Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) entered the 2024 season with tall promises of winning races again and finding their rightful place amongst the strongest teams in NASCAR. However, the upgraded roster of drivers hasn’t been prolific save the performances of one, Noah Gragson. The young driver was signed up by Tony Stewart to replace Aric Almirola in the #10 car this season and has repaid the co-owner’s faith in him well thus far.
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In the season-opening race at Daytona, Gragson finished in ninth place. He followed that up with a DNF at Atlanta and finished sixth in the Las Vegas race on Sunday. With two top-10 finishes in the last three races, he is easily the best-performing driver in the SHR garage.
Gragson’s return to race in the Cup Series came from the opportunity provided to him after he was suspended last year for liking a racially insensitive meme on social media. After the termination of his contract with Legacy Motor Club midseason, he joined SHR in the hopes of restarting his Cup Series career.
His latest result at Vegas is his best at the 1.5-mile intermediate track. He said in the aftermath of the race, “All the challenges — I haven’t been to a 1½-mile track in over six, seven months — I was a little nervous about if I was going to know what to do or not.” Notably, Gragson qualified 30th on Saturday and worked his way up into the top ten to finally finish sixth.
The performances of Noah Gragson’s teammates at Stewart-Haas Racing
Gragson heaped praise on his team saying that they were the tightest-knit group in the entire garage. With Josh Berry taking up the seat that Kevin Harvick left behind, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece round up Stewart’s roster. Berry’s best finish thus far came in Las Vegas (20th place). He completed the Daytona 500 in 25th place and did not finish the race in Atlanta.
Briscoe garnered a 10th-place finish in the Daytona 500 and a 21st on Sunday. Preece hasn’t fared much better with his best result being 16th at Atlanta. Briscoe and Berry expressed confidence in their cars post the race and mentioned that the Ford Mustangs had speed. The former noted, “We definitely had a top 10 car and finished 21st or whatever so that part is kind of frustrating.”
He continued to focus on the job ahead by looking forward to the coming weekend’s race at Phoenix. Stewart will be hoping that his drivers pull in better finishes and help him out of the slump that SHR has been in these past few years.
