DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Eighteen-year-old Kaz Grala of Westborough, MA avoided a last-lap melee during Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona Int’l Speedway to score his first series victory.
By doing so, the rookie became the youngest driver in NASCAR national series history to win a race at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
Grala, who earlier in the day won his first pole behind the wheel of the No. 33 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado, somehow avoided a massive last-lap crash that saw Matt Crafton do a complete 360 in the air before landing back on the track amidst a sea of crashing trucks.
The dash to the finish was set up when John Hunter Nemechek spun down the backstretch with six laps to go. At the time of the caution Johnny Sauter, the defending race winner and Grala’s teammate at GMS Racing, was the race leader with Grala running second.
Sauter chose the outside line for the restart with two laps left ahead of Grala, Chase Briscoe, Matt Crafton and Timothy Peters. When the green flag waved Sauter quickly moved to the low line to pick up Grala, but Crafton got a huge run on the outside to get alongside Grala and challenge Sauter.
Down the backstretch Sauter moved up to try and block Crafton’s advance, but the move didn’t work as Crafton managed to make his way to the race lead as the field crossed below the white flag.
Sauter wasn’t done yet however as he made a move to the middle of the pack between Crafton and Ben Rhodes to take the leaders three-wide through turns one and two. Coming out of turn two Rhodes got a big shove from his teammate Grant Enfinger. That shove got Rhodes loose and he spun in front of the field, clipping the right-rear of Crafton to send him into the air.
Grala, who was the third truck on the inside line when Rhodes spun, somehow managed to avoid the crash and emerged unscathed to pick up the victory.
“I didn’t know what I was doing out there. I didn’t know how to do a donut, I didn’t know how to do a victory lap. I just know I’m Polish so I figured I should drive backwards,” Grala said.
“That was freaking awesome. I can’t believe we won Daytona. That completely changes our season and the way that we can play it. This is huge for our organization and for myself,” Grala said. “Oh my God, I can’t even believe this.
“Honestly I got lucky coming out of (turn) two there. I just didn’t lift. Everything went crazy around me.”
Austin Wayne Self, who was lined up right behind Grala at the time of the crash, also managed to avoid the mayhem to score a career-best second-place finish. Defending ARCA Racing Series champion Chase Briscoe was third, followed by the father-son duo of John Hunter Nemechek and Joe Nemechek.
Friday’s Truck Series opener served as the first race for NASCAR’s new format that was announced in January during the NASCAR Media Tour. The event featured three stages, with championship points being awarded to the top-10 in each stage as well as a playoff point to the stage winner.
Sauter won the opening stage after the Christopher Bell and Brett Moffitt, who were first and second at the time, made contact with Spencer Gallagher and both drivers spun. Sauter slipped through to win the stage as a result.
The finish to the second stage was much more mundane as he led his GMS Racing teammates Grala, Gallagher and Scott Lagasse Jr. across the finish line in a single file line. Sauter unofficially finished Friday’s race in 15th after getting caught up in the last-lap wreck, but scored 20 championship points and two playoff points based on his performance in the earlier stages.
In addition to the crash on the last lap there was also a crash on lap two that collected at least 14 Trucks.
According to Grala’s bio he is a senior at Worcester Academy and has also raced in the NASCAR K and N Series as well as a few starts in 24 Hours of Daytona. He started racing at the age of four in the race karts at Formula 1 indoor track on Wood Road in Brantree. From there he raced in the Legends and Bandaleros at various track including the Charlotte Motor Speedway and came home to the Bay State with championships. Two years ago Randy Lajoie and I (Lou Modestino) had a conversation about Grala and Lajoie a two time NASCAR Xfinity Champion told me that “Kaz is the real deal.” Grala’s dad Darius Gala is also an accomplished road racer and also raced in the 24 Hours of Daytona with his son as a co-driver.
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