Grala Hopeful for Another Solid Showing at Iowa

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer

Currently Kaz Grala has just one more opportunity to compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The Fury Race Cars LLC driver has sponsorship for just the Iowa 250 at the Iowa Speedway. Grala will pilot the No. 61 NETTTS Ford Mustang in Sunday’s race.

Grala has six career starts at the 0.875-mile track with four NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts and two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts. He has two top-10 finishes, both in K&N Pro Series competition. Grala’s best finish at the Newton, Iowa track is a seventh-place finish in 2015.

“Between K&N and Trucks, I have many laps around Iowa Speedway, just not in an Xfinity car,” Grala explained. “I feel like I’ve had some really good runs there and a lot speed in the past, so I’m looking forward to getting on track in our NETTTS Mustang. Our program has been getting better each and every week, so I’m very confident that we’re going to unload another fast piece this weekend.”

With Iowa being a stand-alone race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, no Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers are entered. This gives Xfinity Series regulars like Grala, a chance to showcase their skills and try to earn a victory.

“The nice part about this weekend is there’s no Cup guys in our race, so we get to duke it out amongst the Xfinity regulars,” Grala said. “Hopefully we can back up our strong performance at Michigan with another solid showing this weekend. This is currently our last scheduled race with Fury for 2018, so it’s our opportunity to get our name out there and see if we can lock down some sponsorship to run more races this year.”

Prior to competing for Fury Race Cars LLC, a team co-owned by Tony Eury, Jr. and Grala’s father, Darius Grala, his average finish was 22.0 with JGL Racing. Since Grala switched teams, his average finish has improved to 12.67.

Grala enters Iowa Speedway 17^thin the Championship Points Standings, 35-points behind the cutoff for the Playoffs. To date, the 19-year-old has just one top-five and two top-10 finishes this season.

Now Grala and his team will look to attract sponsorship in their final scheduled race.