Tanner Gray made a statement Monday at NHRA’s biggest race of the year – the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.

Gray, who pilots the Gray Motorsports powered Chevy Camaro, qualified No. 1 and capped his memorable weekend by winning Indy for the first time in his career and he also left as the points leader.

Gray, on a holeshot, beat Jeg Coughlin in the final round at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Gray clocked a 6.641-second lap at 208.42 mph to defeat a quicker Coughlin, who came in at 6.639 seconds at 206.80 mph.

The difference was at the starting line as Gray had a near perfect .003 light compared to Coughlin’s .023 light.

“I struggled with the tree all day,” Gray said. “I actually do my clutch stuff, and the clutch guy and I were talking, and I told him I know I’m missing it and I had to figure out a way to hit it. Dave (Connolly, Gray’s crew chief) went out there and looked at everything and he came back in and said he had an extra hole we can speed it up to if you want to try it. I said H*ll yeah, I need all the help I can get right now. We sped it up, but I didn’t even feel the pedal because we were in a rush after we did it, and I didn’t feel it until I sat down in the car and put it in the water. I thought ‘man I think I can hit the tree pretty well with what I have here.’”

Gray, 19, is in his second season in Pro Stock and has been highly-successful. He has made 42 Pro Stock starts and he has 10 wins and four runner-up finishes. He leaves Indy with a class-high five wins this season and first in the points standings.

“That’s definitely pretty cool (winning almost 25 percent of his races),” said Gray, who became the 24th Pro Stock driver to win the U.S. Nationals. “I don’t know what to say about that, I will have to let that sink in a little bit. The main thing is I strive to be the best driver I can be and continue to work and be better than I was the day before.”

Gray arrived in Indy 20 points behind Greg Anderson, but he now starts the six-race Countdown to the Championship with a 20-point lead over Anderson. The Countdown begins Sept. 13-16 at Reading, Pa.

A year ago, Gray won the first race of the Countdown, which was in Charlotte, N.C., but then faltered in the final five races, finishing fourth in the points standings.

“I have a lot of confidence going into it (the Countdown), and I’m very excited,” Gray said. “But, at the same time, I know how fast you can go from hero to zero in this sport. I have to keep that in my mind, but at the same time I have to keep my confidence up. I really feel like we have done everything right this year and I feel like we have a really fast race car.”

The win was extra special for Gray because he joins his father, Shane as a Pro Stock winner at Indy. Shane won Indy in 2014, defeating Connolly in the final round.

“I think every driver’s dream is to at least win Indy once and it is pretty cool to win it, especially with my dad winning it in 2014,” Tanner said. “Getting to be able to share that with him today was pretty special. I haven’t seen him choked up since I won my first race in Vegas. It was cool to see that and see the emotion come out of him because if you know my dad, he’s not very emotional. It was a lot of fun today. Dave (Connolly) has a good understanding of what it takes to win here (at Indy) and he continues to help me out and I truly feel like me and him are probably one of the best crew chief/driver duos to come into the sport in quite a while.”

Tanner’s victory parade consisted of victories over John Gaydosh Jr., Jason Line, Drew Skillman and Coughlin.

“It was super-hot, and the track was difficult and that’s where Dave and everybody working on the car did a really good job getting me a consistent car,” Tanner said.

Coughlin, who is known for his starting-line prowess, was trying to win Indy for the fourth time to go along with the Pro Stock titles he captured in 2000, 2002 and 2009.

Coughlin, a five-time Pro Stock world champ (2000, 2002, 2007-2008 and 2013), has experienced a revival in his JEGS.com/Elite Performance Chevy, now winning four times – Chicago, Bristol, Tenn., and Sonoma, Calif. He will start the Countdown fourth in the points, while her teammate Erica Enders is third.