Gray Gaulding is running his first full-time season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2019 with SS-Green Light Racing in 2023, and he’s coming at it with a much different approach.
The 25-year-old is now a decade into his professional racing career, and he opened up about this past weekend at Daytona International Speedway, his impressive resume and what it was like being one of the youngest drivers to ever win in any NASCAR series.
Tanner Marlar, Frontstretch: You finished at Daytona [and] had a good run, just tell me about your experience back in a full-time seat this weekend.
Gray Gaulding: I think we had a good start to the season. We made the race, just like we thought we would and had a good, solid qualifying effort. For the first time in my career I played a little bit of defense in the first few stages, I just kind of wanted to ride … All I wanted was a shot to win. Everyone knows that at Daytona and Talladega, the speedways, you’ve got to get to the end … At the last restart I was seventh with a chance to win, but unfortunately the fuel ran out of the pickup and I basically ran out of gas for about 100 yards … It wasn’t our day, but at the end of the day we got a clean racecar, a decent points day with the finish and that type of thing. We’re excited to go to Fontana. (It was) a great way to kick off the year, you know we put a lot of work in this offseason, and my team did a really, really good job … all in all, a very successful weekend.
Marlar: Now that we’re up to date, I want to take us back a little bit. This is your first time back full-time with SS-Green Light since 2019. You ran a lot of races in 2021, not with SS-Green Light, but you were there with the series for a while. What’s that gap been like between these two full-time slots with SS-Green Light?
Gray Gaulding: To be honest with you, the last full-time season of every week, being on the grind was 2019, so it’s been a minute for me personally. When I signed the deal with Bobby (Dotter) to run full-time, I kind of had a little bit of anxiety. I’m like ‘man, I’m back on the road, living out of my suitcase again.’ Which, don’t get me wrong, that’s the only lifestyle I’ve ever known, on the road racing, state to state, city to city, that type thing … I’ve missed my NASCAR family, like seeing crew members, team owners, fans, like for me this weekend, to have fans come up to me and go ‘Gray, it’s so good to see you back full-time,’ like they have no idea what that really means to me, because the last few years have been a complete grind.
Marlar: I wanted to touch on that, because you really have done this your whole life. You’re one of the youngest winners in multiple NASCAR development series. You hold several of those records, what was that like growing up? Was there a lot of expectations with that?
Gray Gaulding: Absolutely. The pressure when it comes to racing, especially at a high level, no matter the series … when you’re racing, whether it’s a high-profile team or a low-profile team, you have those expectations in those things that you want to live up to. And I’m a competitor, like, if you told me right now ‘hey, I want to run a foot race,’ I’m going to do everything in my power to beat you. I’m a competitor. What I’ve learned, though … I’m 25 now. I’ve been racing professionally in NASCAR since I was 15. So basically 10 years of high-profile racing and trying to do all the right things and also build my name, build my resume, but I think for me the number one thing I take away is experience.
If I could tell my 15-year-old self, like, ‘hey, man, you need to relax. You don’t need to push this hard all the time,’ because I have a very aggressive racing style … this (past) weekend, if you would have told 15-year-old Gray to lay back, he would have said ‘hey, you’re crazy.’
Marlar: When I was 15 I was tinkering on cars and trucks for fun. You were flying around race tracks for fun. You’ve been doing that for, like you said, 10 years now. Most guys at 25 don’t have that level of experience. Do you feel like that gives you a leg up on some of the other guys that are closer to your age?
Gray Gaulding: I don’t think so, because I’ve been able to race a lot of huge races. I mean, I was 19 years old racing in the Daytona 500. That was always my dream, to make it to that point, to race the biggest race in the world which, for me, was always the Daytona 500 … I feel like every driver truly has their own story. And I think with me, I have my own story. I’m a grinder, I work hard, anything that I put my head into, whether it’s racing, golfing, bowling, I want to be the best of the best. I just have that competitive edge, and I think a lot of drivers also have that, too, but once again, like I said, we all have our own story.
Q: Is there a different approach now than there was in 2019, how has that role changed for you, and how much difference is there from then to now?
Gray Gaulding: For me, you don’t really want to points race, right? We’re all competitors, and you want to win. You want to take a 20th-place car and finish 15th with it, right? But I think for me, where I’m at in my career and where I see myself going, I really want to think a lot of races through that I maybe didn’t in the past. Like I said, I have a very aggressive racing style, and I kind of wear my head on my sleeve … I’m a fiery guy, but just like at Daytona, riding and actually being very methodical with my moves, with the way I saw the race play out, it played out exactly the way I saw it in my head. Yes, I ran out of fuel unfortunately, but I gave myself a chance to win. That’s the main goal … you know, we all want more, but I’m saying realistic goals, I feel my 25-year-old self compared to the 2019 self, I wanted everything right off the bat, and I still do, but at a more realistic level.
Q: You grew up racing with a lot of guys that we see on Sundays now (Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott). Do you ever mention ‘hey, you remember that time I waxed you in that series years ago?
Gray Gaulding: You know, it’s funny, because I was always the young buck. I was part of the NASCAR Next group … in which I’m so appreciative and fortunate. I was picked at only 15 years old … but I was the young guy. There were certain drivers like Jeb Burton, Corey LaJoie, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace was in my group, like all those guys were older than me, so I kind of had to do my own thing. They’d go out and want to go to bars … but for me, my roommates were Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott. We were the young bucks, so we would sit in the room and play cards. We’d play cards and sit there and laugh and goof off … I’ll never forget, me and Chase Elliott couldn’t go out … me and Chase Elliott were stuck in the room, so me and him were playing cards, watching TV, watching Seinfeld, having a good time. You kind of forget those moments, and now I’ve raced Chase for a long time … and I wish him nothing but the best, but it really makes you come back to, like, ‘Dude, do you remember when me and you were playing cards because we were too young to go to the bars?’ … we were just young kids living the dream, trying to make our own way…
The full interview with Gaulding can be found on Frontstretch’s YouTube channel here.
About the author
Tanner Marlar is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated’s Cowbell Corner, an AP Wire reporter, an award-winning sports columnist and talk show host and master's student at Mississippi State University. Soon, Tanner will be pursuing a PhD. in Mass Media Studies. Tanner began working with Frontstretch as an Xfinity Series columnist in 2022.
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