TALLADEGA, Ala. – Gray Gaulding said going into the race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway that he wanted to give the fans in attendance something to remember.
He did just that at the end of Saturday’s MoneyLion 300, slicing through the lead pack on a green-white-checkered finish en route to a runner-up finish, his career-best result in 17 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts.
Gaulding stayed in contention among the leaders all afternoon, but was one of the stars of the show during the race’s final restart. He lined up sixth when the green flag waved, rocketing forward in a hurry.
The Virginia young gun got a shove from John Hunter Nemechek going down the backstretch as he built up momentum, then got a second push from Nemechek in the tri-oval that shot him to the inside entering turn one and past third-running Chase Briscoe.
In fact, Gaulding’s momentum was such that by the time he exited the second corner onto the backstretch for the final time, he was able to cut up in front of Christopher Bell for second and take a shot at Tyler Reddick for the victory.
However, Gaulding didn’t count on a crossover run from Briscoe, who cut up in front of his No. 08 Panini Chevrolet at the mid-point of the backstretch and stalled Gaulding’s momentum out just enough to prevent him from having a shot at Reddick coming off turn four and back to the checkered flag.
Gaulding still trailed Reddick home and held off all challenges from behind, coming home second and notching both his and team owner Bobby Dotter’s highest Xfinity Series finish ever.
“Man, that was absolutely awesome,” Gaulding told SPEED SPORT after the race. “I tried every single trick in the handbook to get the job done, but the 98 (Briscoe) just got a huge run. He went up to block me, and I slingshotted back by him, but just didn’t have quite enough steam to get back to Reddick.
“It was pretty close, though; I just needed a little bit more,” Gaulding added. “Maybe if the 98 hadn’t cut up in front of me, I might have been able to get to the 2 car (of Reddick). I was trying to get to his bumper to move him out of the way or something … but my team gave me a great car and this was a great day, man. What a day it was.”
Prior to Saturday, Gaulding’s best mark in any NASCAR national series was a fourth-place run at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series in 2014, though he did earn a top-10 finish in the attrition-filled Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega in October of 2017.
This weekend’s Talladega result was much more impactful for the Colonial Heights, Va., native.
“This is Talladega, man. This is what every driver wants to have, is that last-lap shot to win a race, and man, we had that today,” Gaulding noted. “We came up a little short, but I can’t be too disappointed, because this is a huge deal for us.”
After years of struggling in the mid-field of the Xfinity Series, this season has been a breakout year for Dotter’s SS Green Light Racing operation.
Gaulding has been a consistent force in the top half of the field through the first nine races of the season, and his finish on Saturday propelled him to 14th in driver points, just outside the playoff grid.
Despite all that, however, Gaulding still said a second-place finish meant “everything” to the small team.
“We’re the underdogs everywhere we go,” he said. “I like it like that. At the beginning of the year, people didn’t really pay attention to us … but now it just seems every week, with the cars we’re building, the way I’m driving and the way my crew chief Patrick (Donahue) and the guys have set my cars up, we’ve had chances to do some special stuff. I believe we’ll have a chance at (winning) one of these days.
“I can’t say enough about Bobby and his guys. That was a great car and I drove the heck out of it.”
As far as Gaulding’s desire to leave with a memorable moment, he knew that he accomplished just that.
“This was the goal, and we had a shot, man,” Gaulding smiled. “This is the first step, though. We want a win, and I believe that we’ll get there … but we’ve been building toward a run like this and I’m so glad that we get to walk out of here with the finish that this team deserves. It means so much, it really does.
“You always want that last spot, but I can promise you I’ll remember this one for a long time.”