All year long Shane Gray has had the car to beat. Sunday in Las Vegas he proved it.

The second-generation Pro Stock driver, after reaching five final rounds, scored his first win of the season after stopping V. Gaines in thelast round of the NHRA Toyota Nationals. The win marked the third of his career and first since Topeka in 2011.

All year long Shane Gray has had the car to beat. Sunday in Las Vegas he proved it.

The second-generation Pro Stock driver, after reaching five final rounds, scored his first win of the season after stopping V. Gaines in thelast round of the NHRA Toyota Nationals. The win marked the third of his career and first since Topeka in 2011.

The victory vaulted Gray into fourth place in the championship points with the potential to climb as high as second in the points standings.

“The team needed a day like this badly,” said Gray. “Shane had let them down twice this year on holeshots in the final rounds. The team needed that real bad. I got a big boost of confidence today. It’s amazing what winning will do. It certainly lets you know you are capable of doing it again. I’m looking forward to Pomona because I think I will be a bit tougher there than I was here today.”

While Gray laments the losses on the starting line, on Sunday, he gained redemption with two wins on holeshots.

“Anytime you can win a race in the Pro Stock class, I think you have done well,” said Gray. “The cars are getting more and more difficult to run. It’s just ultra-competitive, especially in the Countdown. Those who are in the Countdown seem to elevate their level by two notches. We look back on the notes and wondered if we could run certain passes during the regular season we could have qualified second, third or first. Now it might get you a fifth place.”

Gray, who raced oval track before racing Comp eliminator, made the jump to Pro Stock in 2010. Sunday he defeated Matt Hartford, Jason Line and Kurt Johnson to reach the final round.

Gray, who with a few different final round outcomes could have been in the point lead,tries to keep a low profile even though his team is anything but an also-ran.

“I have never been one to play myself up too much,” said Gray. “I just try to stay low key and keep a low profile. I try to do my talking on the track. We go to Pomona and we could end up second. I’m looking forward to next year. I want to rest a while. I look forward to learning new things and changing some techniques up, coming up and seeing what we can do next year.”

Gray announced Saturday in Las Vegas his merger with Cagnazzi Racing, a move he described Sunday as basically, ‘putting all of our stuff together on the floor.”

Gray confirmed a two-car team consisting ofhim and Dave Connolly.

The act of cutting and pasting articles from this publication to a message board is a clear copyright violation as is pulling photos to post on social media sites. All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.