TALLADEGA, Ala.: At one of his most successful race tracks, Noah Gragson stood his ground throughout Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway to earn his second career top-five finish in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
Despite a challenging 36th-place qualifying effort on Saturday morning, Gragson’s resilience shone through as he kept his No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang in contention throughout the intense 188-lap race.
From the drop of the green flag, Gragson continued to march forward despite finding himself and the rest of the competitors in fuel-savings conservation mode throughout the first of two trips to the 2.66-mile superspeedway this season.
Playing it safe throughout the first two stages of the race, Gragson was able to position himself appropriately during Stage 3 and put himself in the hunt for his first career Cup Series victory.
With the Ford Darkhouse Mustangs of Michael McDowell and Brad Keselowski in control of the race on the last lap, Gragson had positioned himself on the bottom lane, ready to pounce in the event his Ford Performance teammates would starting racing themselves and leave the door open for the 15-time NASCAR Truck Series and Xfinity winner
As the cars were screaming towards the finish, McDowell threw two blocks to keep Keselowski at bay, which allowed Gragson to have serious momentum on the bottom lane. Keselowski dropped down in an effort to stall Gragson’s run, but at the same time, leader McDowell came across the nose of Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford Mustang, which sent the No. 34 spinning up the track and igniting a multi-car accident at the checkered flag.
Tyler Reddick stormed on the outside lane as the incident started and went on to win the race, while Keselowski and Gragson settled for second and third.
After the race, Gragson, who also led five laps throughout the day, was upbeat about his performance – just knowing he had the chance to score Stewart-Haas Racing’s first Cup Series win of the season, not to mention the strength the Ford teams throughout the race.
“We were definitely working together as Fords on the bottom,” Gragson explained. “(Michael) McDowell, Brad Keselowski and myself. All the Fords worked great all race. It’s coming to the end, and the 6 and the 34 were blocking coming to the checkers, and unfortunately, the 45 squeaked by. I really wanted to see a Ford in Victory Lane, but the Overstock team at Stewart-Haas did a great job all day.
“We had clean pit stops, fast pit stops, a lot of horsepower under the hood. The Mustang Dark Horses and racing with these other Ford guys has been a lot of fun. I haven’t been up here very much in the Cup Series on these superspeedways, but I’m extremely grateful.”
Gragson also took the appreciation to be racing around a former Cup Series champion and a former winner of the Daytona 500.
“It’s a privilege to race with guys like Keselowski and McDowell. I mean, they’ve won really big races on speedways, so, overall, I’m really thankful for everyone at Stewart-Haas and this Overstock team and we’ll keep the momentum going.”
Since returning to the Cup Series at the start of the season, Gragson has been delivering some strong performances and kept the No. 10 Ford Mustang team in the spotlight.
In 10 races this season, Gragson has earned one top-five and three top-10 finishes.
Gragson sits 27th in Cup points, still trying to recover from the points penalty the team received earlier this season at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway. NASCAR discovered altered roof rail deflectors on Gragson’s race car during the February inspection.
The Las Vegas, Nev. native heads to Dover Motor Speedway where he’ll make his second Cup start and look for his fourth top-10 of 2024.
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
