A few days ago, the already bad NASCAR rookie season of Noah Gragson went from disappointing to disastrous. His team, Legacy Motor Club, announced that they’re suspending him indefinitely because of his interaction with a certain social media post. This led to conflicting reports on whether Legacy had fired him or whether they’d just suspended him.
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So far, there hasn’t been an official word about whether Gragson’s time at Legacy has come to an end. But if Jimmie Johnson’s team were to, in fact, terminate the rookie’s contract, they’d probably exercise the morality clause present in his contract.
This was something that spotter Brett Griffin recently explained.
NASCAR Insider opens up on the morality clause regarding Noah Gragson
During a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, the subject of Noah Gragson’s suspension came up, leading to spotter Freddie Kraft asking fellow spotter Brett Griffin, the steps Legacy would have to take to fire Gragson and whether there’s some morality clause in his contract that can come into play. Griffin replied, “They gotta have grounds to suspend him. And those grounds have to exist within his contract.”
“So if he is suspended for liking a certain social media post, which we know is the case, then that is absolutely true. He has, in their opinion, done something which breached the morality clause in his contract which reads something along the lines of, ‘He cannot represent the team and/or his sponsors in a negative light.’ Clearly, what he did on social media, they are saying that is the case.”
Griffin claimed that the way Legacy can fire Gragson is certainly the morality clause route which can range anywhere from unusual to weird. The spotter revealed how back in the day the morality clause would have things like, “You cannot have a child out of wedlock.” He added that it can be that specific or it can be “very, very vague.”
Having said that, Griffin then pointed to the clause in the drivers’ contract today that is as applicable to a Chase Elliott as it is to a Noah Gragson.
Brett Griffin on the clause with which teams can terminate their driver’s contract
After describing the morality clause regarding Gragson’s subject, Brett Griffin explained the clause in driver’s contracts today, which can lead to their NASCAR team terminating them. “There’s clauses in existing driver’s contracts that say, If you miss a certain amount of races, no matter why, they can also terminate the contract,” the spotter said.
“That doesn’t mean they have to terminate it, but if you’re Chase Elliott and you’ve missed 6 weeks because you broke your leg, your team owns the right to terminate your contract because you’re not able to show up for work. It doesn’t matter why, the fact of the matter is, you’re not showing up for work, we can fire you.”
With that said, Griffin emphasized once again that just because that clause is there, doesn’t mean a team will exercise it and fire their own driver. But in Noah Gragson’s case, it seems Legacy might just or have exercised the morality clause, putting an end to his tenure at their organization, and who knows, perhaps to his NASCAR career.
