Andrew Grady is giving himself multiple opportunities at a championship caliber Late Model Stock season in 2025.
The second-generation racer driving the TORP Chassis No. 1 is currently committed to running CARS Tour, the new I-95 Showdown contested between Florence and Southern National and the Virginia Triple Crown.
There is not a conflict until June 14, when Grady would have to choose between CARS Tour at Dominion and the Southern National season finale.
“The plan is to get to that point, and see which season is going better, because all it takes is to have one bad race by that point to take you out of it,” Grady told Short Track Scene on Saturday night. “And if we’re in a good place with both, it’s not the worse problem to have, and we may flip a coin.”
Grady is feeling ambitious because he believes the results of last season did not match the results. And to his point, it was not uncommon to see the No. 1 in or around the top 5 last year but there was also a lot of adversity.
“We were having our team meeting where we decided what we wanted to do this year,” said Grady, “and Craig Oliver went over the notes and said ‘Andrew, I can’t find a single race where I wondered what the hell you were doing.’
“In hindsight, 20/20, I could pick apart a situation and say I should have done this or that but racing in Late Model Stocks right now, when someone smells blood in the water, they attack. I was talking with Ronnie Bassett Jr. near the end of the season and we both kind of decided that something changed when Dale and Kevin bought the series.
“The aggression level just got ramped up over the past two years and I can do a better job putting myself in a better spot when the sharks start attacking.”
The ST2 tires certainly contributed to some of the aggression and chaos last year.
“It was 125 qualifying laps every race,” Grady said. “It’s so hard to pass someone and you literally have to get into someone to move them. That’s why there was so much carnage last year.”
With that said, Grady is excited to see how his spring shakes up. He says he genuinely loves being part of the CARS Tour but he also likes what Mike Diaz and Steve Zacharias have come up with 2025. It’s an eight race total campaign, with a NASCAR style playoff that culminates with the South Carolina 400 and Thanksgiving Classic.
“Every week, it seems like we get on Facebook and see news of tracks shutting down,” Grady said. “So you really have to give credit to Mike and Steve for working together and putting good money up to try to grow weekly racing outside of the tour.
“I hope we have 20-25 cars for every race. I really wouldn’t be surprised if you see some top teams, some tour teams, come to run these races too.”
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
