It took Tanner Gray all of two years to go from a star rookie to a dominating NHRA pro stock eliminator champion. After collecting the 2018 NHRA championship in convincing fashion, Gray turned his sights onto the world of NASCAR stock car racing and his debt season in 2019 was pretty spectacular. With only limited experience at a handful of tracks, Gray quickly developed skills in the ARCA and K&N Series before making his first official NASCAR truck start in Martinsville, Virginia.

We happened to be there at that race and watched this kid handle the truck with skill and guts, coming into the final corner with a strong top ten position before being swept up in a maelstrom of wrecking pickup trucks.

In conversations with Gray that weekend it was clear that this guy has the mental acuity and the driving chops to make it in the big leagues of NASCAR stock car racing and his climb is moving along at a rapid clip. A young, hungry racer who has devoted himself to the craft, his work is paying off.

Doubly good news for Gray is the fact that the DGR-Crosley team that he drives for fields some of the nicest equipment in the series and is certainly an upper echelon team. Basically, he’ll have good trucks to drive.

Gray, who turns 21 in April still has a steep learning curve ahead of him. As with all young drivers, running races on super speedway tracks will continue to prove an education at this point in his career. Mostly having run short tracks for years, that is where he is most comfortable and knowledgable. That said, it’ll be fun to see what he can do in Daytona on the high banks!

Tanner’s a good dude, an intense competitor, and a guy who would have been a factor at every race he ever ran in pro stock if he had stuck with drag racing.

News: Tanner Gray to go full-time in NASCAR truck series