HAMPTON, Ga.: A incident on pit road between NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric spewed into a short brawl on pit road following Saturday afternoon’s EchoPark 250 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
Late in the race, Hemric was forced into a portion of Gragson’s pit box after the lapped car of Mason Massey had trouble exiting his pit stall and inadvertently blocked a portion of Hemric’s pit stall in the process.
Hemric was able to eventually squeeze into his box for service but not before hindering Gragson from getting into his pit stall assignment at a routine angle.
Gragson backed up his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet into the nose of Hemric’s No. 18 Toyota Supra causing some damage to the Joe Gibbs Racing’s car.
Both drivers were able to eventually complete service and returned to the event. Gragson finished fourth, while Hemric settled for ninth.
After the race, Hemric briskly walked down towards Gragson who was doing a post-race interview and apparently began to shout and shoved him regarding the incident.
A short tussle eventually turned into punches being thrown by both drivers before being separated.
“Pretty simple,” Hemric said explaining the post-race confrontation. “He (Noah Gragson) had no idea what was going on out on the race track. We come down pit road and the guy pitted behind us when you accelerate when I was pulling into my box and it made me have to steer around the guy going to the 9’s (Gragson) box. I backed up and yes, it messed up both of our pit stops.
“I backed up and he decided to put it in reverse and cram into the right-front fender and knock a hole in our Poppy Bank Toyota Supra nose. We had to pit again and fix it. That was completely deliberate, and it was absolutely ridiculous. Where I come from, you get your eye dotted when you do stuff like that.”
Hemric said he and Gragson were even after one of his punches connected to Gragson’s eye after the JR Motorsports driver damaged his race car.
“Oh yeah, (Gragson) crammed it into reverse and backed up. Punch a hole in the nose of our car, and I got one punch in his eye so we’re even.”
Gragson didn’t offer many details on the fight but said he wasn’t sure what Hemric was upset about.
“I don’t know why he’s mad,” Gragson said on FOX Sports 1. “We were behind him coming on to pit road … He was in our pit box, and I had to come around him and not really sure why he was there. I had to back up and get there.”
The two later continued their disagreement on social media with both taking to Twitter to plead their respective cases.
18 was in our pit box when I was turning into our pit stall. He backed up into his. I was out of position in the box and had to back up to get into my box. Unintentional backing into him. If they'd show the full replay, you'd see I didn't just back into him for no reason.
— Noah Gragson (@NoahGragson) March 21, 2021
Here's the full video. Penalty if right side tires are out of the box. Final pit stop. Judge for yourself. pic.twitter.com/2LCQEiUDQ7
— Noah Gragson (@NoahGragson) March 21, 2021
The middle finger you gave me out the window was a pretty clear indication to me that you knew exactly what your intent was. Thanks for posting the facts @NoahGragson 👏🏻👏🏻 https://t.co/xIXq5oC9ZH
— Daniel Hemric (@DanielHemric) March 21, 2021
NASCAR confirmed that Gragson, a native of Las Vegas, Nev. was called to the series’ hauler after the race to discuss the incident. The sanctioning body stated it will review the incident and if any penalties are warranted and issued, they would be announced later in the upcoming week.
Saturday’s top-five finish for the best of the season for the 22-year-old Gragson who has had a turbulent year thus far.
Hemric pieced together his fifth top-10 in six races for JGR.
On Sunday, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition Scott Miller announced no action would be taken against Gragson for the pit road incident.
“We reviewed the incident which occurred between the 9 (Gragson) and 18 (Hemric) cars on pit road during Saturday night’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and met with Noah Gragson after the event,” he explained. “A chain reaction of events led to the 18 and 9 both overshooting their pit stalls.
“The 9 ended up both long and out of his pit box to the outside, and needed to back up as far as possible to have any chance at fully pulling into his box. After reviewing the video, it is our judgment that the contact was not deliberate.”
Atlanta isn’t the first scenario where Gragson found himself involved in a post-race altercation.
Last year at Kentucky Speedway, Gragson and Harrison Burton were involved in a scuffle after the two made contact on a late-race restart.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series doesn’t return to action for two weeks until Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Apr. 9, 2021.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
