A Strangely Memorable Driver, Kaz Grala, What Happened To Him In 2025?

As we head into the heart of the 2025 NASCAR season, it’s easy to forget that Kaz Grala, who was in the thick of things last year, is watching it all unfold from somewhere in LMC’s HQ. For 2025, Kaz Grala accepted a role as LMC’s simulation driver and so far hasn’t made a start in any series.

This Betrays the Promising Start His Career Had and the Talent He Still Shows

From Kaz Grala’s first race of his full-time stint in trucks, you’d think his career would go in a completely different direction. From an extremely young age, Grala was winning races on the regular. He started racing at 4 years old. He had a leg up on most with his father, Darius Grala, being a Polish endurance driver with multiple wins in the Ferrari Challenge and a Grand-Am GTS class win at Watkins Glen.

At 10 years old, young Kaz Grala entered into Bandoleros and came in swinging, winning the Charlotte Summer Shootout in 2011. He kept getting better at his craft, and in 2012 Kaz Grala won 15 races and the Winter Heat Championship at Charlotte in the Legend Car Pro Division. Soon he scaled up to historic heights when he made his UARA-Stars late model debut and became the youngest-ever driver to win at the historic Hickory Motor Speedway.

At 14, Kaz Grala Started His NASCAR Career!

At age 14 Grala made his NASCAR debut in the lowest rung of the NASCAR ladder, the All-American Series, winning twice, including at Caraway Speedway. He even entered the K&N Pro Series East with Turner Scott Motorsports, being the youngest driver in the series. From here his development started to stagnate and stop the incredible forward momentum he’d been carrying throughout his career.

As he moved to Ben Kennedy Racing for his second season in the K&N Pro Series East, there wasn’t a noticeable improvement. Finishing 7th, the exact same position in the points standings he finished his rookie season. With his highest finish being a lone second place. It was the exact same as his best result in his rookie season. He was still making history, however. He became the youngest driver to ever enter an IMSA race at 15 years old.

Kaz Grala Was Thrust Into the Spotlight In 2016!

Despite his struggle in an East Series season, he would do a part-time campaign in trucks and K&N at the same time. Despite the bump in the road he ran into the previous season, he looked promising to start in NASCAR‘s third tier. Having multiple top ten finishes at the young age of 17, including a 10th in his second ever truck series race. It was no surprise the same team that gave him those nine starts in 2016 signed him full-time for 2017, that being GMS Racing.

Off the Bat, He’d Shock the Racing World

As he’d make history at the 2017 NextEra Energy Resources 250, the season-opening race, he avoided a massive wreck to win his 1st ever race in NASCAR’s top 3 series. Becoming the youngest-ever driver to win at Daytona at only 18 years old. It clinched him a spot in the playoffs to start the season. The rest of the season he wouldn’t be as fortunate, but it was a great rookie year.

Scoring 11 top tens in 23 races, almost getting that second win at Dover, finishing 2nd, and at Canadian Tire, where he was in the lead on the last lap only for Cindric to remember he’s a Penske driver in 2017, so he dumped him to win on the last lap while Grala finished 3rd. He finished 7th in the points, showing that he was building on his future and, if properly developed, had a bright future ahead. This is where Kaz Grala’s career gets very weird.

For 2018, Kaz Grala Joined the Xfinity Series With JGL Racing!

After a good truck series season, most would say going to the 2nd tier series would be a rush up, and that’s even with him being in a top ride! JGL Racing, during its time in Xfinity, did 100+ races and had no wins and only a handful of top 10s to show for it, far from the top of the series. I couldn’t find a concrete reason why Kaz Grala couldn’t find a better-funded ride for 2018, but context clues help us out a ton here.

Kaz Grala was replaced by Cody Coughlin, a paid driver who proved he wasn’t hired for his results. Then JGL Racing cut 10 races and Kaz Grala and quickly shut down both due to health problems encountered by Owner James Whitener Sr., but they cited that they cut Kaz Grala for a lack of sponsorship. So the other man didn’t bring the money, and for that wasn’t given the opportunities he deserved, and it looked like those were about to get slimmer. Aside from a 4th place at the opening race at a place that always seems to treat him well, Daytona. That was his only top 5 or 10 in his short run with the team.

Then His Dad and Tony Eury Sr. Stepped In To Help!

His father, Darius, and former crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Eury Sr., own a late model team together called FURY Race Cars, which still operates to this day and helped out Kaz Grala. Giving him a part-time ride in the No. 61. His debut with the team formed slapdash in 11 days impressed many. After an insane race that included a 61-minute red flag and a massive wreck late in the running. It also saw Kaz Grala go into and then fall out of the top 10 only to finish 10th when it was all said and done.

Even Kaz Grala Himself Was Impressed With His and His New Team’s Performance!

“I don’t know how this is possible, but it was, and it’s fantastic,” Grala said on pit road after a series of hugs and words of praise. “Great debut for us; I can’t say enough about how hard everyone’s worked. I mean, I don’t think anyone’s slept in the last week and a half. I hope they’re excited now because I hope this will make their hard work pay off. I’m looking forward to the next three races here; we’re going to have a blast.

“Unbelievable. Honestly, I don’t even know what to say about it.“ I was aggressive, as much as I could be, because I knew that these guys deserved a good run, and heck, I didn’t want to be the reason they didn’t get it,” he said. “I was driving my guts out there, and if you ask them, I think I asked for, like, six different water bottles during that race because I literally was leaving everything on the table.

“But that’s the way you’ve got to race in the Xfinity Series here; everyone’s just too freaking good to not go all out every single lap. Really proud of everybody; I can’t thank everyone enough. This is a dream come true for me.”

It Was Not a One-Off

In the 11 other races he had with FURY, he had 4 other top tens, including a 5th at his favorite track, Daytona. The team would shut down by the end of the year, ending Kaz Grala’s strange 2018 Xfinity, which has to be the only season where someone drives 10+ races for two different teams that aren’t even around the next season. Part of that is that FURY didn’t need to come back because his strange and impressive 2018 was rewarded by a part-time prove-yourself-type shot in 1 of the most historic teams in the history of the sport, Richard Childress Racing!

That Is When He Hit Another and His Biggest Speed Bump!

Kaz Grala did a total of 11 races in his two seasons in the No. 21 Chevy in the Xfinity Series, and many were especially based on his 2018. Having only 4 top tens, including only 1 top ten and top five in 2019. Many expected better, having more top tens with the team his dad slapped together in less than 2 weeks than the team that, the same year he first ran with them, won the Xfinity Series title.

There are explanations, of course, maybe like the car going against his style. In 2018, the year before Kaz Grala joined RCR, we had Roush’s infamous No. 60 car. This, despite having multiple talented drivers who have since proven themselves—Ty Majeski, Chase Briscoe, and Austin Cindric, all champions of the lower series—now ended up with more wrecks than races in total in 2018. With multiple drivers saying it was because they had to juggle 3 different drivers with 3 different backgrounds, it was almost impossible to make a car to balance all 3 vastly different driving styles.

Perhaps crew chiefs Justin Alexander and Andy Street had to make a car that went against Grala’s style. The other drivers he had to share significant seat time with were the likes of Myatt Snider, Joe Graf Jr., and Anthony Alfredo, all much less aggressive drivers than Kaz Grala. Plus it makes more sense his family team was able to cater to him as a driver more. But in 2020 he was once again allowed to show everyone how great he is. And once again it was at Daytona, but not the oval this time.

RCR’s Austin Dillon Was Struck With COVID-19

Kaz Grala was already an RCR development driver with experience at this very same track, more than most of the field. It made Kaz Grala the no-brainer option, but he still had to face the challenge of racing in a car he’d never raced before with no practice and 24 hours of notice. A laundry list of challenges that Kaz Grala overcame to bring him an impressive 7th-place finish in his Cup Series debut. A performance that would save his career.

Kaz Grala Only Did 8 Races Across All 3 Series In 2021

He had his second-ever top ten in the Cup Series with the brand new to the Cup Series Kaulig Racing with a 6th place at Dega. But even before that was one of his best performances ever, when he almost won the inaugural COTA truck with forever mid-packers Young’s Motorsports, finishing 2nd in the rain.

2022 was another wild year for the half-Polish driver. Racing with six teams in all three series. Including another run at Young’s Motorsports and three races with Floyd Mayweather’s team, the Money Team, in the Cup Series. With that iconic and polarizing light/rainbow Pit Viper scheme.

2023 and 2024, Would Provide the Most Stable Period

After six years of bouncing from team to team, Kaz Grala finally found another full-time job with another mid-pack lower series outfit, this time in Xfinity with Sam Hunt Racing in the No. 26. He’d have a great year too, finishing 17th in the points with two top fives and nine top tens in a car that we’ve been shown time and again is a car that shouldn’t even be getting a single top 10. And once again his impressive work would not go unnoticed.

Natalie Decker’s Former Sponsor, N29 Capital Partners, Dropped Her and Jumped To Grala!

Opening up many opportunities for himself that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, he took the one that took him to the Cup Series. Signed with Rick Ware Racing for 23 races and even got to do the Daytona 500 with Front Row Motorsports. Was it the best opportunity? No, but I get, after years of grinding it out in the lower series and coming into big sponsorship, why you’d want to finally want a decent shot in the Cup for once.

The Odds Were Stacked Against Him

He did decently, all things considered, especially being in maybe the worst full-time car in the field. Having 3 top 20s at tracks like Atlanta, Bristol, and Darlington, two of those being driver tracks, only further emphasizes his talent, and, three top 20s is impressive for RWR.

But then the tides would turn again for Kaz Grala in the offseason. RWR would both sell the No. 15 charter and announce that Rick Ware’s son Cody Ware would go full-time in their only available car. Leaving Kaz Grala hung out to dry because of a nepo baby.

So Where’s Grala In 2025?

He rekindled his relationship with Toyota, which he formed in 2023, and became the simulation driver for Legacy Motor Club, the Cup Series team owned by 7-time champion Jimmie Johnson. While that’s extremely cool, it does mean at the start of the 2025 season Kaz Grala was on the outside looking in, racing in the sim while most of his peers were racing. Great news, though, is that Toyota relationship came through, as now he’ll do 3 road course races for his old team, Sam Hunt Racing.

Even if he never did another race again, though, Kaz Grala, despite his small body of work on even smaller teams, has cemented a memorable legacy for fans of this era. With many memorable performances and schemes put him in the front of many race fans’ minds. Hopefully, he gets the opportunity he deserves soon, but even if he doesn’t, he let everyone know how talented he was with moments like his win at Daytona, the 2020 Daytona RC performance, and almost winning at COTA with Young’s.

Many more drivers wish they could’ve done the same with more opportunity, and that’s something to be proud of. Thanks a bunch for reading!