Kaz Grala's Short Track Debut Will Probably Disappoint
9 months agoKaz Grala makes his Cup Series short track debut at Bristol this afternoon, which makes speculating about his performance something of a question mark. Grala got much hype early in his career because he had two top-10s in his first three starts, but those came on a road course and a superspeedway race. Rick Ware Racing seemed to be grasping for credibility by hiring Grala and Justin Haley to drive this year, who were both better regarded than many of RWR's previous hires, but despite these moves, it doesn't seem to have helped them much, as Haley has the second-worst speed percentile in the Cup Series among full-timers at 21.16 and Grala's 10.36 is even worse. Grala did get his first top ten at Bristol in the Xfinity night race last year (a 10th), but it's hard to imagine him carrying his weak car to a strong finish there in the Cup Series. A top-20 result this weekend would likely be due to attrition, not speed. Grala's No. 15 Ford was the slowest car in practice on Saturday.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference