CONCORD, N.C. – Kaz Grala’s 10th-place finish in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 was so much more than just a strong result for a small team.
It marked the culmination of a wild 10-day stretch that saw Fury Race Cars – a late model and modified manufacturer co-owned by his father Darius – build a complete Xfinity Series team from the ground up.
Grala’s biggest fear was that his No. 61 NETTTS Ford, which had no owner points to fall back on in the event of a qualifying washout, wouldn’t make the race because it was raining just over an hour before the scheduled start of the session.
He and his team overcame that, making the race with authority after posting the eighth-fastest lap in final practice on Thursday and gridding up 16th for the 300-mile event in the Queen City.
That soothed a lot of stress and lifted a huge weight off the shoulders of the 19-year-old Massachusetts native.
“My only expectation coming into this weekend was to make the race. That was our first check mark for the day,” said Grala. “We were really worried when it was raining early in the morning, because we wouldn’t have made it in on owner points, but luckily we got to qualify and ended up starting 16th.
“I was happy with that, but I knew I missed turn three in qualifying and I think we could have been a few spots better at the start, honestly,” Grala added.
While he ran inside the top 20 for most of the day, Grala’s car truly came to life after a caution period with 74 laps left for light rain falling in turns one and two.
On the ensuing restart, he jumped forward on the inside lane, surging up to 11th before cracking the top 10 on lap 133 and passing Roush Fenway Racing’s Ty Majeski for ninth one circuit later.
Though Grala later faded back outside the top 10 as eventual race winner Brad Keselowski came rallying through traffic on fresher tires, he stayed consistent and out of trouble, narrowly avoiding the spinning cars of Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe on a restart with 39 to go to cycle back towards the front.
Grala was 11th when the skies opened up and forced an hour-long rain delay, but kept his foot on the gas and began making moves, getting to ninth before another yellow flag with 20 laps remaining set him up for a push to the finish.
When racing resumed with 14 to go, Grala lost a handful of spots before slipping in behind a hard-charging Kyle Busch and following Busch through traffic in the final laps. He made his way to ninth before debris set up a green-white-checkered finish and held firm in the race-ending two-lap dash to secure 10th at the checkered flag.
“I don’t even know where to start with how today went, but that was a lot of fun right there,” said Grala. “I don’t know how this is possible, but it’s absolutely fantastic. This is a great debut for us and I can’t say enough about how hard everyone’s worked to get this to reality.
“I don’t think anyone’s slept in the last week and a half, but I hope they’re excited now, because I want this result to help make their hard work pay off,” Grala added. “I’m looking forward to the next three races. We’re going to have a blast.”
