NEWTON, N.C. – Taylor Gray wanted to put the recent memories of his ValleyStar Credit Union 300 flip at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway behind him, and he did just that Sunday afternoon.
Gray, 14, led all 200 laps of the annual Fall Brawl at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway, using a potent DGR-Crosley-prepared No. 17 Toyota Camry to fend off every advance thrown at him during the late model stock car special.
The win was worth $4,000 to the younger brother of past NHRA Pro Stock champion Tanner Gray.
“My DGR-Crosley guys gave me a pretty good Toyota Camry,” said Gray in victory lane. “It’s pretty cool to lead all 200. I don’t know who was on my bumper at the end, but I was trying to save as much as I could in case there was a late caution and we ended up having another restart. It was good racing, though.
“This win was just about moving ahead. As a race car driver, that’s what you have to do is put bad days behind you and focus on the next one,” he added. “Believe it or not, this wasn’t a perfect race car. It was good today, but we battled it some down the stretch.”
Gray had to contend with Gage Painter for much of the day, but after contact with a lapped car in turn four shuffled several of the frontrunners late, it was a hard-charging Trotter he had to fight off down the stretch in order to secure the victory.
Trotter slipped inside of Painter for second coming to 38 to go, but at that point she was nearly three seconds behind Gray in the battle for the win. So Trotter put her head down and began chipping away at the deficit.
Slowly, at a rate of roughly a tenth of a second per lap, Gray’s lead began to shrink and at the white flag, Trotter was right on Gray’s bumper with a shot to win the race.
She took that chance down into the third turn, coming within inches of being able to deliver a tap to the back of Gray’s car, but in the end fell just over a car length short of victory.
“It was a good race at the end; that was my best finish ever in this car,” Trotter noted. “We call this one ‘Ancient Orange,’ because it’s actually a car my dad (Tracy Trotter) used to drive out here at Hickory when he was racing. We put it back together two years ago and this was a good day for her, definitely.
“We set the car up tight, and it actually came to me there at the end. I thought there was one more lap left, though!” she added. “When I got there off turn four, they threw the checkered and I was a little bummed, but we’ll take a second-place finish.”
Painter hung on to complete the podium, followed by part-time NASCAR Xfinity Series racer Ryan Vargas and Nolan Pope – two teammates out of the Lee Faulk Racing stable.
Recently-crowned NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion Sam Mayer, driving the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet normally piloted by Josh Berry, was expected to be a factor for the win but never contended up front all afternoon. He crossed the line sixth.
The finish:
Taylor Gray, Gracie Trotter, Gage Painter, Ryan Vargas, Nolan Pope, Sam Mayer, Jonathan Shafer, Vince Midas, Landon Huffman, Jeremy Pelfrey, Zeke Shell, Zack Wells, Jessica Cann, Mike Darne, Mitch Walker.