STAFFORD – Adam Gray arrived Friday at Stafford Speedway sporting a new look. Gone was his full beard, trimmed down instead to a stylish mustache and sideburns.
And then Gray ended a nine-race winless streak in style.
Gray, of Belchertown, Mass., held on through multiple late restarts to win the Paradiso Insurance Late Model 50 Friday at Stafford.
“We definitely worked out butts off,” Gray said. “I think I got driven into, slid around more than ever tonight and the car was good and stable. We were able to keep it in a straight line. And we did it. We did it as a crew, we did it as a team. Awesome.”
Darrell Keane of Enfield was second and Kevin Gambarcorta of Ellington third.
“Talk about putting yourself in a bad spot,” This thing was on rails all night. I screwed up on the initial restart and put us back to [20th]. We got [19] spots back, just not the one we needed.”
Said: Gambacorta, the division points leader: “I really wanted to win this race, but we’ve got the big picture to think about.”
Zack Robinson went to the lead early with Tom Butler moving to second just after the start. Butler got by Robinson for the lead on lap two. On lap seven Andrew Durand went by Robinson to move to second. Durand was able to overtake Butler for the lead just after a lap 16 restart, with Gray moving to second and Michael Wray to third.
The top-three remained the same for a long stretch of green flag racing. But on lap 43 contact from Wray in third knocked Gray into Durand in turn four, sending Durand spinning out of the lead. Wray was penalized for the incident with Gray inheriting the lead, with Gambacorta going to second and Tom Fearn to third.
On the lap 43 restart it was Fearn moving to second behind Gray with Keane going to third. Caution was back on lap 44. Gray was up to the task of another restart. Caution was back out again on lap 47 with Gray leading Robinson and Keane in third. Gray was able to check out on the restart with Keane moving into second place.
Congrats to Adam and the #97 team. Great job!!!
What a mess of a race…seems like there is no respect nowadays. Somewhat surprised to see Gray complaining like this but I guess thats what happens when you don’t have a perfect season.
Would love to see a poll regarding the Wray blackflag to see what others thought, including you Shawn. I find it really difficult to blame only Wray for spinning Durand.
I thought bad call by Stafford, Gray was into Durand before Wray hit BOTH, how Fox or whoever makes black flag calls didnt see that is amazing