The 2016 NHRA Pro Stock qualifying domination of KB Racing was finally stopped – by Shane Gray.

The veteran driver clocked a 6.578-second elapsed time at 209.46 mph on Friday and it was good enough for the No. 1 qualifying spot Saturday at the K&N Filters Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

Gray became the first Pro Stock driver in 13 races to capture a No. 1 qualifying spot other than Greg Anderson 6, Jason Line 6 and Bo Butner 1. Those drivers all compete for KB Racing.

Before Gray, Erica Enders, the reigning two-time Pro Stock world champion, was the last non-KB driver to qualify No. 1 and that was tat the 2015 fall race in Las Vegas.

This was Gray’s sixth No. 1 qualifying position in his career.

“I’m real pleased with the progress we made (Saturday) and I’m really stoked about racing (Sunday),” Gray said.

Gray also had the quickest ET on Saturday with a 6.587-second lap in Q4. Butner (6.596), Line (6.598) and Anderson (6.610) are two, three and four in the qualifying ladder.

“I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself,” Gray said. “I say we caught up to them (KB Racing) at this race. We will see where we are at a couple of races down the road. Hat’s off to everybody involved with this team and my dad (Johnny) supporting this team, going on 10 years now. Without him we couldn’t do it and we couldn’t do it without anybody who we have got. We have a great group of guys and they are like family and we’re having fun going to the races again.”

The Pro Stock class went through a massive overhaul in the offseason.

As of Jan. 1, 2016, NHRA required all Pro Stock teams to equip their cars with electronically-controlled throttle body fuel injection systems, making engines more relevant from a technology standpoint. In order to reduce and control costs for the race teams, an NHRA-controlled 10,500 rev limiter was added to the fuel injection systems.

“It’s harder now than it was and the level of difficulty is harder today when it was last year,” Gray said. “I think there are a lot of cars that can run as fast as KB, but some of us just have not hit on the magic potion. Every race we go to is fuel–injection, but who knows when we go to Denver (July 22-24) some of the guys who aren’t quite as fast will haul butt in Denver.”

Gray’s first-round opponent Sunday will be Alan Prusiensky.

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