NHRA’s 2014 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship will begin at Charlotte’s zMAX Dragway on September 12th, and Gray Motorsports team owner Johnny Gray will have three cars racing for the championship trophy over the course of the six-race playoffs. Pro Stock Chevrolet Camaro drivers Shane Gray and Dave Connolly guaranteed their respective tickets to compete for the season title during the Western Swing this summer, and rookie of the year contender Jonathan Gray earned his right with a remarkable clutch performance last weekend at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
Recently, there was talk of adding a fourth car to the Gray Motorsports camp and putting Gray in the seat to race Pro Stock alongside his team, including sons Shane and Jonathan. Gray began his professional career in a Pro Stocker in 1993 and raced the ultra competitive category intermittently until the end of 2010, when he handed over the Pro Stock responsibilities to Shane and moved over to Funny Car to finish his career as a full time NHRA driver.
The Indy race last weekend showed a definite surge in the ever-increasing performance of the Gray Motorsports team. For the first time, three Gray Motorsports Chevrolet Camaros made it to the semifinals at the same event, Dave had the quickest car of the class through the first three rounds of eliminations, and Shane’s car clocked the fastest speed in two of four rounds en route to his fourth victory and first at the esteemed U.S. Nationals. Perhaps most noteworthy was that Jonathan knocked out four-time world champion Greg Anderson and then young gun Vincent Nobile in the first two rounds to secure his berth in the Countdown to the Championship in his first season as a driver in the tough category.
It seems that the Gray Motorsports team is peaking at just the right in time, and for Gray, this fact necessitated a tough decision.
“Well, things have changed since we first started considering it,” said Gray. “I know Shane and the boys really want me to run Charlotte, and I know we’d have a great time. But with three Gray Motorsports cars in the Countdown, I have elected not to run a fourth car. I don’t want to take any of the focus away from what happens with Shane, Dave and Jonathan. It’s a business decision, as simple as that.”
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