Noah Gragson is fresh out of probably the worst slump of his career that started with NASCAR suspending him for using a racial slur on social media. And on his return, his new team, Stewart-Haas Racing, is all set to make it big with him as the driver of their #10 Ford Mustang. The two combined; good days are to come for Tony Stewart’s Cup team.
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Gragson finished 6th in last Sunday’s Pennzoil 400. Just a few months back, something like that was just unthinkable. Even a week back, the 25-year-old racer was slammed with an L1 penalty at Atlanta Motor Speedway, for illegal roof rail deflectors. And he bounced back from there to record his career-best finish at the 1.5-mile Nevadan oval.
While talking to SiriusXM NASCAR radio, he said, “The cars at Stewart-Haas, they got really good pace and as a driver that allows you to be more patient because you’re gonna have more than one opportunity to pass a car.”
“This past Sunday at Vegas, that’s the most fun I’ve ever had in a Cup Series race. Just because how I was able to pass cars…I wasn’t just scared to death driving the thing. I felt confident in the car and confident that I could make a move and the car was gonna stick,” he admitted.
Noah Gragson compares his time at Legacy Motorclub to Stewart-Haas Racing
After being suspended from NASCAR and ejected from Jimmie Johnson’s #42 Cup team, Gragson was left with no seat in a Cup car and wondering when he would get an opportunity to resume his driving career. Thankfully, NASCAR revoked the suspension this year and the young driver is back at his game. On that note, Gragson revealed why things went southward last year.
“There’s a lot of reasons why last year just didn’t work,” Gragson explained. “We had some guys from JR Motorsports that came with us, so it wasn’t a lack of communication by any means. You have to try and take every opportunity, and I was driving over my head quite a bit last year, just trying to keep up.”
So how has his year been till now? “Obviously, Atlanta was a tough weekend overall with wrecking on the first lap and then going into Vegas negative in points, so seeing how we rebounded was really big for me and stood out in my mind,”? Gragson admitted.
The thing that satisfies him the most is how they have been able to deal with the hurdles that have come their way.
