The name Nate Gregg may not sound familiar to you, but after his win last Saturday night at Bowman Gray you’ll recognize the name and face. Gregg outlasted and dodged crashes and drove to his first career win while doing so he made a ton of history.
Gregg is a young and upcoming driver who’s in his second full season of racing full-size cars, he’s racing in Bowman Gray’s division three series the street stocks. He’s a kid whose been learning from his dad Billy, family members Casey Kepley Jr & Brad Lewis, friends Jeremy Warren, Bryan Sykes, and many others over the past few years and has been working on his and his dad’s race cars all the time. While Nate isn’t in school for the summer he’s outside working on the cars, when he’s in school, he’ll get out of school in the afternoon and do his homework and then go outside and work on it for a while.
Last weekend Nate got the best view of the night, he drew the number 1 chip from the bag and led a field of 18 cars to the green. Gregg was fighting off charges from rookie sensation Corey Rose, then fan-favorite Taylor Robbins before the huge pileup on the front straightaway ensued. After the cleanup and restart he had Gerald Robinson Jr to fend off, then Robinson was passed by Jeremy Warren. The final restart Gregg had to hold off the points contender Warren, Warren spun coming to the checkered flag and Gregg ended up winning the wacky race.
“It means a lot,” said the jubilant Gregg. “This one was for my Pawpaw Casey and my Uncle Casey fighting cancer and my Pawpaw Jimmy. I miss him.” Papaw Jimmy that Nate is referring to is the legendary Jimmy Gregg, he and his brother Ricky raced at Bowman Gray in the ’80s and ’90s with Jimmy winning 6 races, while Ricky compiled a staggering 45 wins, including 22 Blunderbust wins which are the second-most all-time.
Gregg’s emotional win helped him make history for himself and his family as previously mentioned before. With his aforementioned first win, it marks the legendary Gregg Family’s 71st career win which is eighth-best in the shortlist of thirty-two families. He also becomes the 108th street stock winner, but what’s more impressive is that he’s the second-youngest winner in the division and third youngest ever winner in the 70 plus year history of the track.
The most amazing stat that really sticks out is that Nate is now a third-generation winner, there have only been four previous families to pull off the feat. The Gregg’s family winners include his father Billy, his grandpa Jimmy and his great uncle Ricky.
The other families with three generations of winners at the historic track are the Cliftons (Fuzzy, Ronnie, Michael, and Zack), Myers (Billy, Gary, Burt, and Jason), Robertsons (Gerald, Mike, Bryant, Ryan), and the Packs (Gene, Brian, Austin.)
Cover photo by Eric Hylton.
