Last October, Gresham Wagner took the checkered flag for his 10th GR Cup win of the year. He also, unsurprisingly, took the championship title.

With a racing career that spans almost two decades (yes, he started competing when he was just nine years old), the soft-spoken Virginian talks about his best season to date.

Gresham Wagner is no stranger to the podium. In recent years, he’s racked up an impressive number of race wins and championship victories—including first place in Toyota’s 2024 GR Cup. He does all this while holding down a full-time job in the healthcare sector.

Speaking from his home office, he exudes a quiet confidence that in some ways contradicts his on-track success. This is not a champion who likes to brag about his accomplishments. Rather, he attributes them (at least in part) to the consistency he applies to his race prep and training.

“Being consistent with what you’re doing through a season,” he says, “to be able to keep the results where they need to be. That’s what really pays off.”

And it’s this consistency that has separated him from the pack. “You know, everybody’s so close,” he adds, “there’s no room for inconsistency.”

“Some drivers will have a standout result or a few through a year, but when they’re not there,” he continues with characteristic calm, “that’s what really punishes them.”

But there are challenges. “The biggest challenge is not panicking or deviating from your course when other people start doing things differently,” he explains. “If you’re already optimizing it, you’re doing everything you can. And there’s a cap to what you can do both as a driver and as a team. You can’t give more than 100 percent.”

Wagner’s 100 percent seems to have been more than enough in the 2024 GR Cup Series, where he capped off the season with back-to-back wins. The high point for him, though, was the final race at Indianapolis.

He flashes a boyish grin as he remembers, “I won pretty comfortably. It’s an amazing event, an amazing track and atmosphere. So, to be able to close the book on the season with something that I could look back on and say, ‘That was an amazing race. It showed that our team was still the best’—that’s awesome.”

So, what’s next for the podium-dominating 28-year-old?

There’s no hesitation as he answers. “Of course, the next one is GT4. If you look at what Tyler did after winning the championship last year,” he explains, referencing last year’s GR Cup winner, Tyler Gonzalez, “that’s always where the focus has been for me—taking advantage of this new opportunity of the GR Cup.”

Even with the racing ladder Toyota provides, Wagner knows the move is not a foregone conclusion, but he’s confident he has the capacity to succeed. “It’s going to take commitment and passion. But, as long as you have a goal and the motivation to strive for it, give it your best shot and you’ll have a lot of fun doing it.”

And what is it that motivates him to keep coming back to the race track?

“I’ve had the tools and the opportunities to be able to win championships and races at this level pretty consistently,” he says. “When you’re used to winning, you chase that feeling of success, and anything other than winning feels like a failure.”

Spoken like a true champion. Way to go, Gresham Wagner.

Originally published January 15, 2025

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