Johnny, Shane and Tanner Gray will make NHRA history at this weekend’s U.S. Nationals

By Aug 30, 2017, 7:00 AM EDT
Photos courtesy Gray Motorsports
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BROWNSBURG, Indiana – Like father, like son, like grandfather. That’s going to be one of the big storylines at this weekend’s Chevrolet Performance NHRA U.S. Nationals.

For the first time in NHRA history, three generations of drag racers will compete in the same racing class in a national event. And it comes in the annual biggest race of the season, at Lucas Oil Raceway, just outside Indianapolis.

You might call it three shades of Gray, as veteran racer Johnny Gray will lead a family onslaught in Pro Stock along with son Shane and grandson Tanner.

“I am one proud grandpa and father,” Johnny Gray said. “Being a part of the first three generations to race professionally together is neat, but I see it as racing the biggest race of the year with the closest people to you and may one of us get the win.”

A veteran Funny Car driver, Johnny Gray, 64, retired after the 2013 season and didn’t plan to get back behind the wheel of another race car ever again.

But when the unique opportunity arose for the eldest Gray to race with – and against – his son and grandson in the NHRA’s marquee race, the competitive juices started flowing again and he pulled down the his helmet from his closet and threw it into the ring once again.

Tanner Gray (photo courtesy NHRA)

“I’m really looking forward to it and everybody else is, too,” Tanner Gray said. “The main thing is for all of us to stay calm and focused on what we have to do.

“I wouldn’t be here without my grandpa or my dad.”

Shane Gray, 45, decided to take a hiatus from racing after last season, turning over the keys to the family’s Pro Stock Chevrolet Camaro in 2017 to son Tanner, who turned 18 in April.

The Gray talent is obviously in Tanner’s genes, not to mention he’s been around drag racing with his father and grandfather his entire life.

That’s why he was Shane’s hand-picked replacement.

“Getting the opportunity to race alongside my grandpa and dad at an event like the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals is pretty special,” Tanner Gray said. “Having an opportunity to make more history by being the first three generations of one family to compete professionally in the same class makes this rookie season I am having even more awesome.”

The youngest racing Gray has been one of the most pleasant surprises in both Pro Stock and overall NHRA racing this season, racking up a series-leading four wins already in the first 23 national events. At 18, he became the youngest winner in an NHRA national event in all pro series.

“If you told me I’d have four wins at this point of the season, I’d have told you you were crazy,” Tanner Gray said. “I’m just enjoying myself and having a real fun time – and hopefully, we can keep it up.”

Tanner Gray is currently No. 2 in the Pro Stock standings and is locked in to the upcoming six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

“I cannot praise my Gray Motorsports guys enough,” Tanner Gray said. “They are the ones who are making me look good and making my job easy.

“My guys really have this car dialed in. Dave (crew chief Dave Connolly) has it figured out. We have some great equipment. I am very blessed to be in this position. I have done a small part and have to give all of the glory to my guys.”

All three Grays will drive Chevy Camaros with Valvoline sponsorship and logos from different eras.

Johnny’s Camaro SS will carry a Valvoline logo from the 1950s. The company has sponsored Johnny Gray for many years.

Shane will drive a Camaro SS with a Valvoline logo from the 1970s.

When he saw all the fun his son was having, Shane decided to return to the circuit early on this season on a part-time basis, capturing the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida.

“Racing alongside my dad and Tanner at Indy with each of us carrying the Valvoline logos from different eras will be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to it.”

Tanner will drive a Camaro SS with a Valvoline logo from 2000.

As for his hopes this weekend, Tanner, who won the two weeks ago at Brainerd, Minnesota, wants to win — even if it means potentially beating his father and grandfather in the process.

“Winning at Indy would be awesome,” Tanner Gray said. “My dad has won here back in 2014 and I remember how big of a deal it was. Racing with my Dad and Grandpa this weekend would also add to the win.

“If I can do my job as a driver, we should see the final round on Sunday. Hopefully my dad or grandpa is lined up against me on the other side.”

All three Grays did some fine tuning on Monday and Tuesday, testing at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C., — about 20 miles from the team’s Denver, N.C. headquarters – before heading out for the 500-mile trek to Indianapolis for this weekend’s race.

“I am out here to have a good time racing with my son Tanner,” Shane Gray said. “Making consistent runs to collect as much data as we can to elevate our Gray Motorsports program in preparation for the Countdown is our primary focus.”

Added Johnny Gray, “I am probably the most excited out of the three of us to race this weekend. The trash talk has begun and after testing this week, Tanner and Shane better not underestimate my ability at the starting line.”

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‘It’s gnarly, bro’: IndyCar drivers face new challenge on streets of downtown Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 7:32 PM EDT
IndyCar Detroit downtown
James Black/Penske Entertainment
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DETROIT – It was the 1968 motion picture, “Winning” when actress Joanne Woodward asked Paul Newman if he were going to Milwaukee in the days after he won the Indianapolis 500 as driver Frank Capua.

“Everybody goes to Milwaukee after Indianapolis,” Newman responded near the end of the film.

Milwaukee was a mainstay as the race on the weekend after the Indianapolis 500 for decades, but since 2012, the first race after the Indy 500 has been Detroit at Belle Isle Park.

This year, there is a twist.

Instead of IndyCar racing at the Belle Isle State Park, it’s the streets of downtown Detroit on a race course that is quite reminiscent of the old Formula One and CART race course that was used from 1982 to 1991.

Formula One competed in the United States Grand Prix from 1982 to 1988. Beginning in 1989, CART took over the famed street race through 1991. In 1992, the race was moved to Belle Isle, where it was held through last year (with a 2009-2011 hiatus after the Great Recession).

The Penske Corp. is the promoter of this race, and they did a lot of good at Belle Isle, including saving the Scott Fountain, modernizing the Belle Isle Casino, and basically cleaning up the park for Detroit citizens to enjoy.

The race, however, had outgrown the venue. Roger Penske had big ideas to create an even bigger event and moving it back to downtown Detroit benefitted race sponsor Chevrolet. The footprint of the race course goes around General Motors world headquarters in the GM Renaissance Center – the centerpiece building of Detroit’s modernized skyline.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

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Motor City is about to roar with the sound of Chevrolet and Honda engines this weekend as the NTT IndyCar Series is the featured race on the nine-turn, 1.7-mile temporary street course.

It’s perhaps the most unique street course on the IndyCar schedule because of the bumps on the streets and the only split pit lane in the series.

The pit lanes has stalls on opposing sides and four lanes across an unusual rectangular pit area (but still only one entry and exit).

Combine that, with the bumps and the NTT IndyCar Series drivers look forward to a wild ride in Motor City.

“It’s gnarly, bro,” Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward said before posting the fastest time in Friday’s first practice. “It will be very interesting because the closest thing that I can see it being like is Toronto-like surfaces with more of a Long Beach-esque layout.

“There’s less room for error than Long Beach. There’s no curbs. You’ve got walls. I think very unique to this place.

PRACTICE RESULTS: Speeds from the first session

“Then it’s a bit of Nashville built into it. The braking zones look really very bumpy. Certain pavements don’t look bumpy but with how the asphalt and concrete is laid out, there’s undulation with it. So, you can imagine the cars are going to be smashing on every single undulation because we’re going to go through those sections fairly fast, and obviously the cars are pretty low. I don’t know.

“It looks fun, man. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. It’s going to be learning through every single session, not just for drivers and teams but for race control. For everyone.

“Everybody has to go into it knowing not every call is going to be smooth. It’s a tall task to ask from such a demanding racetrack. I think it’ll ask a lot from the race cars as well.”

The track is bumpy, but O’Ward indicated he would be surprised if it is bumper than Nashville. By comparison to Toronto, driving at slow speed is quite smooth, but fast speed is very bumpy.

“This is a mix of Nashville high-speed characteristics and Toronto slow speed in significant areas,” O’Ward said. “I think it’ll be a mix of a lot of street courses we go to, and the layout looks like more space than Nashville, which is really tight from Turn 4 to 8. It looks to be a bit more spacious as a whole track, but it’ll get tight in multiple areas.”

The concept of having four-wide pit stops is something that excites the 24-year-old driver from Monterey, Mexico.

“I think it’s innovation, bro,” O’Ward said. “If it works out, we’ll look like heroes.

“If it doesn’t, we tried.”

Because of the four lanes on pit road, there is a blend line the drivers will have to adhere to. Otherwise, it would be chaos leaving the pits compared to a normal two-lane pit road.

“If it wasn’t there, there’d be guys fighting for real estate where there’s one car that fits, and there’d be cars crashing in pit lane,” O’Ward said. “I get why they did that. It’s the same for everybody. I don’t think there’s a lot of room to play with. That’s the problem.

“But it looks freaking gnarly for sure. Oh my God, that’s going to be crazy.”

Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing believes the best passing areas will be on the long straights because of the bumps in the turns. That is where much of the action will be in terms of gaining or losing a position in the race.

“It will also be really easy to defend in my opinion,” Palou said. “Being a 180-degree corner, you just have to go on the inside and that’s it. There’s going to be passes for sure but its’ going to be risky.

“Turn 1, if someone dives in, you end up in the wall. They’re not going to be able to pass you on the exit, so maybe with the straight being so long you can actually pass before you end up on the braking zone.”

Palou’s teammate, Marcus Ericsson, was at the Honda simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana, before coming to Detroit and said he was shocked by the amount of bumps on the simulator.

Race promoter Bud Denker, the President of Penske Corporation, and Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix President Michael Montri, sent the track crews onto the streets with grinders to smooth out the bumps on the race course several weeks ago.

“They’ve done a decent amount of work, and even doing the track walk, it looked a lot better than what we expected,” Ericsson said. “I don’t think it’ll be too bad. I hope not. That’ll be something to take into account.

“I think the track layout doesn’t look like the most fun. Maybe not the most challenging. But I love these types of tracks with rules everywhere. It’s a big challenge, and you have to build up to it. That’s the types of tracks that I love to drive. It’s a very much Marcus Ericsson type of track. I like it.”

Scott Dixon, who was second fastest in the opening session, has competed on many new street circuits throughout his legendary racing career. The six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion for Chip Ganassi Racing likes the track layout, even with the unusual pit lane.

“I don’t think that’s going to be something that catches on where every track becomes a double barrel,” Dixon said. “It’s new and interesting.

“As far as pit exit, I think Toronto exit is worse with how the wall sticks out. I think in both lanes, you’ve got enough lead time to make it and most guys will make a good decision.”

It wasn’t until shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Friday that the IndyCar drivers began the extended 90-minute practice session to try out the race course for the first time in real life.

As expected, there were several sketchy moments, but no major crashes during the first session despite 19 local yellow flags for incidents and two red flags.

Rookie Agustin Canapino had to cut his practice short after some damage to his No. 78 Dallara-Chevrolet, but he was among many who emerged mostly unscathed from scrapes with the wall.

“It was honestly less carnage than I expected,” said Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood, who was third fastest in the practice after coming off his first career IndyCar victory in the most recent street race at Long Beach in April. “I think a lot of people went off in the runoffs, but no one actually hit the wall (too hard), which actually surprised me. Hats off to them for keeping it clean, including myself.

“It was quite a bit less grip than I think everyone expected. Maybe a little bit more bumpy down into Turn 3 than everyone expected. But overall they did a good job between the two manufacturers. I’m sure everyone had pretty much the same we were able to base everything off of. We felt pretty close to maximum right away.”

Most of the preparation for this event was done either on the General Motors Simulator in Huntersville, North Carolina, or the Honda Performance Development simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana.

“Now, we have simulators that can scan the track, so we have done plenty of laps already,” Power told NBC Sports. “They have ground and resurfaced a lot of the track, so it should be smoother.

“But nothing beats real-world experience. It’s going to be a learning experience in the first session.”

As a Team Penske driver, Power and his teammates were consulted about the progress and layout of the Detroit street course. They were shown what was possible with the streets that were available.

“We gave some input back after we were on the similar what might be ground and things like that,” Power said.

Racing on the streets of Belle Isle was a fairly pleasant experience for the fans and corporate sponsor that compete in the race.

But the vibe at the new location gives this a “big event” feel.

“The atmosphere is a lot better,” Power said. “The location, the accessibility for the fans, the crowd that will be here, it’s much easier. I think it will be a much better event.

“It feels like a Long Beach, only in a much bigger city. That is what street course racing is all about.”

Because the track promoter is also the team owner, Power and teammates Scott McLaughlin and Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden will have a very busy weekend on the track, and with sponsor and personal appearances.

“That’s what pays the bills and allows us to do this,” Power said.

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500