Greg Ray

Infobox racing driver
name = Greg Ray


pixels =
caption =
nationality = USA
date of birth = Birth date and age|1966|8|3
place of birth = Long Beach, California
date of death =
retired = 2004
related to =
last series = 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
fastest laps = 0
best finish = 1st
year = 1999
prev series = Toyota Atlantic
Indy Lights
prev series years = 1992-1994
1996
titles = Indy Racing League Champion
title years = 1999
awards =
award years =

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.

Indy 500 results