The last time Kaz Grala drove a Toyota was in the now-ARCA Menards Series East in 2016. Since then, he has primarily been in Chevrolets save for a single NASCAR Xfinity Series season with Ford in 2018. On 5 November, he will return to the Toyota camp for a one-off as he pilots the #26 GR Supra for Sam Hunt Racing at Phoenix Raceway.
“One last surprise to end the season,” the team posted on social media. “Kaz Grala will pilot our No. 26 Toyota GR Supra in the Xfinity Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway next weekend!”
Grala has run nine Xfinity races in 2022 for Alpha Prime Racing (with whom he is also employed as a reserve driver), Big Machine Racing Team, and Jesse Iwuji Motorsports. His best finish on the year is fifth at Watkins Glen with Big Machine. Since making his series début in 2018, he has notched top top-ten finishes.
He finished thirty-third at the first Phoenix race in March with APR. His only other Xfinity race at the track was a twelfth in 2018 with JGL Racing.
Since his Xfinity Rookie of the Year campaign was derailed mid-2018 after JGL’s shutdown, Grala has mainly been a journeyman and “super sub” racing for multiple teams across all three national tiers. He has three Cup Series starts in 2022 for the new The Money Team Racing including the Daytona 500, and is racing part-time in the Camping World Truck Series with Young’s Motorsports.
He scored a fifth at the 2017 Phoenix Truck race with GMS Racing. That year marked his only full schedule in a national division, during which he finished seventh in points.
The #26 has been split between nine drivers in 2022: Parker Chase, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Santino Ferrucci, Derek Griffith, Daniil Kvyat, Connor Mosack, John Hunter Nemechek, Chandler Smith, and Ryan Truex. Nemechek holds the car’s best finish of the year with a fourth at Darlington in May, and the car is seventeenth in owner points. Griffith will drive the #26 at Martinsville on Saturday.
