By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
Every driver wants to have a consistent season with solid finishes, the smaller teams even more so.
That turns out to be exactly the type of 2019 that Gray Gaulding continues to have on the race track.
Gaulding who pilots the No. 8 Chevrolet for the Bobby Dotter owned SS Green Light Racing continues to show what he can do when given solid equipment on a weekly basis.
For example, Friday evening’s Circle K Firecracker 250 powered by Coca-Cola would prove to be no different for Gaulding.
In fact, Gaulding qualified his No. 8 World Wide Consulting Chevrolet to a fifth place starting spot.
That third-row start matched his best qualifying effort with February’s season opener at the famed Superspeedway.
(Photo: SaJorden Miller/KTT)
The 21-year old managed to avoid the carnage that tends to occur at the Superspeedways and finish out the stages in 15th, 13th, and 8th, respectively.
“It was a good day. We didn’t have any help again. I felt like we had a fast car and I was doing a good job, couldn’t get any brakes, no one wanted to push. I can’t thank World Wide Safety enough, coming on board, giving me a chance. You know it feels good to come to a plate track and have a chance to win.”
“I went for it at the end and everyone wanted to just ride in a line and finish 6th, 7th, 8th, and it’s just super frustrating as a race car drive. You know, you’d think these guys would like to mix it up and go for it. We’ll go on to the next one, good points day, another top-10. Not much you can do there, I feel I did my job, said Gaulding.”
It was Gaulding’s second top-10 of the season with his first coming at Talladega Superspeedway in April.”
Post-race after Talladega Gaulding said, “We’re the underdogs everywhere we go. Now, I like it like that The beginning of the year people didn’t really pay attention to us. Now it just seems like every week with the cars we’re building and the way I’m driving and the way my crew chief Patrick (Donahue) and guys are setting my cars up, we’re going to have a shot at it one of these days.”
As a matter of fact, Gaulding’s two top-10 finishes of the season are the first time a Bobby Dotter owned car has had multiple top-10’s in a NASCAR Xfinity Series season since Dotter did it himself all the way back in 1995.
Prior to Gaulding’s two top-10’s this season, his best finish in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition were two 13th place results (Talladega and Bristol).
Those results coming during the 2016 season when he raced the No. 60 Krispy Kreme Ford for Roush Fenway Racing.
Gaulding continues to have the best season of his career earning 1 top-5, 2 top-10s, 7 top-15s, and 14 top-20s.
The young driver will look to carry momentum from not only Daytona but this season as well into Saturday evening’s Alsco 300 from Kentucky Speedway set for 7:30pm/EST on NBCSN.