- Camping World Truck Series Racer Tanner Gray is substituting for Deric Kramer this weekend in Reading.
- Gray said he will continue to compete in the circle-track world and has no intention to return to the NHRA Pro Stock ranks.
- Of his Truck Series career, the third-year racer said, ‘I still feel like I’m talented enough to do it. I feel like I am just not good at it.’
Third-year NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Tanner Gray has returned to an NHRA dragstrip – for just one race, as a substitute for COVID-stricken Deric Kramer at the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals at Reading, Pa.
If any drag-racing fan is hoping that’s a signal that Gray misses and looks to return to the sport, the one in which his father Shane and grandfather Johnny excelled before him, they’ll be disappointed.
“I doubt it. No, I’m just filling in, trying to help them out. I enjoy it, but I love what I’m doing,” the third-year David Gilliland Racing Ford driver said before qualifying started Friday in this first of six Countdown to the Championship races.
Besides, Gray said, he has unfinished business in circle-track racing.
“I don’t feel like I’m where I’m at and haven’t had the success that I want to have in the Truck Series, so it’s something I still work at really hard. I just want to stay focused on that. But [I’m] just grateful to have the opportunity to come out here and help out the Kramers and get to see some good friends and try to drive the car again.”
Gray, who at age 18 became the NHRA’s youngest-ever champion in 2018, left drag racing at the top of his game, following his eight-victory season, to compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He raced this past Thursday night, finishing 17th (just behind younger brother Taylor) in the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway. And with barely any sleep, Gray slid into the driver’s seat Friday evening for Kramer.
It was a rude welcome-back for Gray. He experienced severe tire shake immediately after his launch from the Maple Grove Raceway starting line and was last among the 20 Pro Stock entrants in Friday’s provisional lineup.
This Tanner Gray was noticeably different than the one whose meteoric rise in the NHRA was underscored with confidence that bordered on brash. Friday’s Tanner Gray admittedly was vulnerable and apprehensive.
“I’m nervous. Yeah, I’m really nervous,” he said before making his Friday night run. “But I don’t know – it should be fun. I warmed it up a little bit ago for the first time, so that helped a little bit. I mean, I’ve been very disconnected from this side of things for a little bit now, just because I’ve been trying to focus on the truck stuff, but when you disconnect yourself from something like that, you feel like you kind of lose touch with it. Being able to sit there and warm it up kind of helped some of the butterflies and whatnot. [I] just probably have some pretty low expectations for myself. We’ll see where we stack up here after the first run. Hopefully I can just go and make a decent run in the first round here and kind of get the feel back under my belt and hopefully not be too far off.”
He said his goal was to “just kind of try to get down the track in Q1.”
He didn’t under full power, but he had two more chances Saturday to qualify for the 16-car grid. Eliminations are set for Sunday.
Gray scrambled on short notice to travel to Eastern Pennsylvania, and NHRA officials hastily renewed his Pro Stock license.
“Didn’t have a whole lot of time. Luckily, just kind of worked out where our schedules aligned where I could race Bristol last night and then come over here – when I have, like, two Thursday night races a year. So, it literally happened on the perfect weekend,” Gray said. “But it’s unfortunate Deric has COVID, especially with it being the first race in the Countdown and having to miss here on unfortunate circumstances. Hopefully he gets better soon.”
This marks the second straight year at Maple Grove Raceway that a Camping World Drag Racing Series title contender has been sidelined with COVID and has sent a substitute to kick off the Countdown to the Championship.
Tommy Johnson Jr. won the Funny Car trophy last fall while filling in for Matt Hagan, who was hospitalized with COVID. This time, Gray is driving the Get Biofuel Chevy Camaro for No. 11-seeded Deric Kramer, who tested positive for the virus Wednesday. Whatever points Gray earns this weekend will remain with Kramer, who received a medical waiver.
Gray said it’s “cool to get the opportunity to try and do it again,” despite sympathizing that Kramer “has to miss the first race here.” Gray said, “I was surprised to get the call. Deric and I obviously raced against each other here and knew each other just from being out here. I wouldn’t say that we were close, but I’ve always respected Deric a lot. [I’m] just grateful to have the opportunity to come out here and help out the Kramers and get to see some good friends and try to drive the car again.”
His return to drag racing was so quickly arranged that he said, “I have not talked to hardly any drivers. Greg [Anderson] and them are here. I’m running one of Greg’s motors. I’ve been really good friends with Greg. Me and Cody [Anderson, Greg’s son and crew member] grew up together. Cody and I have been best friends since we were 10 years old, so it’s cool to be back. And this is obviously the first time I’ve ever drag-raced anything outside of my family’s stuff, so that aspect is a little bit different, but it’s cool to be able to do it for Greg and KB Racing.”
One of the reasons Gray gave in 2018 for leaving drag racing and seeking greener pastures was his belief that the sanctioning body didn’t market him as much as he thought it should have.
With a wry smile Friday, he said, “Yeah, I was young and said a lot of stupid things back then. I still feel like that there’s definitely missed opportunities. But you’re going to have that in everything you do. I feel like what I was saying and how I was saying it was probably the wrong way, I guess. Probably was a poor choice of words, but yeah, younger then and probably a little bit immature. I feel like I’ve grown up a lot.”
For Gray, adjusting to everything in the NASCAR Truck Series has been more difficult than it was with the NHRA Pro Stock class.
“I think the learning curve itself has definitely been steeper for me over there. Over here, I excelled fairly quick and seemed to pick up on things and just naturally was pretty good. I was surrounded by my family. I was immersed in it, and I watched it for many years. And going over there, I still feel like I’m talented enough to do it. I feel like I am just not good at it.” Gray said.
“I feel like there’s a lot of places that we show speed and everything else. It’s just about putting the little pieces together and having some consistency. I think that’s what I just have to keep working on striving to get better at.
“I think right now we’re trying to figure out what works for me,” he said. “We just made a crew chief swap a few races ago, and I’m only three races in with him so far, and he and I are just trying to learn each other and really just he’s trying to figure out what I need. I’m trying to figure out how he wants the ship to run. The only way to put it is I just got to get better, need more consistency.”
He said he plans to return to the Truck Series in 2023, and he said he’ll focus on fixing what needs fixing for his NASCAR program to flourish.
Gray said he’ll be “just trying to narrow in on some stuff and get everything locked down, but pretty sure I’ll be in the Truck Series again next year and just got to figure things out over there. We started off this year really strong and fell off really hard. It really hasn’t been the year that we want, but I feel like I haven’t found the right person that I click with yet. So, yeah, we just got to keep searching and find someone who can help me and kind of lean on each other, sort of like what I had over here with Dave [Connolly]. So it’s all about people and surrounding yourself with the right people.
“In every sport, things evolve a lot. Things are always changing. You see it all the time. I think that’s just the way sports goes. When you’re doing something at a high level, you’re always looking to improve. And sometimes in order to improve, you have to make changes. I don’t know what my future looks like quite yet, as far as that side of things. I know that I’ll be racing in the Truck Series next year, and I know it’ll be with DGR.”
He said his program there is inching toward success: “I feel like we’re getting closer, but [we] still [have] some work to be done.”
After Friday night at Maple Grove Raceway, back in a Pro Stock car, four years removed from his last appearance and his championship, he knew he had some work to be done this weekend, too.