Taylor Gray portrait before the Lucas Oil 200 Driven By General Tire for the ARCA Menards Series at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. Photo by Kyle Zedaker
Taylor Gray prior to the Lucas Oil 200 Driven By General Tire for the ARCA Menards Series at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (Kyle Zedaker/ARCA Racing)

Quick Quiz: With Taylor Gray

www.arcaracing.com May 11, 2020


Charles Krall (ARCA Racing): Welcome to this week’s 10 Questions and we are talking to a young man that has yet to make his debut in the ARCA Menards Series but we are very much anticipating seeing him behind the wheel before too long, Taylor Gray, brother of Tanner Gray – and as a track announcer we are going to take bets on how many times I call you Tanner throughout the course of the season and this phone call. I am going to work my tail off to make sure I don’t do that, but I am just going to tell you right now it’s going to happen. Great to have you here and we look forward to having you on the racetrack very soon. We’re going to dive right into it. Question number one, if you could go on vacation anywhere in the world where would you want to go?

Taylor Gray (DGR-Crosley driver): Man, that’s a hard question. Here in the wintertime in 2019 we went to Bora Bora for two weeks so at this point with everything going on I wouldn’t mind visiting there again.

CK: Yeah, get away from everybody right? So, you are new in your racing career but you come from a racing family and you’ve been around it your entire life. What’s your favorite thing to do away from the racetrack?

TG: Honestly just kind of relax. I like to come up here to my girlfriend’s house and just hang out with them. It’s just taking yourself away from the racing environment for a little bit is kind of nice but at the same time whenever you get back to it you are full steam ahead and focused to do your job and hopefully get a win.

CK: I had been out of high school for fifteen years by the time you were born, which makes me feel very, very old. You are still technically school age, so what is your favorite class in school? Is there one that really stands out? And what is the one you really don’t like?

TG: I have to be honest with you, I don’t really like any of them.

CK: That counts!

TG: But I guess biology would be my favorite and math would be my worst.

CK: Math was definitely my worst. I remember taking a remedial class in college that you had to take just to get the credit out of the way and I just hated it. You have been around racing for a long time and been around some really cool people. If you could pick anybody, and this could be racing or non-racing, living or dead, to hang out pre-race to get you pumped up or just to learn something interesting about the world, who would you want it to be?

TG: Jimmie Johnson. He has so much experience and with all of the success he doesn’t have that chip on his shoulder that a lot of people do. I really admire him for that.

CK: I have a great Jimmie Johnson story. I introduced him to my daughter after he won at Michigan a few years ago and I hadn’t ever met him before either. I introduced myself through the silly Twitter account that I run, and he looked me in the eye and I’ll clean up what he said, but he said “hey, no kidding.” I think he’s a great guy and very underrated as a driver. I don’t know why he doesn’t the credit he deserves from some people. I will double down on your pick, Jimmie would be a good choice.

You haven’t quite made your debut in the ARCA Menards Series just yet, but what kind of example do you want to set for those who come into racing after you do?

TG: Focus on the task at hand and don’t really get off track with what you are doing. Get to the track, if you’re at a new one, admire it for a minute and then get to work. Do what you came to do. Stay focused.

RACING-REFERENCE: Taylor Gray Career Statistics

CK: I can’t ask the next one the way it’s written because I don’t think you’re old enough to have your driver’s license yet. If you could pick any car in the world to have as your first car what would you like to have?

TG: Since our manufacturer is Ford, it’s going to have to be a Ford product.

CK: Right, nicely done. Would you take a Mustang? An F-150? What would you pick?

TG: I like the F-150s a lot and the F-250, but if I was going to get a car I would have to go with the GT 500.

CK: Nice. Question number seven. I have seen your brother around the race track and I know he is a very positive person and he brings a lot of positivity to the race team. What do you think your biggest contribution to the team will be?

TG: I think what makes me a little different is the relationship between me and my crew guys is really important. Getting that relationship going and knowing everyone’s back stories is really important in a race team.

CK: I appreciate the fact there are drivers that really know their crew guys a lot and know not only what they are doing at the race track but away from the track as well. That’s a very good thing to do. Do you have any pre-race rituals that you do before you get out there in the racecar?

TG: I just have to try to clear my head as much as possible. Just kind of block out everyone. If someone is trying to give me some advice I try to take that in but I just try to clear my head as much as possible.

FOLLOW TAYLOR GRAY ON TWITTER

CK: I have one more question then I am going to ask you a question from Hailie Deegan and then you’re going to give me one to pass on to the next person. My last question is it’s two laps to go, you’re coming down to take the white flag and you’re on team owner David Gilliland’s bumper. He’s leading, you’re second, what’s the outcome of that final lap going to be?

TG: Some people aren’t going to agree with me here, but a win is a win. When it comes down to it, on the last lap there aren’t any teammates out there. You’re out there for yourself and your crew and you don’t want to let your crew down. I wouldn’t try to wreck him but definitely move him up the racetrack. At least give me a shot. It doesn’t matter if it’s Kyle Busch or David Gilliland, I am going to race everybody the same way.

CK: I like that answer a lot. So Hailie’s question, and she said this with a chuckle so keep that in mind, but she wants to know how the heck you flip a late model at Martinsville?

TG: Ummmmmm …

CK: I have been watching racing for 47 years and I can think of maybe one other time I have ever seen anybody flip at Martinsville. How did you do that man? How did you make that happen?

TG: It was honestly just a freak accident. The guy in front of me, Sammy Smith, blew a left rear and came down right in front of me as I was trying to come down to miss him. My left front was in the grass. You know how it has the curb and the grass? My left front was down in the grass trying to miss him. My right front clipped him just right and I would have been fine if my right rear didn’t hit him but my right rear just took me up on the left sides and started taking me over.

CK: Crazy stuff. I saw an ARCA car flip on a tiny little quarter mile racetrack, and I was like man, you have to work pretty hard to turn one of these babies over on a quarter mile. I saw that deal last year and I thought the same thing. Do you have a question for Gio Scelzi?

TG: How do you transfer from sprint car racing to what he is doing now? What has he struggled with the most and what has he found successful?