LAS VEGAS, Nev: For much of Saturday afternoon’s Alsco Uniforms 302 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway it appeared Noah Gragson was heading towards his eighth win of the season – but a late race restart did not work out as he anticipated leaving the JR Motorsports driver in recovery mode instead of guaranteeing his way into the Championship 4 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway.
On the Lap 167 restart, Gragson found himself battling the Kaulig Racing teammates of AJ Allmendinger and Landon Cassill for the control of the race.
As the three cars entered Turn 3, Allmendinger made slight contact with Cassill’s rear bumper which shot his No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro up the race track forcing Gragson to take evasive maneuvers which ultimately briefly stalled his momentum and dropped him several spots on the race track.
It took several laps for Gragson to get back into a rhythm and over the course of the final 33 laps of the race, the Las Vegas, Nev. native was able to steadily climb back through the field and passed his JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier with four laps to go but ran out of laps to track down teammate Josh Berry for the win.
Gragson settled for his fourth runner-up finish of the season – finishing 1.125 seconds behind Berry.
“We are not doing burnouts, so definitely frustrating,” said Gragson after the race. “The 10 (Cassill) stayed out on older tires and kinda hurt us there. We didn’t execute it out. The team did a great job. The Bass Pro Shop pit stops guys were really good, we just got caught there.”
Wanting desperately to win at his home track, Gragson said he put everything on the line to try and his first win in eight starts at the 1.5-mile speedway.
Instead, the inbound full-time Cup Series driver settled for his third second-place finish at Las Vegas and matched his spring result where he finished second after starting fourth.
“Definitely unfortunate,” added Gragson. “I drove my nuts off trying to get back to the front and just ran out of time there. I was giving everything I had, just not enough time there.
“Congratulations to the 8 team and JR Motorsports for 1-2-3 (finishes). “We’ll try to go ‘em tomorrow.”
With three races remaining in the Xfinity Series season, Gragson is second in the Xfinity Series championship standings, 44 points ahead of the cutline heading to Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway next weekend, where the 12-time Xfinity Series winner is considered a pre-race favorite.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
