Tanner Gray

Tanner Sean Gray (born April 15, 1999) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 15 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Tricon Garage. Gray is the youngest professional driver to win a national event in NHRA history, and the youngest driver to win a solo NHRA season championship.

Racing career Drag racing

2017 marked the first year for Gray racing in the Pro Stock class within the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series alongside his father, Shane Gray.

Gray made NHRA history thirteen days before his eighteenth birthday at the 18th Annual Denso Spark Plug Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on April 2, 2017, by winning the final round against Bo Butner. He was 17 years, 11 months, and 18 days, which was younger than the 40-year record holder Jeb Allen, who was 18 years, 1 month, and 8 days.

In 2018, Gray won eight times en route to the Pro Stock title, becoming the youngest ever NHRA season champion.

ARCA Series

2019–2020: DGR-Crosley On September 25, 2018, Gray announced he would race in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for DGR-Crosley in 2019. The move came after Gray had met team owner David Gilliland in summer 2018. He picked up his first win at South Boston Speedway in early May.

In December 2019, the team announced that Gray would continue to drive in the East Series, now the ARCA Menards Series East, part-time in 2020, as well as part-time in the big 20-race ARCA Menards Series, where he would share the full-time No. 17 car with his younger brother Taylor (who ran the Sioux Chief Showdown races) and Anthony Alfredo.

2021: David Gilliland Racing Gray returned to the ARCA Menards Series in 2021, running the season-opener at Daytona, finishing 7th.

2024: Joe Gibbs Racing On December 13, 2023, it was announced that Gray would return to the ARCA Menards Series and run six races in 2024, driving the No. 18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. He will run at the tracks 1.5 miles and longer, since the original driver of the car, William Sawalich, is ineligible to race at those tracks due to his age.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

2019–Present: Tricon Garage In October 2019, Gray made his NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series debut with DGR-Crosley at Martinsville Speedway in the No. 15 Toyota Tundra; running a three-race schedule, he also competed in the ISM Raceway and Homestead–Miami Speedway events in the No. 7.

On December 16, 2019, DGR-Crosley announced Gray would run full-time and for rookie of the year in the Truck Series in 2020, driving the team's No. 15 truck, now a Ford F-150 after the team switched from Toyota to Ford in the offseason. Gray had a decent rookie season, earning eight top tens and four top fives, finishing fourteenth in the point standings and fifth in Rookie of the Year standings.

Gray returned to the team for 2021, under the new name David Gilliland Racing. He would have an abysmal season, only earning two top tens and finishing 18th in points.

He improved significantly in 2022, which included three consecutive top-ten finishes in the first three races of the season. He earned six top tens and two top fives throughout the season, improving to a 15th-place points finish.

October 27, 2022, David Gilliland Racing announced that they would be moving to Toyota Racing Development in 2023, and renaming to Tricon Garage (with Tricon styled in all-capital letters). Gray would remain as one of the drivers for the team. He started the 2023 season with a career-best 2nd-place finish at Daytona, only behind race winner Zane Smith. He would also score his first career pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, with a lap of 29.936, and a speed of . He finished the season 14th in points.

On November 18, 2024, Tricon Garage announced it had renewed Gray's contract for the 2025 season.

Other racing Gray has raced in different types of cars, including Late models, modifieds, Midget cars, and stock cars. He has raced on oval dirt tracks in the area of Mooresville, including racing in the Mini Outlaw Karts category alongside Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu on Wednesday nights at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury.

Personal life Gray was born on April 15, 1999, to professional drag racer and national event champion Shane Gray and his wife Amber of Artesia, New Mexico. He is the grandson of funny car and pro stock champion Johnny Gray, making Tanner a third-generation Gray to race in the NHRA. In addition to racing, Johnny Gray was the president of Marbob Energy, the New Mexico oil producer co-founded by his father. Gray and his sister sold the company in 2010 for $1.7 billion in proceeds. Since 2021, Johnny Gray has co-owned Tricon Garage.

The Gray family moved from New Mexico to Mooresville, North Carolina in 2010 so that Shane Gray could pursue a career as a professional drag racer in the NHRA. Tanner's younger brother, Taylor Gray, is also a NASCAR driver for Joe Gibbs Racing and currently competes full-time for them in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series in the No. 54 car.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Craftsman Truck Series NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Pts Ref 2019 DGR-Crosley 15 Toyota DAY ATL LVS MAR TEX DOV KAN CLT TEX IOW GTW CHI KEN POC ELD MCH BRI MSP LVS TAL MAR20 46th 59 7 PHO17 HOM16 2020 15 Ford DAY23 LVS8 CLT20 ATL11 HOM12 POC12 KEN9 TEX36 KAN18 KAN4 MCH3 DRC15 DOV17 GTW10 DAR29 RCH16 BRI3 LVS3 TAL29 KAN36 TEX10 MAR31 PHO15 14th 511 2021 David Gilliland Racing DAY35 DRC20 LVS12 ATL19 BRD13 RCH24 KAN18 DAR33 COA31 CLT22 TEX9 NSH18 POC16 KNX31 GLN14 GTW19 DAR24 BRI38 LVS23 TAL34 MAR3 PHO35 18th 323 2022 DAY4 LVS5 ATL8 COA17 MAR21 BRD15 DAR34 KAN18 TEX24 CLT6 GTW30 SON13 KNX22 NSH30 MOH20 POC10 IRP23 RCH16 KAN16 BRI17 TAL31 HOM25 PHO8 15th 487 2023 Tricon Garage Toyota DAY2 LVS13 ATL24 COA8 TEX27 BRD8 MAR5 KAN18 DAR3 NWS18 CLT27 GTW21 NSH11 MOH20 POC36 RCH16 IRP15 MLW11 KAN26 BRI29 TAL25 HOM11 PHO9 14th 533 2024 DAY16 ATL19 LVS20 BRI15 COA10 MAR16 TEX8 KAN7 DAR10 NWS16 CLT17 GTW11 NSH14 POC19 IRP20 RCH12 MLW11 BRI23 KAN6 TAL30 HOM20 MAR29 PHO11 13th 550 2025 DAY22 ATL15 LVS3 HOM17 MAR21 BRI18 CAR28 TEX5 KAN27 NWS11 CLT26 NSH16 MCH17 POC2 LRP14 IRP13 GLN28 RCH14 DAR6 BRI6 NHA29 ROV31 TAL12 MAR8 PHO21 13th 599 2026 DAY23 ATL30 STP20 DAR13 CAR16 BRI20 TEX28 GLN30 DOV16 CLT8 NSH33 MCH18 COR12 LRP8 NWS18 IRP22 RCH13 NHA21 BRI KAN CLT PHO TAL MAR HOM -* -*

Season still in progress Ineligible for series points

ARCA Menards Series (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.) ARCA Menards Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pts Ref 2019 DGR-Crosley 54 Toyota DAY FIF12 SLM7 TAL NSH TOL8 CLT6 POC MCH5 MAD GTW17 CHI15 ELK IOW POC ISF DSF SLM IRP KAN6 19th 1440 2020 17 Ford DAY16 PHO4 TAL13 POC15 IRP KEN9 IOW KAN5 TOL TOL MCH DRC GTW I44 TOL BRI WIN MEM ISF KAN 19th 203 2021 David Gilliland Racing DAY7 PHO TAL KAN TOL CLT MOH POC ELK BLN IOW WIN GLN MCH ISF MLW DSF BRI SLM KAN 76th 38 2024 Joe Gibbs Racing 18 Toyota DAY24 PHO TAL3 DOV KAN2* CLT1 IOW MOH BLN IRP SLM ELK MCH3* ISF MLW DSF GLN BRI KAN1* TOL 20th 245

ARCA Menards Series East ARCA Menards Series East results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pts Ref 2019 DGR-Crosley 15 Toyota NSM12 BRI10 SBO1* SBO4 MEM3 NHA5 IOW6 GLN11 BRI6 GTW15 NHA2 DOV2 3rd 458 2020 17 Ford NSM18 TOL DOV TOL BRI FIF 48th 26

K&N Pro Series West NASCAR K&N Pro Series West results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Pts Ref 2019 DGR-Crosley 15 Toyota LVS IRW2 TUS2 TUS2 CNS SON DCS IOW6 EVG GTW15 MER AAS KCR PHO 13th 195

CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. ** – All laps led.) CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts Ref 2019 DGR-Crosley 54 Toyota SNM HCY13 ROU ACE MMS LGY DOM CCS HCY ROU SBO 50th 20

CARS Super Late Model Tour (key) CARS Super Late Model Tour results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pts Ref 2016 LFR Development Group 40 Chevy SNM ROU13 HCY TCM GRE ROU CON MYB HCY SNM 52nd 20