Texas heat doesn’t wilt Shane Gray, who powers into Pro Stock’s top four

DALLAS – While most of his peers struggled with Saturday’s heat at Texas Motorplex, Pro Stock driver Shane Gray went the other way, powering to a weekend-best 6.591-second pass at 209.98 mph to jump his Valvoline/Nova Services Chevrolet Camaro up to the No. 4 qualifying spot at the 31st annual AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals.

“The car hooked up and stayed glued to the track and I knew by the time I shifted into high gear that we were on a good run,” Gray said. “When we analyzed yesterday’s better pass, the 6.61, we knew we had a lot of room to improve so the guys went to work and made it happen.

“I credit Dave (Connolly, crew chief) a lot. It’s hard to stay committed to your tune-up calls when you see the track temperatures creeping up there and you watch half the cars in front of you spin their tires. But he made the perfect call for the conditions and now we’re in a much better place heading into race day.”

As the No. 4 qualifier, Gray will have the advantage of lane choice over No. 13 qualifier Aaron Strong, who posted a best pass of 6.684 at 207.05 mph. The two men have not faced each other this year.

By qualifying No. 4, Gray extends his streak of top-half qualifying efforts to 16 consecutive national events, which coincides with the number of races that Connolly had been on board as crew chief.

“It points to consistency, which always helps in this sport,” Gray said. “We feel very confident in the car and what we’re doing and we’d surely love to convert one of these strong qualifying efforts into a race win.

“It’s always a great feeling when you end the day in the winner’s circle and right now I’d love to get it done for the guys on this team that have worked their tails off all year to give us a chance at every event. We are quickly running out of chances this year with only two more races after this weekend so we need to take advantage of every opportunity.”

Currently fifth in the points, Gray could make a big move in the Mello Yello championship standings Sunday should he outlast the four drivers ahead of him.

Pro Stock eliminations start at noon, Sunday. FOX Sports 1 will broadcast all of the elimination action live from 2-5 p.m., Sunday. (All times listed in ET).