POMONA, Sunday: Johnny Gray put his beautiful Pro Stocker in a good qualifying position on his last attempt yesterday. He thought that saving his best until last meant that the Gray Motorsports Pontiac GXP was finally getting rid of all the new car bugs. He hoped that in eliminations today at the 50th annual NHRA Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals his improved performance would continue. But that wasn’t the case.
In the first-round of eliminations, Gray encountered some problems and his 6.717 at 205.88 mph wasn’t enough to put away his opponent, Rodger Brogdon, who laid down a 6.651.
“We were light on the clutch and the motor ran away and then when the clutch tried to catch up with it, the motor had such a run at it that it took the back tires off,” explained Gray. “I probably should have shut it off but I’m a never quit kind of guy so I drove it almost to the finish line. When I saw I wasn’t going to catch Rodger, I went and shut it off.
“We’ve been struggling with carburetors and stuff and we’re still struggling with the chassis a little bit. But we’re going to load our stuff up and go beat on it and test in Las Vegas and hopefully we’ll be ready for Phoenix next week.”
Gray is the proud owner of a newly formed two-car team. The pride stems from the fact that the driver of the second car is his oldest son, Shane. And even though the two cars are identical, rookie Shane enjoyed a more successful weekend than did his dad and that’s fine with the patriarch.
“Shane’s car seems to be a little more user friendly than mine does at this point,” said Gray. “But I am real pleased with the way he’s driving the car, pleased with everybody on the team and how things are going. I really look for big things out of them this year. So I think I need to see what I can do to get the engine shop to get us more power so he can have a better chance.”
The two beautiful Gray Motorsports, Jerry Haas built race cars received a special honor. They both earned the Best Engineered Vehicle award today.
“I’m extremely pleased that both cars were given the Best Engineered Car award, said Gray. “Jerry built us a couple of really nice race cars and Craig (Hankinson, crew chief) and Mike (Earle, car chief) know I like everything put together real well and real clean and so they did an excellent job of detail on assembling the car. And then if you look at our motors, not only do they run pretty decent but the look like a show piece and that’s due to my guys at the shop. The attention to detail from the chassis builder, my crew, and the engine shop makes me real proud of my guys and think they deserve the award.”
After a few days of testing, Gray will be ready to it all again at the 26th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Raceway. And this time he hopes that both of his cars will have equally successful outings.
In the first-round of eliminations, Gray encountered some problems and his 6.717 at 205.88 mph wasn’t enough to put away his opponent, Rodger Brogdon, who laid down a 6.651.
“We were light on the clutch and the motor ran away and then when the clutch tried to catch up with it, the motor had such a run at it that it took the back tires off,” explained Gray. “I probably should have shut it off but I’m a never quit kind of guy so I drove it almost to the finish line. When I saw I wasn’t going to catch Rodger, I went and shut it off.
“We’ve been struggling with carburetors and stuff and we’re still struggling with the chassis a little bit. But we’re going to load our stuff up and go beat on it and test in Las Vegas and hopefully we’ll be ready for Phoenix next week.”
Gray is the proud owner of a newly formed two-car team. The pride stems from the fact that the driver of the second car is his oldest son, Shane. And even though the two cars are identical, rookie Shane enjoyed a more successful weekend than did his dad and that’s fine with the patriarch.
“Shane’s car seems to be a little more user friendly than mine does at this point,” said Gray. “But I am real pleased with the way he’s driving the car, pleased with everybody on the team and how things are going. I really look for big things out of them this year. So I think I need to see what I can do to get the engine shop to get us more power so he can have a better chance.”
The two beautiful Gray Motorsports, Jerry Haas built race cars received a special honor. They both earned the Best Engineered Vehicle award today.
“I’m extremely pleased that both cars were given the Best Engineered Car award, said Gray. “Jerry built us a couple of really nice race cars and Craig (Hankinson, crew chief) and Mike (Earle, car chief) know I like everything put together real well and real clean and so they did an excellent job of detail on assembling the car. And then if you look at our motors, not only do they run pretty decent but the look like a show piece and that’s due to my guys at the shop. The attention to detail from the chassis builder, my crew, and the engine shop makes me real proud of my guys and think they deserve the award.”
After a few days of testing, Gray will be ready to it all again at the 26th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Raceway. And this time he hopes that both of his cars will have equally successful outings.
