CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nineteen-year-old Taylor Gray will chase his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series during the six-race playoffs, which open Sunday at Milwaukee Mile Speedway.
Gray enters the playoffs eighth in the standings after five top-five and nine top-10 finishes during the 16-race regular season piloting the No. 17 Toyota for TRICON Garage.
“Luckily, I think this first round of the playoffs for our company as a whole has a pretty good set of tracks coming up, so more so, looking at a bigger picture,” Gray said on Tuesday. “Yeah, just taking it one race at a time — focusing, and not changing much to what we’ve done all year long. Just show up to the race track prepared, and kind of just have to go through the weekend and do the same thing we’ve been doing all year long — I don’t know if much will change.”
Gray said it will take something he didn’t do during the regular season — win a race — to contend for the title.
“The big thing is we are going to have to go and win races, starting in Milwaukee hopefully,” Gray said. “If you go back and look, I think it is fair to say that we should have three wins on the side of our truck this year – just kind of failed to execute some of these races out, so I think the big thing is executing these races, especially executing at the end of these races and picking up some of those wins.”
While he hasn’t won since becoming a full-time Truck Series racer this season, Gray reminded everyone that he does have experience winning races.
“I think winning fixes a lot of things and when you win, you get on this roll and this routine, where it seems like nothing can really go wrong, and when you get on that roll – I’ve experienced that back when we raced ARCA, I think I won three or four in a row, and I’ve experienced that,” Gray said. “I know what it feels like. You feel like you are Superman, so to start that right now in the playoffs, that would be huge to get us going rounds and make the Final 4 — that would be huge.”
Gray has benefitted from Jeff Hensley, a crew chief in various NASCAR series for more than three decades, calling the shots for his team this season.
“I think the big thing is working with Jeff Hensley (crew chief) that is on the box and working with him as mentor and also as a crew chief – just kind of picking his brain and gain the experience that he has had over the years with racing,” Gray said. “I think that is one of the biggest factors with me, running a lot better than I have in the past, is just having Jeff to work with and picking his brain, and also it is experience. This is my second year – I guess technically first full-time year in trucks – just gaining the experience and being better.”