By Summer Bedgood, Managing Editor
Noah Gragson left last weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway crushed, heartbroken and, maybe for the moment, defeated.
Now, he’s leaving Kansas Speedway excited, confident … he is leaving as the victor.
Gragson dominated Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, leading 128 of the 167-lap race, even with team owner Kyle Busch in the race.
“This is such a relief for a driver that had a hard week last week battling for the win between myself and Johnny Sauter,” said Gragson in Victory Lane. “We came back stronger this weekend with two consecutive poles in a row. Led the most laps today. Man, this is a pretty damn cool moment.”
Gragson is referring to last week’s race at Dover, where he led 60 laps but crashed with just a few laps to go while racing Johnny Sauter for the lead. He took total responsibility of the incident and admittedly came into the weekend wanting to do better for himself and his race team.
“You’re always going to have a bit of that chip on your shoulder,” Gragson said. “I was battling for the win last week and we were really fast. We had another fast Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra last week and didn’t get the job done. I raced the Xfinity Series race and that really helped my confidence get back to where it needed to be and just being able to surround myself with everyone at Kyle Busch Motorsports. All the fans for being so supportive of me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. I got a lot of positive comments. I read all those comments, good or bad from the fans and they keep me going. There’s a little bit. I knew we had a fast Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra. We sat on the pole. You always want to go into a race where you feel like you should have won the weekend before and you really want to go dominate that race all day long and I felt like that’s what we did today.”
The win locked the driver of the No. 18 into the Playoffs for the NCWTS in only his second full-time season in this series. The win on Friday night was his second career victory, winning from his first career pole at Kansas Speedway.
“First win of the year and we’re going to the playoffs and I can tell you there’s going to be a lot more wins this year with this group behind me,” said a confident Gragson.
And this time he maintained his composure better than he had in his previous victory.
“I climbed up (the fence) and I was sitting up there and was trying to take my time and let everything sink in,” stated Gragson. “I probably stayed up there a little longer than I should have. I was pumping up the crowd who was awesome tonight.They were cheering for me and I hope we put on a good show there at the end. I climbed down and was like, ‘This is not happening again – no way!’ I was close to puking. I almost got there like halfway up, I was like (gagging noises) and then I held it in. That’s a step in the right direction for me. We’re making gains all over the race track, off the race track, puking and hopefully I can get a quarter of the way up and then an eighth of the way up, and then not up at all. Just trying to keep it down. It’s all water – I didn’t eat much today. I think that’s what it is, it’s just water that would come up.”
Team owner Kyle Busch believes additional seat time in the XFINITY Series may have helped the 19-year-old as well. He has competed in three events in the series, earning a top 10 finish in all three races.
“Absolutely, I think it was really good for him to have those experiences,” said Busch. “It gives you some better opportunities to see where you’re at and where you stack up against the competition when you’re able to go up to another series and feel it out a bit. The (NASCAR) Xfinity Cars drive a little better than the Trucks. I am not surprised that guys get to the Xfinity level and trust the vehicle a little bit more once they get there. I think that helped him get a confidence boost of being able to come here and know what he feels and what he wants in his vehicle.”
Now the series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway, another mile-and-a-half racetrack where Gragson now feels more confident and ready to contend for a championship.
“I can’t say enough how much Kyle Busch Motorsports helps,” Gragson said. “They work their tails off. They are the best in the business and it definitely shows. I have so much confidence in myself. Last week doesn’t have any remark on me right now. I put that away and just going into the future from here.”
The race begins Friday, May 18th at 8:30PM ET on FS1.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Unofficial Race Results
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Unofficial Driver Points
Noah Gragson Talks Confidence, Puking Capacity Following Kansas Victory
By Summer Bedgood, Managing Editor
Noah Gragson left last weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway crushed, heartbroken and, maybe for the moment, defeated.
Now, he’s leaving Kansas Speedway excited, confident … he is leaving as the victor.
Gragson dominated Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, leading 128 of the 167-lap race, even with team owner Kyle Busch in the race.
“This is such a relief for a driver that had a hard week last week battling for the win between myself and Johnny Sauter,” said Gragson in Victory Lane. “We came back stronger this weekend with two consecutive poles in a row. Led the most laps today. Man, this is a pretty damn cool moment.”
Gragson is referring to last week’s race at Dover, where he led 60 laps but crashed with just a few laps to go while racing Johnny Sauter for the lead. He took total responsibility of the incident and admittedly came into the weekend wanting to do better for himself and his race team.
“You’re always going to have a bit of that chip on your shoulder,” Gragson said. “I was battling for the win last week and we were really fast. We had another fast Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra last week and didn’t get the job done. I raced the Xfinity Series race and that really helped my confidence get back to where it needed to be and just being able to surround myself with everyone at Kyle Busch Motorsports. All the fans for being so supportive of me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. I got a lot of positive comments. I read all those comments, good or bad from the fans and they keep me going. There’s a little bit. I knew we had a fast Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra. We sat on the pole. You always want to go into a race where you feel like you should have won the weekend before and you really want to go dominate that race all day long and I felt like that’s what we did today.”
The win locked the driver of the No. 18 into the Playoffs for the NCWTS in only his second full-time season in this series. The win on Friday night was his second career victory, winning from his first career pole at Kansas Speedway.
“First win of the year and we’re going to the playoffs and I can tell you there’s going to be a lot more wins this year with this group behind me,” said a confident Gragson.
And this time he maintained his composure better than he had in his previous victory.
“I climbed up (the fence) and I was sitting up there and was trying to take my time and let everything sink in,” stated Gragson. “I probably stayed up there a little longer than I should have. I was pumping up the crowd who was awesome tonight.They were cheering for me and I hope we put on a good show there at the end. I climbed down and was like, ‘This is not happening again – no way!’ I was close to puking. I almost got there like halfway up, I was like (gagging noises) and then I held it in. That’s a step in the right direction for me. We’re making gains all over the race track, off the race track, puking and hopefully I can get a quarter of the way up and then an eighth of the way up, and then not up at all. Just trying to keep it down. It’s all water – I didn’t eat much today. I think that’s what it is, it’s just water that would come up.”
Team owner Kyle Busch believes additional seat time in the XFINITY Series may have helped the 19-year-old as well. He has competed in three events in the series, earning a top 10 finish in all three races.
“Absolutely, I think it was really good for him to have those experiences,” said Busch. “It gives you some better opportunities to see where you’re at and where you stack up against the competition when you’re able to go up to another series and feel it out a bit. The (NASCAR) Xfinity Cars drive a little better than the Trucks. I am not surprised that guys get to the Xfinity level and trust the vehicle a little bit more once they get there. I think that helped him get a confidence boost of being able to come here and know what he feels and what he wants in his vehicle.”
Now the series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway, another mile-and-a-half racetrack where Gragson now feels more confident and ready to contend for a championship.
“I can’t say enough how much Kyle Busch Motorsports helps,” Gragson said. “They work their tails off. They are the best in the business and it definitely shows. I have so much confidence in myself. Last week doesn’t have any remark on me right now. I put that away and just going into the future from here.”
The race begins Friday, May 18th at 8:30PM ET on FS1.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Unofficial Race Results
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Unofficial Driver Points