NASCAR: Why people thought Gray Gaulding was done racing

By Asher Fair | Oct 10, 2020

Gray Gaulding, NASCAR - Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

When he was younger, some people got the wrong impression that now-NASCAR driver Gray Gaulding was done racing. That obviously wasn’t true.

Gray Gaulding is the youngest winner ever in a NASCAR-sanctioned series (15 years old), the youngest winner ever in the K&N Pro Series East (15), the youngest Legend Car winner ever (12) and the youngest Legend Car champion ever (12). But at one point, people thought he was done racing, and the reason why is quite comical.

In a Q&A session hosted by Panini America, the primary sponsor to whom Gaulding gives tons of credit for getting him to where he is today, competing part-time in both the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series, the 22-year-old Colonial Heights, Virginia native discussed his favorite Halloween costume.

He noted that he used to always go trick or treating as a racer, and that when he decided to show his Dallas Cowboys fandom by going as longtime quarterback Tony Romo, people speculated that he had decided to give up on his racing career.

More from NASCAR

As we now know, the former Daytona 500 starter and two-time Xfinity Series race runner-up has done anything but give up his dream.

“I got a couple of them,” Gaulding said when asked about his favorite Halloween costume. “I was Woody from Toy Story when I was real young.

“But as I got older, I went on this streak. I was a motocrosser, I was a racer every year. Like that was my thing. I had my helmet, this was back when I was running motorcycles. I had the boots, I mean I looked like I was straight off the race track. Which, you know, most kids, they might switch it up every now and then. But I think I went like eight straight years as a racer.

“Like everyone knew, I remember being in school, they’re like, the teacher would be like ‘Hey what’s everybody gonna be this year?’ Well he would look at me or she would look at me and be like ‘Gray we know what you’re gonna be. You’re a racer again this year.’ I’m like ‘Yea, that’s true!’”

One year, however, he finally decided to switch it up.

“But when I was, I think I was like, I switched it up one year. This is like right before I got old enough to kind of think, ‘Alright it’s not really cool to dress up anymore.’ I was Tony Romo for one year.

“Obviously I’m a big Dallas Cowboys fan, so I had the black on my face, I had the jersey, the shoes. I’ve never played football in my life, but I love Tony Romo. Played him all the time on Madden, so I’m like, ‘I gotta go as Tony Romo at least one year.’ That was definitely one of the ‘in’ costumes.”

And that naturally threw people off.

“They were pretty blown away actually, because like I said, I think it was like eight straight years of being a motocross racer. So when kids saw me, like I would go out with my buddies and we would trick or treat around the neighborhood and the school would do something, they couldn’t believe that I switched it up one year.

“They were blown away because they’re like ‘Oh Gray, you’re not racing anymore?’ I’m like ‘No, no, I’m still racing, I just wanted to switch it up a little bit!”

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

Gaulding is set to compete in both the Xfinity Series race and the Cup Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. The former, the Drive for the Cure 250 presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET this afternoon, and the latter, the Bank of America ROVAL 400, is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET tomorrow afternoon.