August 17, 2020 | By Lee Spencer

Grala gives his all in Cup debut at Daytona

With a little luck and a lot of determination, Kaz Grala wheeled his way from the back of the field to seventh in his NASCAR Cup debut on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course. 

Under less than ideal conditions—including substituting for Austin Dillon, who was sidelined with coronavirus, then not having a lap of practice to acclimate to the No. 3 Chevy or the redesigned circuit—Grala led the fourth-most laps and finished higher than any of the official rookie of the year candidates on Sunday.

In what was a relatively tame event, with the exception of a restart free-for-all and Denny Hamlin's pursuit of race winner Chase Elliott in the closing laps, Grala brought a bit of sparkle to the Go Bowling 235.

“Well, there wasn't as much preparation as I probably would have liked to make my Cup debut,” Grala said. “I did just find out (Saturday) morning that I'd be behind the wheel of the 3 car. I knew the day before that they had said they wanted to bring me as a backup driver, which I thought was odd, but better to be prepared than not. Come to find out it seemed like they had a feeling things were going to go this way. 

“Unfortunately, Austin did test positive, but luckily his symptoms have been very mild, and Whitney and Ace (Dillon’s wife and son) have been symptom-free, so really good to hear that. I hope to see him back in the car next week, but it certainly was an honor to get the call from (team owner) Richard (Childress) to fill in the 3 car today, and obviously it was a joy to drive. It was a lot of fun.”

Richard Childress Racing announced in January that the 21-year-old Boston native would rejoin the stable on a limited basis in 2020. In 2017, his only full season on any of NASCAR’s top tours, Grala became the youngest winner (18 years, 1 month, 26 days) at Daytona when he was victorious in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series.

Subsequently, Grala’s top-five finishes in the Xfinity Series have come at both Daytona and Road America—including a fourth-place finish at the latter one week ago, which the driver believes greased the wheels for his back-up role.

Not surprisingly, Grala excelled on the debut of the Daytona Road Course—a hybrid of the traditional oval and the infield circuit. Grala also finished eighth behind the wheel of an Xfinity Series at the Charlotte Roval’s coming-out party in 2018.

“Well, we knew we had to start at the back due to the driver change, so I really took Stage 1 to get comfortable in the car,” Grala said. “I didn't push the issue.  I was conservative in the braking zones, wasn't real aggressive on the restarts, just kind of hung around, made sure my Cup debut didn't end prematurely and got comfortable out there, and by Stage 2, I was working up to it, making a little bit of headway forward. And by stage 3, after the lightning delay, I kind of got a refresh.” 

Certainly, Sunday’s race provided more of a challenge for the young racer. Fortunately, he was familiar with crew chief Justin Alexander, who oversaw Grala’s Xfinity effort at RCR last year. The 30-plus-minute weather delay offered the No. 3 team the opportunity to regroup.

“I got to look at some SMT data, which was really helpful because, of course, with the late notice, I wasn't able to run any laps in the simulator this week in the Cup car, so I didn't really know exactly what to expect,” Grala said. “I got to overlay my laps with Chase's and Denny's and find a couple things that I could gain, and when we strapped back into the car we moved forward from there.

“Justin Alexander called a great race. We took tires right after that lightning delay, which I do think was the way to go, and that helped our track position and ultimately put us where we needed to be to capitalize on a great finish at the end.”
Grala led three circuits, then pitted from the lead on Lap 53 and dropped to 16th. Kyle Busch spun five laps later to trigger the fourth caution. Grala gained three positions prior to the final restart with three laps left and passed six cars over the final three laps.

“I knew I was going to have to be aggressive and kind of make holes where I could, because I knew that there were only a few rows separating me and the guys on tires,” Grala said. “Tires have been so big here today. I knew I had to hold position as best I could, when I could. I tried to be aggressive. A couple guys I think got together up ahead. I was able to get under a couple guys and move forward just a bit.

“It was definitely intense. I probably wouldn't like to admit it, but on the last lap or two, my hands were cramping, my arms were cramping, my legs were cramping. These Cup races are no joke. They're really long, and these guys are some pretty incredible athletes. I've certainly been working on my fitness the last couple years, and I feel like I was in a decent spot for my Cup debut, but if I was going to start doing this every weekend, I think I could use to make a little more progress there.  

“But it didn't seem like it affected our performance at the end, and I'm really glad for that.”

To say the experience was mind-blowing to Grala would be a bit of an understatement. For Grala to run the No. 3—the same number his father raced was “just incredible”. To have the opportunity to compete against his “favorite driver and idol” Jimmie Johnson, who is in his final season, was great. But to finish seventh the first time driving a Cup car? “About 23 positions” better than Grala’s expectations.

“I was hoping for a top 30, so this is certainly far beyond my wildest dreams for this race,” said Grala, who joined the late Dale Earnhardt and Dillon as the only drivers to pilot the No. 3 Cup car since 1984. “I just wanted to complete the laps. Going into the race, I thought if I could just complete all the laps, I felt like I could get a top 30, and that was what I was looking to do. So really my mentality never changed throughout the race. I still wanted to complete the laps. I wanted to minimize mistakes, and I feel like we were able to do that.  

“Our pit stops were excellent. Our time on and off pit road was really good. I felt like we were able to capitalize on new tires, clean air, make up some ground.  Felt like we just kind of checked all the boxes that I was hoping to check and that led us to a really good finish.

“Really proud of everybody on the team that was part of it and helped make that happen. Proud to have American Ethanol on the car, their iconic colors.  They're really good for our economy and our environment. To be in their car with the No. 3 on the side was just crazy, and to put it in the top 10, I'm really happy about that, and hope that it gave Austin something to cheer for from home.”