{"id":7694,"date":"2014-08-27T09:11:22","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T16:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=7694"},"modified":"2014-08-27T09:11:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T16:11:59","slug":"five-questions-with-pro-stock-driver-jonathan-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/five-questions-with-pro-stock-driver-jonathan-gray\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions With Pro Stock Driver Jonathan Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"14JonathanGrayHeadShotPHOTO\"<\/a>\u00a0Jonathan Gray is campaigning for the NHRA\u2019s Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future award signifying the rookie-of-the-year; \u00a0but with two final round appearances at Epping and Bristol in 2014, \u00a0he\u2019s battling hard in the challenging Pro Stock division.\u00a0 After 17 races, Gray is now 11th<\/sup> in the Mello Yello points and trails No. 10, Greg Anderson, by 32 points for the coveted entry into the Countdown to the Championship. \u00a0The Burnout chatted with Gray about his season and his thoughts going into the pivotal race over Labor Day Weekend in Indianapolis.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Burnout:\u00a0<\/strong> This is your first season of NHRA racing, \u00a0and you didn\u2019t start until the third race of the season but you have reached two finals rounds, and could be a contender for the championship. So, overall, how would you rate your season?<\/p>\n

Gray:<\/strong>\u00a0You know, being new at this deal and not starting at the beginning of the year and coming three races in, I think we\u2019ve done pretty well.\u00a0 I feel we have had a pretty successful year.\u00a0 For me, not ever driving anything with a stick in it or anything of that nature, I have to say we\u2019ve had a pretty good year.\u00a0 I would like to finish in the Top 10 and that\u2019s the goal.\u00a0 We\u2019ll just have to see what happens .<\/p>\n

The Burnout:<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019re 32 points out of tenth in the Pro Stock points standings, you know what you have to do, how do you think it will go at Indy?<\/p>\n

Gray:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0We have to go two more rounds than he does.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty tall task, but it\u2019s possible.\u00a0 I would like to take care of my own business and meet him in the first round.\u00a0 That\u2019s the only sure way to get through and that\u2019s winning rounds.<\/p>\n

The Burnout:<\/strong>\u00a0 How much do you ask your dad, Johnny Gray, and brother, Shane, for advice in driving and other things that might come up?<\/p>\n

Gray:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Only all the time.\u00a0 It\u2019s really quite often.\u00a0 If something comes up that I\u2019m not real sure of, that\u2019s where I go.\u00a0 A few races ago, I was struggling a little bit with the shift light.\u00a0 It had been sitting in there that way since I\u2019ve been driving it.\u00a0 At the time, I didn\u2019t really know anything different.\u00a0 It started a trend of inconsistency.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t figure out what the deal was, so I went next door and got with Shane asking him “what\u2019s going on here?” \u00a0He saw the situation and said he could improve and sure enough we moved the light around in the car a little bit.\u00a0 It made all the difference in the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s those little things that most people don\u2019t realize how much having them with me really helps.<\/p>\n

There have been some little things along the way about driving the car: being taught to keep it straight, keep it in the groove because there\u2019s a lot of things going on in there in a hurry.\u00a0 When you\u2019ve got the wealth of knowledge that I\u2019ve got around me here, it\u2019s hard not to go with Shane and ask him what I need to do.\u00a0 I\u2019m just the passenger.\u00a0 That\u2019s one big advantage that I do have.<\/p>\n

The Burnout:<\/strong>\u00a0You reached two final rounds in back to back weekends at Bristol and Epping and came so close to winning the race.\u00a0 Was there so much happening, did your day feel like blur or could you feel the excitement building around you reaching your first final round at Bristol and then your second at Epping? \u00a0What would you do different to change the outcome?<\/p>\n

Gray:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0At Bristol, all the cards just fell right.\u00a0 Then all the real good cars went out early and it just didn\u2019t work out for me in the finals.\u00a0 At Epping, it was again one of those weekends.\u00a0 I had to run (Gray Racing teammate) Dave (Connolly) in the final and still just came up short.<\/p>\n

The Burnout:<\/strong>\u00a0 Pro Stock is the toughest competition NHRA can offer. How do you rate your competition, with the best in the business?<\/p>\n

Gray: \u00a0Oh yeah, there\u2019s no doubt.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care what kind of motorsports you compare it to, NHRA Pro Stock is the toughest and most competitive sport there is.\u00a0 It just is.\u00a0 You have got to be on your game 110 per cent or you\u2019ll go home.\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how much power you have, how good of car you have, you better be on it.<\/p>\n

When I first got in a Pro Stock car, I didn\u2019t know what to expect.\u00a0 I had never driven anything like that ever before.\u00a0 Everyone in the class has been really, really good as far as encouragement.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a good experience for me.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely a good challenge, there\u2019s no doubt.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tough class.\u00a0 It\u2019s, by far, the toughest thing I\u2019ve ever done, racing-wise, anyway.<\/p>\n

The Burnout:<\/strong>\u00a0 As the final races approach in the schedule, your closest rookie competition appears to be Top Fuel driver Richie Crampton driving for Morgan Lucas Racing.\u00a0 Even if you don\u2019t make the Countdown, do you feel you could still win the rookie title and how would it feel?<\/p>\n

Gray:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0We still have a chance at it.\u00a0 Your chances may be diminished a little if you don\u2019t make the Top 10, I still believe we can still win it if you come up with a package in those last six races and start running well and win some races.\u00a0 It would definitely elevate our status for the rookie title.<\/p>\n

Actually, I\u2019ve never talked with Richie.\u00a0 We\u2019ve passed by each other at the track and nodded and waved and went on.\u00a0 We never have had the time to sit down and talk.<\/p>\n

\"14JonathanGrayCarShotPHOTO\"<\/a>Winning it would be a big deal.\u00a0 I think starting with three races in, runner up a couple of times and to be fortunate enough to win the rookie of the year award, it would be an honor, really.\u00a0 Especially having a good enough record to beat a Top Fuel car.\u00a0 That would tough just doing that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Wells talks to Pro Stock driver, and rookie of the year contender, Jonathan Gray as all roads lead to Indy and the race that will determine those who go on to the Countdown to the Championship.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,16,3399],"tags":[554,1255,296,178,1254,7,4801,608,84],"class_list":["post-7694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-pro-stock","category-nhra","tag-2014-nhra-mello-yello-drag-racing-series","tag-five-questions-series","tag-indianapolis","tag-johnny-gray","tag-jonathan-gray","tag-nhra","tag-pro-stock","tag-richie-crampton","tag-shane-gray"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/14JonathanGrayCarShotPHOTO.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-206","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7699,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7694\/revisions\/7699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}