LONG POND, Pa. — The last few months haven’t treated Taylor Gray kindly.
Entering Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, the 19-year-old from Denver, N.C., had just one top 10 in six races. Of note, he finished three laps off the pace at Kansas Speedway in May, battled mechanical issues at World Wide Technology (Ill.) Raceway and crashed out two weeks ago at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway. Gray finished 30th and 34th in the latter two, respectively.
So certainly, a fourth-place finish in Friday’s CRC Brakleen 175 was a welcomed sight. But the TRICON Garage racer thought he had a chance at victory lane.
Starting 19th after a drizzle washed away qualifying, Gray drove up to eighth in 15 laps to score three points at the end of Stage One.
Most contenders, including Gray, elected to stay out during the break. But rather than staying out until the end of Stage Two like some of the others, Jeff Hensley called his driver down pit road on lap 27, surrendering top five stage points for track position later on.
Race leaders Corey Heim and Christian Eckes came for service at the stage break and had to preserve fuel to make it to the end. On the other hand, Gray had to make another stop. As Rajah Caruth brought out the caution on lap 46, Gray came back down pit road.
On fresher tires, his No. 11 truck shot through the field while Heim, Eckes and others were in save mode. With nine laps to go, rain in the area resulted in a caution and two brief red flags before the race resumed.
In a sense, that leveled the playing field. On a hectic restart with three to go, Eckes nearly wrecked from the second row entering turn one, but that just allowed Heim to pull away with the lead. Heim led 55 circuits as he won for the fifth time this season.
Gray was the second-best Toyota finisher, bringing his truck home with a needed top five.
“We really had the truck to do it all day. Got caught up with some strategy stuff,” Gray said. “We were really on target to just go for a race win and had some troubles on pit road, so got a little behind.
“Have to thank my TRICON guys for bringing me a fast Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Feel like if we could’ve gotten some clean air and a little more track position there, we would’ve finished a little better.
“Good job to Corey. They were really fast all day. Just have to keep working and get back on track.”
With just two races remaining before the playoffs, he sits eighth in points – 39 markers above the cutline. He’s still pursuing his first series victory.