By Tim Packman
LAS VEGAS – In 2017, a 17-year old drag racer from Mooresville, N.C. turned heads by winning a NHRA Pro Stock race. He earned that accomplishment at The Strip dragway, located just outside the main grandstands of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The following year, that same driver etched his name in history by winning it all and was crowned the Pro Stock Champion. It appeared he had a long career in drag racing ahead of him.
Fast forward to 2020, this time on the 1.5-mile LVMS oval, and that same drag champion was turning heads in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series.
Tanner Gray could be a name to watch this season with more solid runs in NASCAR.
On Friday night, Gray started the 134-lap race in a respectable 14th place. Going straight at a high rate of speed battling just one other racer is tough. Battling 31 other drives at once AND turning left several times is even tougher.
He garnered some attention by running in the top-five during the final stage before slipping to eighth place at the checkered flag. This was Gray’s first top-10 finish in the No. 15 Ford of DGR-Crosley.
“I’m pretty happy with tonight,” Tanner said on pit road afterwards. “Obviously it was good to get up front and race there. It was good to get up behind Kyle (Busch) and learn some odds and ends.
“I had the team over adjust there on the last pit stops and we ended up being to free. I’m really happy with everyone at DGR-Crosley, they put together an awesome truck and I feel like we had a pretty fast Ford F150.
“It’s good to have a race like this, gain some confidence to learn and build off it. We’ll go back to the shop, re-group and get ready for Atlanta.”
Gray’s Ford was loose for pretty much the entire event. This was evident by the repeated times he would get loose, look like he was about to spin, but started sawing the wheel to gather his Truck up underneath him and keep going forward.
Not bad for a rookie.
“All-in-all, it’s hard not to be happy about a run like this tonight,” he said.
Really good article onTanner Gray . I look forward to more great articles Tim.