By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
David Gilliand Racing has been through an extremely tough week. For Taylor Gray, he helped ease their pain at least for a few hours.
Gray won the General Tire 150 on Friday at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The 17-year-old picked up his first ARCA Menards Series win.
He won after DGR hauler driver Steven Stotts was killed in an accident in Texas leading up to the race. Two passengers John Zaverl and Michael Mizzelle were in stable condition on Tuesday.
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It is believed that Stotts failed to control the hauler when it lost control and hit a Honda Passport. The driver of the Honda Passport was towing a small box trailer when the accident happened.
“I don’t know how to describe it,” he said. “This is for Steven. I feel like he looked over me today and he helped me get this win. I’m trying to hold back to cry right now. I love those three guys like they’re my brothers.”
Gray had 16 Top 5 finishes leading up to Friday’s race in 23 events. However, on Friday, in his 24th event, he captured the win.
He held off Daniel Dye and Sammy Smith to get the win. Both men were less than 1 second behind Gray.
In fact, the Top 4 finishers were separated by 1.1 seconds. Rajah Caruth finished 1.098 seconds behind Gray.
“It felt like they didn’t want me to win tonight,” Gray said. “All those guys are really tough to beat. We had a really good racecar tonight. Chad Johnson and all those guys at the shop… everyone involved with this race team. The reason why we’re here today is because of Steven, John, and Michael.”
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