Shane Gray may be new to Pro Stock, but the rookie driver looks like he’s been doing this a long time. Today at the 29th running of the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway, Gray took his Big O Tires Pontiac GXP to the final-round and earned his second runner-up finish of the season.
Gray powered his way through the ranks, taking on some of the best of the class. In the first round, he took out Rickie Jones with a 6.632 against Jones’ 6.655. In the second round, the rookie took on a veteran with one of the toughest cars in the class, Allen Johnson and put Johnson on the trailer with his holeshot win. Gray left the line first and never looked back, earning the win with the slower, 6.620 to a 6.615.
For the second time this year, his semifinal opponent was his dad and teammate, Johnny Gray in the NTB, National Tire and Battery car. The results were the same as in their last match up in Englishtown, as youth over took experience and Gray won on a holeshot.
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There is a saying in drag racing, “you live and die by the tree” and that fit Gray like a glove today. He earned two round wins with his quicker reaction time but then his quickness ended up hurting him in the final. Gray faced Jeg Coughlin. The pair has met in the semis at the past two races, with Coughlin getting the win each time. The outcome was the same today because Gray was a tick too quick on the tree. The rookie couldn’t have gotten any closer to a perfect light, but he was on the wrong side of it as he red lit by one one-thousandth of a second. Gray took a shot at it because his Big O Tires car didn’t have enough against the red-hot Coughlin. Gray lost with a 6.654 to a 6.614.
“I really feel blessed to be where we’re at,” expressed Gray. “There’s a lot of key people that have put me in this position, Orland Wolford and Lynn Parker of TBC Retail Group, the NTB, Tire Kingdom and Big O Tires company, Craig Hankinson, Jon Yates, Jim Yates, and everybody back at the engine shop. Then there’s my dad, my mom, my wife, Amber and our boys. They have all been key players in the making of my success and I couldn’t do it without any of them.
“We had a great weekend and the Big O Tires car was flawless. I wish we could have gotten our first win today but now we’ll have to wait until the U.S. Nationals. I’m so lucky to have this opportunity and we’ll try to make the best of it when the countdown starts and go from there.”
With his great performance this weekend, Gray moved up two spots to the No. 6 position in the Countdown to 1 playoffs. This move is worth 20 points for Gray as the points are reset for the playoffs, which begin at the next event, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in. two weeks.
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