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Report: K&N East driver loans car to Ronnie Bassett Jr. after team’s shop fire

For at least one more weekend, the family of Ronnie Bassett Sr. won’t have to call it quits on its dreams of racing.

Three days ago, a fire swept through Bassett Racing’s shop in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, destroying all of its K&N Pro Series East cars and equipment for drivers Ronnie Bassett Jr. and Dillon Bassett. On Monday, the family was given a reprieve courtesy of competitor David Calabrese.

According to Speed51.com, Calabrese called Ronnie Bassett Jr., early Monday afternoon and offered to let Bassett drive his No. 43 Ford Fusion this weekend at Dominion Raceway in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Bassett Jr., currently third in the K&N East point standings, will get the chance to keep pursuing the championship thanks to Calabrese, a rookie in the series Bassett barely knew.

“I’ve met him one time,” Bassett Jr. told Speed51.com. “We met at Bowman Gray (Stadium) a couple weeks ago after a Modified race. We’ve said hey to each other at the race track, but we didn’t grow up together. We’ve raced together a couple races and that’s about it.”

Calabrese, a native of Toms River, New Jersey, has only competed in two K&N East races this season, but was scheduled to race this weekend at Dominion Raceway. Bassett Jr. has been on the K&N East circuit since 2013.

Calabrese said part of the reason for offering to help the Bassetts out is their crew chief, Bruce Cook, who is also a native of New Jersey.

“Bruce has been helping me out since we blew a couple motors and he’s helped us get back on our feet and been giving us a hand,” Calabrese told Speed51.com. “When all of this stuff happened with Bassett I wanted to step in and help since they’re third in points. I want Bruce to finish good in points this year.”

The team-up will continue on a week-to-week basis.

Head to Speed51.com to read their entire report on the collaboration between teams.

K&N East team Precision Performance, owned by Rick Gdovic and Charles Denike, announced Tuesday that Dillon Bassett would race for it this weekend. Dillon Bassett is currently 12th in the series standings.

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