Outside of Kyle Larson’s dominating performance in the Pennzoil 400, Noah Gragson surprised fans in Las Vegas. Gragson had his best NASCAR Cup Series finish at his hometown track, coming in P6.
On the season, Gragson has two top-10 finishes, one at Daytona and now one at Vegas. However, a first-lap DNF and a 35-point penalty for illegal roof rails, left Gragson at -6 points in the standings.
After picking up 31 points in the Pennzoil 400, Gragson is back in the positives in points and has a little momentum.
“It’s huge, it’s huge,” Gragson said of his finish, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “I’m really proud of this Fanttik group at Stewart-Haas Racing. There’s been some challenges this year but there’s also been some good things too. Top-10 at Daytona, we only got a lap in last week and had the troubles with the roof rails. That was a bummer, but we just want to keep on being better than we were yesterday. Keep learning and progressing.
“This group, I think we’ve got the tightest group in the garage. This is good for our confidence but we’re not going to get content, we’re going to keep working hard each and every day, clean some stuff up on my part, team did an awesome job, and we’re just going to continue to grow.”
Stewart-Haas Racing and Noah Gragson might just be the perfect combination. At least, it might be what both Gragson and the organization need right now as both look to get on solid ground following a dismal 2023.
Back in the black as far as points are concerned, now Gragson can start to build.
Noah Gragson saw the jokes about his points
Speaking of the points situation, Noah Gragson saw all of the jokes about his negative six points. No one wants to have a negative in the points, full-time, part-time – it just means you were hit with a penalty for something that probably could have been avoided.
Gragson and Ryan Preece both had illegal roof rails on their cars in Atlanta. NASCAR noted the issues with the parts and showed them off in Las Vegas this week.
“I saw everybody tweeting me that they had more points than me in Cup so, that was a good little laugh,” Gragson continued with Pockrass. “We just stayed focused, it is what it is, I’ve learned over the past handful of months that, you know, just try and work to be better tomorrow and it is what it is, the past is the past, just about looking forward into the future and growing as a person.”
Noah Gragson is the only driver at SHR with two top-10 finishes this season. Right now, it looks like Gragson and Chase Briscoe are the leaders, at least in performance on the track, for Stewart-Haas right now.
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