NASCAR: Gray Gaulding to drive for BK Racing in Daytona 500

By Asher Fair | Feb 10, 2018

BRISTOL, TN - APRIL 22: Gray Gaulding, driver of the #23 SunFrog.com Toyota, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 22, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images) /

NASCAR Cup Series driver Gray Gaulding is set to drive in this year’s Daytona 500, a race in which he has never driven, for BK Racing.

Gray Gaulding, who turns 20 years old today, drove part-time in the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season for BK Racing and Premium Motorsports en route to a career-high 34th place finish in the championship standings after driving in his first two career races in the sport in the 2016 for The Motorsports Group and finishing in 48th in the standings.

This season, Gaulding has not secured a full-time ride or even a part-time ride. However, he has secured a ride for the 60th annual Daytona 500, which is set to take place next Sunday, February 18th at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Gaulding is set to drive the #23 Toyota for BK Racing in this year’s Daytona 500, a race in which he has never driven before. He drove the #23 Toyota for the team in 14 of the 27 races in which he drove throughout last season. He finished 11 of those 14 races and secured a top finish of 20th place at Talladega.

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Gaulding has never driven in the Cup Series at Daytona before. In fact, he has never driven at the track in the Xfinity Series or the Truck Series, either.

However, in his 29 career Cup Series starts, his two career top 20 finishes both came in his two career restrictor plate races. In fact, he has never finished outside of the top 20 in a restrictor plate race. He has only ever driven in a restrictor plate race in the Cup Series.

As referenced above, Gaulding drove the #23 BK Racing Toyota to a 20th place finish at Talladega last season. In the second race at Talladega last season, Gaulding drove to a career-high 9th place finish in the #83 Toyota for BK Racing.

Gaulding’s Cup Series experience is definitely limited, and his experience in the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series is limited as well. He has driven in just seven career Xfinity Series races over two seasons and has career-high finishes of 13th place at Bristol and Richmond in the 2016 season.

Gaulding has also driven in just 17 career Truck Series races over three seasons and has a career-high finish of 4th place at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the 2014 season. That 4th place finish is actually the only finish he has had across NASCAR’s top three series that is better than his 9th place finish at Talladega in the Cup Series last year.

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How will Gray Gaulding perform in his first career start in the Daytona 500 as the driver of the #23 Toyota for BK Racing? Tune in to the race live on FOX starting at 2:30 pm ET on Sunday, February 18th.