Gray’s new Stratus is tested and ready to go

INDIANAPOLIS, Prerace: Pro Stock rising star, Johnny Gray has a fresh outlook going into the biggest race of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season, this weekend’s

54th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Gray will be looking for improved performance as he takes on the tough competition with his new Rick Jones (R.J.) Dodge Stratus.

Gray had high hopes starting out the 2008 season, but has not been happy with his car’s performance. It’s been a year of highs and lows; the highs being his two semifinal appearances, and the lows being the six DNQ’s. This is not the kind of season the talented driver anticipated when he started the year.

But Gray who has driven everything from Sprint Cars to nitro burning Funny Cars knows he has the best Larry Morgan horsepower under the hood of his Stratus, and knows that his power plant is not his problem. And in Pro Stock the car itself is a crucial factor in the total equation that makes a monster machine. So Gray will be bringing out a brand new Dodge Stratus, built by Rick Jones, this weekend.

“So many people helped us get ready for Indy,” explained Gray. “We contracted Rick Jones to build us a new Dodge Stratus and he and his crew worked diligently to get the car ready for us to test before Indy. And Steve Dekkenga and his guys worked a lot of late hours getting the car painted. And my guys have worked their tails off. After Reading they went back to the shop and took our motor and all our stuff out of the car we had borrowed from Larry Morgan for Reading. Then they headed off to R.J.’s shop and spent the week assembling the new car. As soon as they finished they went straight to Gateway in St. Louis. I met them there Monday morning and we started testing. We made a couple of runs on Monday and several more hits on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We are extremely pleased with the outcome of our testing. The car shows tremendous potential, and with a little fine tuning it’s going to be real fast. It may take a race or two and that’s okay. So, I’m looking forward to a pretty good Indy because I know it will be the start of good things for us, for the rest of this year and next.”