed to climb out of the car under his own power. He finished 27th. Things didn't get any better at Mosport, where he finished 25th after having to pit for a flat tire. Then, he shocked everyone, including himself, by posting his best career finish to date, 5th, on the road course in Portland.

At Darlington, he suffered a flat tire late in the race and finished 2 laps down in 31st. At Michigan, he qualified 5th, but was involved in an accident with 33 laps to go and finished 27th.

Round 10 at Ohio, his second home race, saw him finish 4 laps down to race winner Troy Adams, but he still finished 7th, his fourth top ten of 2012. He scored a fifth top 10 when he finished 10th at Grand Detour. He scored his third consecutive top 10 and second top 5 of the season when he finished 5th at Road America. However, he suffered poor finishes at New York, California and British Columbia. He finished 20th at Decatur.

Zach finished 21st in the final standings. Overall, it was a disappointing season for Zach and GRI after being in the top ten late in the season.

2013 Season: A Return to His Roots
After his failed campaign in the TM Lights, Zach decided to step out of the #71 car. He decided to return to where his career in the big leagues began, which was now the ARLA Tornado Alley Truck Series. He would once again drive the #71, now sponsored by Proto-Call, which would also sponsor his Elite Series effort as well, in which he would drive the #7 car with Eric Jackson in a shared championship effort. With his experience in the TM Lights, and based on the level of competition in the trucks, 2013 was Zach's best chance yet to finally score that elusive first win.

Gott began his season with a 4th place finish in the Apex Racing School Rookie Shootout. But his season debut in the 2013 Smash Beer 200 wasn't as successful, being caught up in several incidents and wound up finishing 23rd. His truck campaign didn't have the smashing start he was hoping for either after a surprising engine failure midway through the season opening race at Daytona, although he would make up for it in the ARLA Elite Series event at Daytona by leading some laps and scoring a 5th place finish, his first top 5 finish since 2009 at Pocono. He would follow that up by finally getting his long awaited first career victory at Manhattan, leading the final 59 laps. His next three Elite events, at Montgomery, Texas, and Grand Detour, were met with DNFs, dropping the 7 team to 35th in the points. Eric Jackson, who is sharing the car with Gott, would take over for the next three events, and after Mosport, the 7 team currently sits 24th in points

Zach followed up his Manhattan victory with a runner-up finish at Texas.

Gott is currently 4th in the ATATS championship, 95 points behind leader Samantha Spires.

Career Statistics
TM Lights

ARLA Elite Series

ARLA Tornado Alley Truck Series