For the second time in his young NASCAR Cup Series career, Noah Gragson has finished in the top-10, doing it in his hometown of Las Vegas. Gragson had speed in practice and that carried through to the race for a career-best result.
Noah Gragson struggled last year. Stewart-Haas Racing struggled. Then the two got together to try and turn things around. I do not think many saw this performance coming. Not just from Gragson, but from that 10 car at all.
This is the second top-10 of the season for Gragson after he finished P9 at Daytona. Career-best finish today in the Pennzoil 400 taking home P6.
On the season, Noah Gragson leads Stewart-Haas with his two top-10 finishes. Chase Briscoe is the only other SHR driver with a top-10 finish, which also came at Daytona. Who thought Gragson would be a performance leader for this organization so early?
With Legacy Motor Club his rookie season, Gragson had a best finish of P12. That didn’t come until the fifth race of the year. Now, he has two top-10s with Stewart-Haas. The only bad thing is he sits 34th in points thanks to that 35-point penalty from Atlanta.
Just to bring it up, Gragson has one more top-10 finish than John Hunter Nemechek, his replacement in the 42. He also has one more on his former teammate Erik Jones.
Kyle Larson went on to win the Pennzoil 400. He swept both stages on his way to victory.
Noah Gragson among handful of surprises at Vegas
Let’s just talk about Noah Gragson and his breakout performance, it was fun. He moved up through the field multiple times, on the long green flag runs he was great. He never got flustered. Even when he ran side-by-side with Ty Gibbs for a top-5 spot, he remained calm.
Gragson could have forced the issue with Gibbs, a bitter rival, but he didn’t. Are we going to get the Gibbs/Gragson battle we wanted so badly last season?
Along with the No. 10, there were other performances worth shouting out.
Carson Hocevar and Corey LaJoie got a taste of the top-10 today. LaJoie especially, before his DNF blowing out a right rear, was fantastic. He had a top-5 car, but had his day derailed by pit stop issues and his tire going down and causing him to spin and take damage. Hocevar finished P15.
Speaking of Erik Jones, he was solid, P14 today. Daniel Hemric gets his third straight top-20 finish, he’s keeping the car clean and finishing laps. That’s what he needs to do right now. Ross Chastain battled from the rear of the field, starting P34, to finish P4.
Solid racing today in Las Vegas. You aren’t going to get door-to-door action every week and photo finishes all the time. However, we saw drivers in a long, hot, frustrating race. Many made mistakes, few didn’t – Larson dominated and Gragson may have made a statement.
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