Greg Ray  Gregory "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. Greg Ray made his debut Indy Racing League start during the 1997 portion of the 1996-97 Indy Racing League season driving the #97 Thomas Knapp Motorsports Dallara-Oldsmobile Aurora in 5 of 10 events including the Indianapolis 500 where he would finish 25th due to a water pump failure. Ray's best finish came at the True Value 500 at Texas Motor Speedway near Ray's hometown of Dallas, Texas to finish 29th-place finish in points. For 1998 Ray would continue to drive Knapp's #97 Dallara-Oldsmobile Aurora with sponsorship from Mercury Outboards and Mercury Marine for the opening rounds of the season. However, during practice for the Indianapolis 500 Knapp's team was without a sponsor. Ray would manage to qualify second between AJ Foyt Enterprises teammates Billy Boat and Kenny Brack and would gain race day sponsorship from Justice Brothers, Inc., True Value, The Nashville Network, and Ray's hometown track Texas Motor Speedway.