As driving portion of his career comes to a close, for now, Shane Gray thankful

POMONA, CA – After a close quarterfinal loss to championship hopeful Greg Anderson Sunday at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, outgoing Pro Stock driver Shane Gray felt overwhelmingly thankful for his time behind the wheel of the Valvoline/Nova Services Chevrolet Camaro.

“I’m so lucky to have my mom and dad’s (Terry and Johnny Gray) support all these years and to work with a great crew of guys here at the track and back home at the engine shop,” Gray said. “I’m just so thankful for everything we’ve been able to do together and proud of our accomplishments along the way. It’s been a great run for me and I have zero regrets.”

Gray is giving way to his son Tanner as the 18-year-old prepares to follow his father and grandfather into the sport of drag racing. It’s been an impressive run for Shane, who accumulated five national event victories in his career — including a big win in Las Vegas just two weeks ago — and a best-ever third-place finish in 2016.

“We had a ball and I can promise you we’ll continue to have fun with Tanner driving the car,” Shane said. “A parent always takes pride in the successes of their children and all three of me and Amber’s boys are great kids that have really made us proud of them.

“I feel like it’s the right time for me to get out of the seat. I’m not sure what the future will hold as far as driving again. There’s no reason to make any definitive statements one way or the other. All options are open to us. For now, it’ll be Tanner running Pro Stock and we’ll give him all the same resources I had to succeed.”

On this day, Gray started strong, catching and passing a quick-launching Matt Hartford around 400 feet and blasting away for a comfortable eight-foot win, 6.582 at 210.93 mph to Hartford’s 6.631 at 209.49 mph.

That win pitted Gray against Anderson, who is fighting to the end for the 2016 title with teammate Jason Line. Both Gray and Anderson were up for the race, leaving with .02-second reaction times. The two cars stayed very close all the way down the quarter-mile strip with Anderson finally winning with a 6.592 at 210.37 mph to Gray’s super-close 6.596 at 210.47 mph.

“It wasn’t but a foot or two,” Gray said. “I had my foot pressed down so hard on the gas pedal I thought I was going to push it through the floorboard. We did all we could and Greg showed why he’s a multi-time champion right there. He handled the pressure and gutted one out.

“It’s time to close the books on the year. We’ll go have fun at the banquet and then get home and get back to work. There’s lot’s of testing to do between now and February.”