Gray Gaulding is running his first full-time season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2019 with SS-Green Light Racing in 2023, and he’s coming at it with a much different approach.
The 25-year-old is now a decade into his professional racing career, and he opened up about this past weekend at Daytona International Speedway, his impressive resume and what it was like being one of the youngest drivers to ever win in any NASCAR series.
Tanner Marlar, Frontstretch: You finished at Daytona [and] had a good run, just tell me about your experience back in a full-time seat this weekend.
Gray Gaulding: I think we had a good start to the season. We made the race, just like we thought we would and had a good, solid qualifying effort. For the first time in my career I played a little bit of defense in the first few stages, I just kind of wanted to ride … All I wanted was a shot to win. Everyone knows that at Daytona and Talladega, the speedways, you’ve got to get to the end … At the last restart I was seventh with a chance to win, but unfortunately the fuel ran out of the pickup and I basically ran out of gas for about 100 yards … It wasn’t our day, but at the end of the day we got a clean racecar, a decent points day with the finish and that type of thing. We’re excited to go to Fontana. (It was) a great way to kick off the year, you know we put a lot of work in this offseason, and my team did a really, really good job … all in all, a very successful weekend.
Marlar: Now that we’re up to date, I want to take us back a little bit. This is your first time back full-time with SS-Green Light since 2019. You ran a lot of races in 2021, not with SS-Green Light, but you were there with the series for a while. What’s that gap been like between these two full-time slots with SS-Green Light?
Gray Gaulding: To be honest with you, the last full-time season of every week, being on the grind was 2019, so it’s been a minute for me personally. When I signed the deal with Bobby (Dotter) to run full-time, I kind of had a little bit of anxiety. I’m like ‘man, I’m back on the road, living out of my suitcase again.’ Which, don’t get me wrong, that’s the only lifestyle I’ve ever known, on the road racing, state to state, city to city, that type thing … I’ve missed my NASCAR family, like seeing crew members, team owners, fans, like for me this weekend, to have fans come up to me and go ‘Gray, it’s so good to see…
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