PHOENIX, Ariz: Noah Gragson’s final race as a current JR Motorsports full-time driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series is on deck for Saturday’s Xfinity Series Championship Race and the Las Vegas, Nev. native is one of the four drivers fighting for the coveted championship title.
Saturday’s 200-lap race will mark the end of a four-year tenure for Gragson in the Xfinity Series that launched in 2019 after success in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Throughout his 131 races as the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro for the Mooresville, N.C.-based, Gragson has been on both sides of the headlines.
A gleaming ability behind the wheel kept him front and center on the race track and a contagious personality that often leaves you grinning or laughing hysterically certain puts the components together of a potential superstar.
But during Championship 4 Media Day on Thursday morning in Phoenix, Gragson admitted these last four seasons have been years of growth and maturing even when the headlines or actions casted a black cloud over his often-beaming sunlight.
While there have been several instances where Gragson has come under fire, his actions during this summer’s race at Road America (Wisc.) where he intentionally retaliated on driver Sage Karam after the two made contact moments earlier was proudly the loudest.
The decision by Gragson ignited a multi-car accident that cost teams thousands of dollars in wadded up race cars. NASCAR didn’t like his reaction either penalizing him 30 driver championship points and fining him $35,000.
Since then, Gragson has worked incredibly hard to earn back the respect of the garage, his peers and the race fans. But it’s been him searching within his own soul that continued to teach Gragson valuable lessons that will stay with him through his next chapter of NASCAR Cup Series racing.
“I think just growing up maturing, making a lot of mistakes throughout my career and learning from them,” said Gragson. “You know, just how to gain respect. This sport is bigger than you are, especially when you are trying to move up through the ranks, for me personally trying to gain respect from others, respect from the Cup level guys, respect from team owners all that kind of stuff.”
Gragson didn’t make excuses for poor decisions, but said the important element is learning from each circumstance and situation and making sure it does not happen again.
“You know there is situations where you make a poor decision in the moment, you’re in the heat of the moment and emotions get the best of you,” added Gragson. “It’s kinda of how you overcome that, and I have been working hard to learn from each and every situation and not let it happen again.”
Focusing ahead, Gragson hopes his recent string of five wins in the last nine races – to align with his eight top-fives and nine top-10 finishes in the stretch dating back to September at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Labor Day weekend showcases him as the championship favorite.
Although the 23-year-old knows that everything has to fall just right in order to get to Victory Lane for the ninth time this season and a finish that would assure him his first driver’s championship in NASCAR’s top three national series.
“I think that is the goal,” said Gragson of being the favorite. “Getting to Phoenix for the Championship 4 is a championship in itself. It really is. We have had a dominate year. We’ve been the best guy, the best team throughout the season. We have the most wins, the most top-fives and it’s just one of those things that you never know.
It takes everything to go right — it takes 1,000 things to go right to win a race but it takes one thing to go wrong to lose a race. Right? I don’t know if you can put the success of a year just on one final race.”
Should circumstances not fall his way – Gragson doesn’t want his impressive season led by crew chief Luke Lambert to be overlooked, especially give the whopping statistics the team has been able to mount in 2022.
“Like I said, you can do everything right, say something breaks or you run over something. Championship is huge. That’s what we want. Not winning the championship I don’t think overlooks how successful a year some guys have had.”
JR Motorsports has a three out of four shot at winning the Xfinity Series championship again on Saturday.
With Gragson’s teammates Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry joining him in the 200-lap dogfight, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs is sitting on another island all alone and is continuing to dodge frustration from the NASCAR fanbase over his dumping teammate Brandon Jones in the Xfinity Series penultimate race of the year at Martinsville last Saturday.
Make no mistake about it, Gragson is not a fan of Gibbs and doesn’t appear to be willing to give him any slack on Saturday afternoon.
“We are racing for ourselves,” Gragson added. It’s definitely a lot easier when you come to the championship race and the whole industry doesn’t hate you. “I’m just voicing my opinion that I don’t like him.”
Asked what he didn’t like about Gibbs, Gragson said, “What is there to?
“I don’t know. I’m excited to race with Justin (Allgaier). I’m excited to race with Josh (Berry) and a lot of the other guys out there in the field. I’m just over it. I’m sick and tired of the ‘I’m sorry, trying to learn’ deal. It’s been two years.
“With that being said, I think you can only beat yourself and we just need to focus on executing at our best and keeping the mistakes at a minimum.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01
