Yesterday was my birthday, and the birthday elves stopped by (I think Amber and Kim might have had something to do with it!). We had a good lunch and some laughs, and yes, it was all at my expense, but I know it’s out of love. Well, I hope anyway.
 
Amber is a great wife, a great mom, and a great friend. She always goes above and beyond to make everyone feel special, and I should have known that Kim Ward was in on it, too. She runs the show at the Gray Motorsports shop handling more than you can imagine in the front office. Anyway, it was a good time and a nice break for all of us in the middle of our day. So a special thank you to the girls and to everyone in the shop for being involved – and to everyone on Facebook and in the Twitter world who took the time to stop by and say hi. I appreciate all of you!
 
It feels like so much time has passed already, but it really wasn’t too long ago that we got to spend some family time together for Easter. Bryce was home from school and motocross camp so the whole family was together. I also got to spend a lot of time with my dad on the fishing boat that weekend, and you know that made me real happy because I love being on the water. I’ve said before that if I wasn’t driving a race car and working at the Gray Motorsports shop, I’d probably be doing something with boats. It’s just one of my favorite things, and I love being out there whenever I get the chance.
 
We also took the kids for an Easter egg hunt on Saturday that weekend. Jason and Cindy Line’s little ones, Jack and Emma, they were there too with Taylor, and it was neat to see them having fun and enjoying themselves.
 
Sunday morning the family went to Church and then afterwards I got to get back on the lake to do a little more fishing. We went over to my mom and dad’s place and picked up Bryce’s new motorcycle they bought him for his birthday (next week already!), and Amber took some great family pictures before it was time to say goodbye to Bryce before he headed back to MotoCross camp with a  friend who came to pick him up. We finished up the weekend with dinner on the lake with Amber, Tanner and Taylor and my parents.
 
It was really nice to have that relaxing time with the family. We are so fortunate to get to do what we love and race our Service Central car, but sometimes we get so wrapped up in it that we forget for just a minute what really matters. I have a great family, and weekends like that are the ones that are the best of all.
 
 

 

My son Tanner had a birthday recently, and he is now officially a teenager. Don’t you all get used to this or anything, but since he’s growing up so fast, I thought it would be a good time to let him get on here and talk to you a little bit, maybe give everybody a little bit of his perspective about what it’s like on the road. Having my family with me is an important part of this whole deal, and even though they aren’t able to get to every single race, they’re there for most of them. That means a lot to me.

Before I hand this over, I wanted to tell you that Tanner and my oldest son Bryce had a really great weekend while we were in Charlotte at the 4-Wide race. While we were qualifying on Saturday, Bryce won a national MotoCross race which qualified him for the national amateur championships in Tennessee called the Loretta Lynns. He’ll go, and if he can do well there and for the next couple of years, then that’ll qualify him to get a pro card. When and if he succeeds at that goal, then we’ll start him at Anaheim for the Monster Energy SuperCross Series. Bryce is a man of few words, but he’s definitely talked in detail of his life goals and if that is what he wants to do, then I’ll do everything in my power to make that happen for him. My father has made what I want to do possible, and in turn, I have to do the same thing for those boys.

That same weekend, Tanner got second in a local race that he had entered. He’s younger than Bryce, and he’s doing his best and we’re real proud of him. We’re proud of all the boys. Amber and I got lucky in the kid department. Anyway, here’s Tanner.

I like traveling to all the races, but when we are gone for two or three weeks, I’m ready to go home. I like my own bed, and you have nothing really to do at the hotel – just go in there and sleep or lay around. I like that I get to be together with my family, but sometimes we have to get away from each other because we can get on each other’s nerves.

When I’m at home and sometimes at the races I hang out with Cody, Greg Anderson’s son. We’re about the same age, and even though we don’t always like to do the same stuff, we get along pretty well. He plays baseball, and I like motocross. Someday, I want to race professionally. I race now all over the area around my house. I have a Yamaha 85. We went to Virginia not that long ago and I got to get a little bit of time on the racetrack during practice for a race my brother Bryce was running – it was a Loretta Lynn Qualifier.

We’ve been riding ever since I was little. My dad showed us Jr. Dragsters and we raced that for a couple of years, but then I went out and rode again and I started wanting to race. Once I got back on the dirt bike, I knew I wanted to give up Jr. Dragsters and only race dirt bikes. It took my dad a year or two to let me actually race – he was scared we were going to get hurt – but I feel comfortable, and it’s what I like to do. My mom thinks that if that’s what we want to do, then she should support us. Sometimes she’ll go out with us and watch us and get our stuff ready for us and tell us good job, or Jep from the shop will take us down to a few different places with our dirt bikes. It’s a lot of fun.

Sometimes we can bring our dirt bikes when we go to the races and take them out to tracks in the area, but most of the time at the racetrack I stay busy and run my RC car. It’s a Traxxas and we got it a couple of years ago at Seattle. We went into the hobby shop store and I saw it, and that’s all I could talk about the rest of the week. Me, Taylor and Bryce all got one, then they came out with the mini Slashes and we got those. I like the big Slash, but the little Slash is fun around the house. People always ask us where we got them and how much they are, and they’ll stop and watch us. One day I was running it a little too hard and I broke it, but you can buy all kinds of parts at the Traxxas place at the racetrack. If I break an A arm, it only takes like 10 minutes to fix.

I try to stay busy at the track and still pay attention to what my dad and Papa are doing, especially on Sunday. I always want them to win, but I’m okay either way. Sometimes at the end of the day we’ll go eat with the team or sometimes just the family, and I like to go to Olive Garden and get angel hair pasta with scampi sauce. I also have to do my school work at the track. At home we have a school room behind my dad’s shop and we go there every day. I learn algebra, geography, English, science, and bible. Sometimes we watch videos, and I have to take tests and do homework just like regular school. This is our first year doing it this way, and sometimes it can be hard but I’m getting As and Bs right now.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. I hope you liked this blog!
 

The Camaro on the way to our Gray Motorsports shop

Sitting in our new Service Central Camaro for the first time

We've been waiting a long time for this, and it finally happened. We finally got our new Chevy Camaro, and oh, boy is it ever a good lookin' car.

After Vegas, Jason and Jep drove the rig right over to Jerry Haas' shop to pick it up. I think we're all excited about it, and this is just what we needed to bring our spirits up. The guys were sending us pictures of the Camaro as they were loading it up, and it started getting more and more exciting. They put a motor in it, got all the linkages set up, and made sure everything was good to go, and then they got back on the road. They got to the shop on Wednesday night, and me and Amber went down there to see it because we just couldn't wait.

You know how pictures are – they just couldn't do it justice because it's such a beautiful car, and Jerry Haas did a stand-up job on that thing. The detail work on it is really nice. I got in it for a minute and checked it out from the inside, and you know what? I think it might even be a little bit better to see out of than the GXP.

Now we're making sure everything is like we like it, all the nuts and bolts are tight, all the weight is in place on it, and get her ready to test on Monday after the Charlotte race. I'm ready to make the change soon, and I feel pretty certain that we'll have the Camaro out at the Houston race.

I know I promised you guys some pictures from Taylor's birthday, so here they are. We had a little party for him before I left and took him to the NASCAR Hall of Fame with a few friends and Amber's mom and dad, and then when we were in Vegas racing, Amber put together something fun for him and his friends at the House of Trampolines. She sent me these pictures, and it was good to get to see him with his little buddies. They had a good time. It wasn't all fun though, Taylor got hurt on his bicycle and broke his wrist, but he's up and running 90 mph again. Of course it didn't faze him a lick.

We're getting ready for the race in Charlotte, and that's pretty much a home race for us. It'll sure be nice to sleep in my own bed. Four-wide racing is definitely something different, and you know I can think of a lot worse things than racing four-wide once a year. Bruton Smith has given us some very class-act, top quality racing facilities, and we'll see what we can do in the Service Central Pontiac at this one.

We'll be wearing Tire Kingdom scheme this weekend, and don't forget to stop by and say hi and get one of our hero cards so you can use the tear-off coupon at your local Tire Kingdom, Merchant's Tire & Auto Center, NTB, or Big O Tires store. That's a neat deal there, and the coupon is good for a discount on an oil change and tire rotation. We'll see you at zMAX Dragway on Friday.
 
 
 

This year is going by so fast already. The trucks left today to head to Las Vegas for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, and when we loaded up our Service Central Pontiac, I had a pretty good feeling. Last week there were a bunch of us that went out to test at zMax Dragway over there in Charlotte – it's only a little ways from our shop in Denver, N.C., so it feels a little bit like home when we're there, and I like that.

My dad came up to visit the weekend after Gainesville, and he came by the Gray Motorsports shop and we all kind of put our heads together. His Service Central Funny Car has been tuned up lately, and I know he wants to see our program follow along those same lines. Well, we're learning some things, and it showed when we got the car on the racetrack. I have no complaints about that test session, and it was real encouraging. Now I can't wait to get to Las Vegas and see what we can do.

We celebrated two birthdays last week - my dad, Johnny Gray, and my son Taylor. Here we are in Phoenix earlier this year.

While my dad was here, we got the family all together and had dinner. It was a whole bunch of us, and we had a great time celebrating his birthday. He doesn't like to make a big deal out of it, but getting the family together is something we can do that we know makes him happy. Heck, it makes all of us happy.

When I leave for Las Vegas here on Thursday, it will be the first time this season that I won't be leaving with Amber and the boys. We decided that they would stay behind this time, and that's going to make the weekend a little bit different. For one thing, Amber always makes sure that we all get fed. I like to eat so I won't go without a meal or anything, but it's going to be a matter of me getting it myself! More than that, though, it just feels like not having your favorite pair of shoes on when you leave the house. Maybe that's a guy thing because I know girls usually have several different pairs of shoes, but what I'm trying to say is that it just won't be quite as comfortable without them.

I know I say it all the time, but my guys just work so hard. Because of all that hard work we are ready to go, and me and the family got to head up to Virginia to watch my oldest, Bryce, race in a Loretta Lynn Area Qualifier – a MotoCross event – this weekend. He did well, and we're sure proud of him. We also celebrated a birthday for my youngest: Happy Birthday, Taylor. I'll see if I can come up with some pictures for you guys and post them later. It was good to spend quality time with everyone before I head west this week, that's for sure.

Overall, I think it will be a good weekend. We're going to go spend some time with everybody at the Fan Fest on the Brooklyn Bridge in Las Vegas outside of the New York-New York casino on Thursday night (we'll be there from 6:00 to 7:30 pm), and those Fan Fests are always a good time. The last one at The Ale House in Gainesville was just awesome, and I expect this one will live up to the hype, too. Then we'll get some shut-eye before heading to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway early on Friday. It looks like the sun is supposed to shine this weekend, and hopefully it will shine on us a little more than it has in the past couple of months. We aren't planning on being timid on that racetrack, and boy would it would be nice to see everything come together.

Oh, before I forget. The guys are going to pick up our new Camaro on the way home from Vegas. Can't wait to get it to the shop!