Noah Gragson had a career day in the NASCAR Cup Series at his home track with a sixth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It wasn’t an easy day for Gragson, who started 30th in his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Gragson had been second fastest overall in practice but didn’t get everything out of his car in qualifying.
“We practiced really well; we were second in practice yesterday, and I thought we prepared really well, and then I under-drove it really bad,” Gragson said. “I qualified 30th, but we kept inching up all day and progressing. The pit crew did an awesome job… just an outstanding job. It’s a great day, sixth.”
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Gragson finished sixth in the season-opening Daytona 500 and was involved in the multi-car crash on lap two at Atlanta Motor Speedway. His team also lost 35 points before Sunday’s race in Las Vegas started for rail rails that were confiscated at Atlanta for being illegal.
But the first intermediate racetrack of the season brought the momentum back to Gragson’s team. Gragson fought hard for a top-five finish in the closing laps, going to battle with Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs, but came up short. The result was Gragson’s third career top-10 finish.
“I was terrible on all the restarts and kept losing spots all day, and then I pretty much ran out of options of where not to go on restarts,” Gragson said. “Then I tried the last thing I hadn’t tried, and that was shoot through the middle and picked up spots. So I know to put that down in my notebook.
“But we’re going to keep working as a team – really fast cars, and just grateful to be with this organization. They’re really good and I feel at home, comfortable and content. We still have a lot of fire in our belly, but we’re pretty good.”
Despite the result, Gragson acknowledged his team still needs to be better. He wants to keep the attitude that there is plenty to be learned and work to be done to be better every day. Sunday was another building block for the No. 10 group, with whom Gragson is working for the first time after being signed by Stewart-Haas Racing over the winter.
Gragson also hadn’t run on a traditional mile-and-a-half racetrack since June at Nashville Superspeedway. A lot has changed in the garage, including Ford rolling out a brand-new race car.
“This is the first true testament,” Gragson said. “I don’t know, [Ryan] Blaney was up there and maybe a couple other guys in the Ford camp, but this Mustang Dark Horse is bitchin.’ It’s fast and it’s been really good. You can see the speed that it’s had in qualifying, not for me because I drove like a sissy out there, but with the other guys, they have three poles so far this year, so we’re going good.”