SPARTA, Ky: Social distancing enforcement or not, Harrison Burton was bound and determined to give Noah Gragson a piece of his mind following Friday night’s Alsco 300 at Kentucky Speedway.
The two drivers were battling hard in the closing laps in the second race as part of a double-header weekend for the Xfinity Series – both fighting for a top-five finish when Gragson’s Chevrolet broke loose on a late-race restart in Turn 4, sending both vehicles sliding into the wall and costing both drivers a ton of positions too.
Gragson, 21, was able to recover for a seventh-place finish, while Burton, 19, had to settle for 12th, leading to tempers flaring post-race in the garage area.
A heated Burton walked over to Gragson’s car, where the two exchanged words before a couple of shoves led to a punch being thrown at Burton by Gragson – escalating the situation with crew members and NASCAR officials arriving on scene, eventually pulling the two drivers apart.
“Just frustrated,” Burton said after the fight. “This has been two times since we’ve come back from the COVID-19 pandemic on restarts. Same situation. We rallied all night to get our DEX Imaging Supra into fourth place and then the 9 (Noah Gragson) happens to start in third and I don’t know if he forgets what race track we’re at or what, but both times puts us in the fence, Charlotte and now here.”
Burton said he received praise from his peers about comforting Gragson who has developed a reputation as one of the most aggressive drivers on the tour.
“I had a lot of people coming up to me afterward saying that was a long time coming so I guess that was a popular move,” he added. “Honestly, it’s about these guys that work so hard on this race car and give me fast race cars. They gave me a race car that was capable of winning both nights I think.
“Just mistakes made by me and we kind of tuned it out this race that took us out of contention. Once we finally got to where I thought we could have been, get taken out and that was frustrating. Just frustrated and just sorry for our race team that happened.”
Gragson chose to avoid talking about the incident between his former teammate, instead chalking the night up to hard racing and bouncing back from hiccups earlier in the race.
“I was battling with our Switch Camaro all race, sped on pit road there early and got us in a hole and was just back in traffic,” Gragson said. “This track is so much about just track position and restarts. I don’t know. Unfortunate day for our Switch team at JR Motorsports. We’ll go on to Texas and rebound.
“We’re all racing hard. Us teammates are beating and banging for finishes at the end and whatnot. I don’t really have a comment. I haven’t seen everything that happened. Just thankful for this opportunity. Everybody at JR Motorsports is working really hard.”
Following Kentucky, Gragson is second in points – while Burton despite his fifth consecutive race finishing outside the top-10 jumped to sixth in the standings.
Both drivers have scored two wins apiece this season and are assured a spot in the Xfinity Series Playoffs later this year.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
