It’s been quite the career change for Tanner Gray, who’s now in his third full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season with David Gilliland Racing.
Having started out in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and becoming the youngest driver to win a championship in the Pro Stock category in 2018, Gray has his sights set on a different goal as he continues his NASCAR career.
After running the 2021 season with multiple crew chiefs, he’s found some stability with Jerry Baxter and is now in pursuit of the playoffs. Gray’s earned two top fives and four top 10s so far and is currently 11th in the standings, 33 points back from the final playoff spot with four races left in the regular season.
Frontstretch spoke with Gray before his 13th-place run at Sonoma Raceway about working with Baxter, having his brother Taylor as a teammate, his time in the NHRA and his current goals for the rest of this season.
Joy Tomlinson, Frontstretch: You opened the year with three straight top 10s and then you earned a sixth place at Charlotte Motor Speedway. How do you feel your third full-time Truck Series season has gone so far?
Tanner Gray: To start, I felt like we came out pretty strong and felt like everything was going well. Felt like, as of late, we’ve fallen off a little bit, and I’ve really been in kind of a slump. Like I said, starting off really good but just in a little bit of a slump right now and need to kind of find a way to crawl out of that hole and get back to running up front where I feel like we belong.
I feel like I need to do a better job overall and put us in better positions throughout the race to kind of maximize those finishes.
Tomlinson: What’s it been like this year with Jerry Baxter as your crew chief after having several in 2021?
Gray: It’s nice to have some familiarity going back to the track. Obviously, being able to work with Jerry all year is going to be nice. So far I feel like he’s been a big help for me and also DGR as a company. It’s been really cool to have him on board, and we get along really well. It’s a lot of fun.
Tomlinson: What is it like having your brother [Taylor Gray] as a teammate?
Gray: It’s a lot of fun. Obviously, we’re pretty competitive with each other and probably want to beat each other more than maybe anybody else. It’s a lot of fun, we get to share notes and really compare what we’re doing week in and week out with each other when he runs the truck, so [it] kind of gives [us]…
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