{"id":455184,"date":"2026-02-03T06:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455184\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T06:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:50:16","slug":"supercars-news-rookie-recruit-rylan-grays-djr-culture-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455184\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Rookie recruit Rylan Gray\u2019s DJR culture shock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rylan-Gray-Brodie-Kostecki.jpg\" alt=\"Supercars rookie Rylan Gray\u2019s DJR culture shock\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRylan Gray with Brodie Kostecki. Image: Supplied <\/p>\n<p>The young phenom joins DJR full-time in 2026, taking over the number #38 entry while teammate and 2023 series champion <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2026-dick-johnson-racing-brodie-kosteck-rylan-gray-livery-launch-number\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brodie Kostecki moves into the famed number #17 Ford Mustang.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gray\u2019s off-season was not only spent familiarising himself with his new team, but also his new teammate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been here with the team for quite a while now, doing some training with Brodie and getting into it,\u201d Gray told Speedcafe.<\/p>\n<p>Elevating to the main game after winning the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series title for Tickford Autosport, the culture shock of moving teams has not been lost on the young star.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLearning everyone\u2019s names has been a bit challenging for me, but I\u2019m getting there now, and just spending time with the team has been the big thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe culture here at DJR is phenomenal, everyone\u2019s well prepared, well mannered, it\u2019s so different to what I\u2019m used to, but that\u2019s what I love about this team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Supercars presents a high standard of competition not yet experienced by Gray, but the rookie is not letting that be a deterrent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll go to Sydney and just do the best we can, and then we\u2019ll build results from there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s hard to be a rookie, come in and perform straight away, but I definitely think we have the tools necessary to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While only turning 20 years of age in 2026, Gray still brings to the table a wealth of success in a relatively short time, finishing seventh and first in the standings in a pair of Super2 seasons, taking round honours for the first time at Bathurst in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Gray also combined with George Miedecke to finish second in two seasons of Monochrome GT4 Australia.<\/p>\n<p>To prepare for the move into the main game, throughout 2025 Gray notably sampled Gen3 machinery in a solo wildcard appearance at Hidden Valley Raceway, before combining with Super2 teammate Lochie Dalton in an enduro campaign, finishing a best of 13th in the Bathurst 1000.<\/p>\n<p>The Repco Supercars Championship season kicks off with the pre-season test session at Sydney Motorsport Park on Wednesday February 18th, before the Dunlop Sydney 500 opens the season that weekend, with free fan entry on Friday February 18th.<\/p>\n<p>Gray will have his first drive of a Shell V-Power Racing Mustang during a rookie test at Queensland Raceway on February 9, while the team takes to the circuit today to shake down Kostecki\u2019s new car.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/285241\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/285241.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rylan Gray with Brodie Kostecki. Image: Supplied The young phenom joins DJR full-time in 2026, taking over the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,2498,806,805,803,804,45804,85,40367],"class_list":["post-455184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dick-johnson-racing","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-rylan-gray","tag-sports","tag-supercars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}