LUCAMA, NC :: Andrew Grady will be competing against his father, Tony, for the first time in his racing career in Saturday’s Halloween Spooktacular at Southern National Motorsports Park. He’s looking forward to the challenge and hoping he can score the victory.
Grady has seven wins on the season but he would consider a win on Saturday the biggest of his career, saying the race is the biggest race he’s ever entered.
“I hope we have a really good race,” Grady said. “This is my first big race in my career so it would be pretty special to win this one, especially with dad racing. He’s a veteran and he knows tire management. Dad will be really good and he has a lot of wins and he has taught me everything I know, him and Mike [Darne]. I’ll have my work cut out for me.”
Racing against his father will be one challenge. Another will be running on four scuff tires.
“I don’t like scuffs as much as stickers but nobody does. It comes to whoever has the best set of tires, they’re going to be tough to beat. It’s horseshoes and hand grenades. If you get dealt a bad set and can rebound from that, you’re a solid race team in my book.”
Grady knows his race team is solid. Racing in cars prepared by Mike Darne, he has picked up more wins in the Limited Late Model division at Southern National than any other driver. He also picked up two wins at Wake County Speedway – beating both Clay Jones, who helped him a lot at the beginning of his racing career, and Bradley McCaskill. Grady knows his season itself, is something to be proud of.
“We’ve had a really solid year. It’s been amazing just to come out of the box swinging like we did with two wins at Wake County then win two at Southern National. To come back from destroying my red racecar and to win the next week with this new racecar and to win three out of five, it’s been an amazing year. Even if I don’t win another race this year, I’ll be tickled to death with me and my team.”
The only thing Grady felt was missing was a championship. Had it not been for a tech infraction early in the season, something Grady says was a questionable decision by the track, he may well have won the division championship at Southern National Motorsports Park.
“Comparing stats between Haley [Moody] and myself, we should have won the championship. We top-three’d them to death, we won races, we came from sixth to win. It was kind of a blow to not win the championship. Everybody knows that, when they come to Southern National, that black no. 1 car will be up front and they’ll have to battle with us.
“I’d like to have a championship. That was my goal for this year. We started off winning races and we had a good shot. About race six or seven, I had a huge point lead and then Southern National threw us out over a questionable call I do not agree with to this day. The best team that had been consistent and dominant didn’t take home the championship trophy.”
As for Saturday’s race, Grady’s hoping that he and his competition can put on an entertaining show for the fans.
“I don’t want anything more than to battle with Clay and Rusty [Daniels] for the win. I hope it comes to a late race restart with him and Rusty in the mix as well as Dad and Haley and I want to put on a really awesome show for the fans.”
