Greg Ray

Greg Ray
Nationality	American
Born	August 3, 1966 (1966-08-03) Dallas, Texas
Retired	2004
Indy Racing League IndyCar Series
Years active	1997-2004
Teams	Knapp Motorsports A. J. Foyt Enterprises Team Menard Sam Schmidt Motorsports Access Motorsports
Starts	73
Wins	5
Poles	14* (does not include Charlotte 1999)
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	1st in 1999
Previous series
1992-1994 1996	Toyota Atlantic Indy Lights
Championship titles
1999	Indy Racing League Champion

Greg Ray (born August 3, 1966, in Dallas, Texas) is a former IRL IndyCar Series driver.

After winning the SCCA national Formula Atlantic championship in 1993, he moved up to the CART-sanctioned Toyota Atlantic series in 1994.

In 1997 he made his Indy Racing League debut driving for Thomas Knapp in an unsponsored black #97 car. He made his mark on the series a year later during qualifying for the 1998 Indianapolis 500. Driving the same, plain, black #97, he qualified second behind A.J. Foyt's driver Billy Boat. The car attracted sponsorship from local businesses and the national anti-tobacco campaign, and became known as Ash Kicker Racing. Though he failed to finish that race, he scored several good results in subsequent races and caught the eye of successful businessman and team owner John Menard.

In 1999 he won the IRL championship on the strength of three victories. However, 2000 was a difficult season with only one victory. He qualified on pole for the Indianapolis 500 but subsequently finished last (33rd). In 2001 Ray and Menard had split, and his replacement Jaques Lazier won his first victory at the Chicagoland Speedway.

Things continued to go downhill from there, as Ray bounced around three separate cars in 2002 before starting his own team in 2003, Access Motorsports, the lone team utilizing a Panoz chassis with Honda engines. He gained sponsorship from TrimSpa but failed to light up the scoreboard and in 2004, he ran a few races before giving his seat to former Infiniti Pro Series champion Mark Taylor. The team closed at the end of the year from a lack of sponsorship.

Ray had 5 wins in his 74 IRL starts.

Racing record

American open–wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
1996–1997	Knapp	NHM	LVS	WDW	PHX	INDY 25	TXS 8	PPIR 17	CLT 22	NH2 Wth	LV2 30							29th	73
1998	Knapp	WDW 25	PHX 11	INDY 18	TXS 2	NHM				ATL 24	TX2 21	LVS 25						21st	128
	Foyt						DOV 15	CLT 17	PPIR
1999	Menard	WDW 21	PHX 21	INDY 21	TXS 2	PPIR 1	ATL 23	DOV 1	PPI2 1	LVS 21	TX2 3							1st	293
2000	Menard	WDW 17	PHX 19	LVS 9	INDY 33	TXS 15	PPIR 20	ATL 1	KTY 7	TX2 26								13th	172
2001	Menard	PHX 22	HMS 21	ATL 1	INDY 17	TXS 11	PPIR 18	RIR DNS	KAN 14	NSH 18	KTY 13	STL	CHI					18th	193
	Foyt													TX2 8
2002	Foyt	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	INDY 33	TXS 12	PPIR 18	RIR 12	KAN 19	NSH 20	MIS 17	KTY 25	STL 19				23rd	128
	Schmidt														CHI 17	TX2 14
2003	Access	HMS	PHX	MOT 9	INDY 8	TXS 11	PPIR 18	RIR 12	KAN 8	NSH 16	MIS 10	STL 8	KTY 15	NZR 17	CHI DNS	FON 14	TX2 8	15th	253
2004	Access	HMS 14	PHX 10	MOT 20	INDY 27	TXS 7	RIR 15	KAN Wth	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2	23rd	99

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
1997	Dallara	Oldsmobile	30th	25th	Knapp
1998	Dallara	Oldsmobile	2nd	18th	Knapp
1999	Dallara	Oldsmobile	2nd	21st	Menard
2000	Dallara	Oldsmobile	1st	33rd	Menard
2001	Dallara	Oldsmobile	2nd	17th	Menard
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	31st	33rd	Foyt
2003	G-Force	Honda	14th	8th	Access
2004	G-Force	Honda	27th	27th	Access

Preceded by Kenny Bräck

Pep Boys Indy Racing League Champion 1999

Succeeded by Buddy Lazier

External links

• GregRayRacing.com