Gray Gaulding will be a busy man this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway as he’ll be running the NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 on Friday and the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race on Saturday.
The 22-year old will drive the No. 07 SS Green Light Racing machine with sponsorship from Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux in the NXS event and he will have primary sponsorship from Panini America on the No. 27 Rick Ware Racing machine in Saturday’s Cup Series race.
For Gaulding, who has scratched and clawed his way up the NASCAR ladder, having sponsorship from Walk-On’s is a perfect match.
“It is still hard to believe that just a few weeks ago in Daytona that I was able to match my career best finish in all three NASCAR series,” Gaulding said in a press release. “I am so proud of what our entire team accomplished last month, but I think my story as a walk-on is really just getting started. I plan to give everything I have as I represent the Walk-On’s and Panini brand and everyone like me who believes in chasing their dreams!”
Panini America took a huge gamble on sponsoring Gaulding a season ago, a decision that resulted in an impressive second-place finish for the driver and sponsor in last fall’s Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
The Panini team says Gaulding was an important cog in getting their name recognition among NASCAR fans.
“Gray and his team were instrumental last season in helping us establish a strong presence at NASCAR tracks across the country and to educate diehard NASCAR fans about the many positive aspects of our NASCAR trading cards,” said Jason Howarth, Panini America Vice President of Marketing. “As NASCAR increases the number of fans at the track, we are excited to celebrate sports that fans everywhere are clamoring for and promote our Panini trading card products that help deepen that connection and are available at Walmart, Target, hobby stores nationwide and online at www.paniniamerica.net.”
Gaulding has one-career top-10 finish, which was a ninth-place effort at Talladega in 2017 while driving for BK Racing. Gaulding scored a NCS season-best finish of 25th at Texas earlier in the year at Texas Motor Speedway.
The Virginia native has contested two NASCAR Xfinity Series events this season, and both races he has finished inside the top-10.
