On his first run back in a nitro Funny Car after racing Pro Stock for the past two years, Johnny Gray admitted that he didn’t need to be reminded of the largest difference between the two styles of professional race cars.

“It was extremely loud,” said Gray, referring to his first Funny Car test run.

“I actually didn’t have any radios on, I was so excited that I guess I forgot to put my ear plugs in. I hit the throttle and thought to myself, ‘My God, this thing is loud.”

Thursday in Pomona, during the NHRA Winternationals, it wasn’t Gray who believed his flopper was the loudest. His competition did as he sent a message loud and clear that he wasn’t just a rich guy out for a ride.

 On his first run back in a nitro Funny Car after racing Pro Stock for the past two years, Johnny Gray admitted that he didn’t need to be reminded of the largest difference between the two styles of professional race cars.

“It was extremely loud,” said Gray, referring to his first Funny Car test run.

“I actually didn’t have any radios on, I was so excited that I guess I forgot to put my ear plugs in. I hit the throttle and thought to myself, ‘My God, this thing is loud.”

Thursday in Pomona, during the NHRA Winternationals, it wasn’t Gray who believed his flopper was the loudest. His competition did as he sent a message loud and clear that he wasn’t just a rich guy out for a ride.

Gray’s Service Central Dodge Charger Funny Car thundered to the provisional pole position in the only qualifying session of the day. There is another session scheduled for Friday, followed by two on Saturday.

If Gray’s 4.079-second pass during Thursday’s qualifying holds up, it will be the first time Gray has ever qualified No. 1.

“There’s nothing wrong with that one,” Gray said of the 306.33 mile per hour run during the first pair of Funny Car qualifying attempts. “Don has put together a good team here and has let Lee Beard put together some good guys on the team. What can you say? All I have to do is get in there and pull the trigger.”

Gray, having run a myriad of NHRA classes including Comp eliminator and the Top Alcohol divisions, received a measure of counsel before Thursday’s run.

“The guys told me before I ran to be careful that the track was better than I might think,” Gray explained. “We didn’t want to go out there and shake, we just wanted to go out there and take a shot at it. Then they told me that if it doesn’t go, to pedal it twice. I barely let out of it and it went right down Broadway.

“I was just holding on, it was a little down in the tires … wallowing around … I don’t have many laps since I came back so I was probably a little behind the car. I probably didn’t drive it the best, but hey, I got it down there.”

Gray, the one Funny Car driver with Pro Stock experience, couldn’t avoid the debate of which class is harder to drive.

“Ain’t neither one of them easy to drive,” Gray pointed out. “They’re both different. Both are a handful and both are fun. My personality, I love the fuel cars.”

Does Gray have realistic goals for his latest fuel car stint?

“I’d be a fool if I didn’t say I was going to try and win a championship,” Gray admitted.

 

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