Taylor Gray wins Kansas Lottery 300 in NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

A thrilling race at Kansas in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series ended with a tight finish. Taylor Gray held on to beat Sheldon Creed for the win.

He had used an earlier pit stop than the leaders in the final stage to gain on the field, and once he took the upper hand and the lead he just did not let go. An expert final 30 laps or so put Gray in position to win.

“First of all thank you to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Racing, Operation 300 and how about Jason Ratcliff, man?” Gray said of his crew chief. “That big call was awesome.”

And even though his tires began to have some falloff and Creed cut into the lead as Taylor Gray encountered lapped cars, Gray managed to stave off his competitor. He closed out the win by a comfortable enough margin, as Creed simply couldn’t cut down the gap all the way.

“I knew the 00 was starting to catch me,” Gray said. “I started to get a little snug trying to turn down the hill, and seemed like he was on the freer side. I just knew I had to navigate lapped traffic better than he could and get him to heat up his rears to try to catch me. I think he ended up getting the wall there towards the end. But yeah, I mean it was fun race. Yeah, it’s good to be here.”

The win for Taylor Gray was his first since late last year at Martinsville. He had finished sixth in the fall race at Kansas last season.

The story for the No. 54 team had been an odd one to start the season, though. The team just hadn’t quite clicked, failing to secure a top-five finish entering Kansas. That obviously changed in a big way on Saturday night.

“I knew we had a car capable of winning,” Taylor Gray said. “I thought the 20 (of Brandon Jones) was a little better than us in Stage 2, or before the green flag cycle, sorry. But knew you just had to stay locked in and be a little bit freer. Jason made a really good adjustment on the car, made a good pit call and got us in clean air. So yeah, I can’t thank everybody enough.

“But yeah, it’s been a long start to the year, man. Not that we’re not bringing speed to the racetrack, it’s just things haven’t really gone our way. So it’s nice to be able to close one out.”

It wasn’t a complete loss for Creed, either. His second-place finish won him the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash.