Former West Series driver Jonathon Gomez embracing his roots at Meridian, Magic Valley

A decade after his career in the ARCA Menards Series West concluded, Jonathon Gomez has begun to rekindle his love for short-track racing.

Gomez took a sabbatical from motorsports shortly before the turn of the decade to focus more on his family, but he returned to active competition last year. He primarily competes at Meridian Speedway and Magic Valley Speedway, a pair of NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series tracks in his home state of Idaho, while occasionally venturing out to different states.

With two wins already at Meridian this year, Gomez feels comfortable with where his Super Late Model program currently stands, adding each track requires a different approach to get up front.

“Meridian is a quarter-mile, while Magic Valley is a third of a mile,” Gomez said. “I have more laps at Magic Valley, so it‘s easier for me to pass there with two grooves, especially when you have full inverts. They call Meridian the concrete jungle, so it can be pretty hectic trying to get from the back to the front most of the time since it‘s a bottom-feeder.”

RELATED: Career stats for Jonathon Gomez 

Gomez never had the chance to run a West Series race at either Meridian or Magic Valley, but he said his time in that division helped prepare him for what to expect at both tracks.

The opportunity for Gomez to initially compete in the West Series came about in 2009, when he successfully qualified for NASCAR‘s Drive for Diversity program. That enabled him to secure a part-time ride with RTD Motorsports the same year.

After putting together several consistent runs for RTD and later Richard Thompson in 2009, Gomez and his father John elected to start their own program the following season. The results were almost immediate for Gomez, as he led 35 laps in his team‘s first race at California’s All American Speedway before a penalty relegated them to last in the running order.

The next three years would see Gomez emerge as a mainstay in the West Series. Although he was unable to pick up a victory with his own team, Gomez would tally eight career top-five finishes, including a career-best performance of second at Phoenix Raceway in 2011.

Being able to race alongside champions like Mike David, Jason Bowles and Eric Holmes, along with Cup Series veterans like Kyle Busch and Michael Waltrip, is what made the West Series special for Gomez. He added that their experience and composure provided valuable insight into how to conduct himself on track.

“I learned a lot from the veterans,” Gomez said. “There were a lot of people that taught you about respect on the track, and most of us worked on the cars ourselves. You had to earn that respect from people, and I‘ve carried that with me through the driving I still do today.”

The highlight of each West Series season for Gomez was always the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway. It provided him and the other regulars a chance to showcase their skills against the East Series, international NASCAR champions, and a few surprise guests that included Joey Logano, Ricky Carmichael and Travis Pastrana.

During the final year of the Toyota All-Star Showdown in 2011, Gomez brought his own car home third behind Bowles and the previous season‘s NASCAR Pinty‘s Series champion, D.J. Kennington, which he still considers to be one of his favorite memories as a driver.

Gomez had high hopes for his NASCAR career following a strong 2012 season in the West Series and was optimistic about earning a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ride. When those plans did not materialize, Gomez reassessed his situation and decided to pursue racing specifically to have fun.

This decision meant Gomez would shut down his West Series team to focus on running big Super Late Model events out West like the Winter Showdown and the Montana 200, the latter of which he won in 2013.

Traveling around the western part of the United States during the mid-2010s remains some of the most fun Gomez has had in his career, as it allowed him to spend more time with his family while explicitly focusing on wins as opposed to just racing for points.

Now that he has fully immersed himself with racing following his hiatus, Gomez considers himself fortunate to still be contending for wins against his competition and believes he can still accomplish so much at the age of 40.

“After 2015, we quit racing and I stayed out of it until 2018 when I ran a handful of local races,” Gomez said. “Last year I bought a Modified and got back racing again, so this is my first full year running Super Late Models. Taking that much time off and still being able to win races is fantastic.

“I‘ve had to learn so much in a short amount of time, so it‘d be great to see this hard work pay off.”

A busy schedule is ahead for Gomez to close out the second half of 2023. Along with balancing out weekly events at Meridian and Magic Valley, Gomez plans to hit several more Super Late Model events such as the Summer Showdown at Evergreen Speedway, which he has not competed in since 2014.

Racing has changed tremendously since Gomez last raced Super Late Models regularly, but he still maintains a strong passion for the sport and is ready to write more successful chapters over the next few years.