By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
With six laps to go in Saturday’s Hooters 250 from Homestead-Miami Speedway, nobody was going to touch Noah Gragson’s chances of scoring win No. 3 in the Xfinity Series.
Except for Ryan Sieg.
As Gragson’s No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet neared a 13-second lead on teammate and boss Dale Earnhardt Jr., the caution flew from a spin by Sieg in Turn 1.
With a two-lap shootout to end the event, Gragson’s lack of short-run speeds cost the sophomore driver, as Austin Cindric and race winner Harrison Burton squeezed by for the top two spots. The Las Vegas native had to settle for third.
“It was tough. Our Camaro was really, really good,” Gragson said.
Leading 83 laps, Saturday proved to be his most dominant drive yet in the series, having never led that many laps in his 43 prior starts. And though Saturday looked to be a certain victory — his second in the last three races — it wasn’t in the cards.
https://twitter.com/NoahGragson/status/1271932073733959682
“Our No. 9 guys at JR Motorsports had really good pit stops all day,” he said. “Restarts were just the biggest struggle. I was really proud of my restarts here last year and [this year] I just couldn’t get them going.
Gragson did pop the wall on multiple occasions. However, the composite body held up and Gragson continued to drive away with the lead.
“I thought we were going to be able to come home with the win today,” he said. “Running the top, that was so much fun.”
With a sixth top-five finish and third straight podium result, Gragson now secures the point lead in the driver standings. And with another Xfinity race to run Sunday from Homestead, Gragson is grateful and ready.
“Overall, so thankful to be running here in the Xfinity Series,” he said. “So many people have put a lot of time and effort to get us here to the race track. It’s just such a dream to come here.
“I was skimming the fence all the way around at one point. Super grateful to be here. We still got tomorrow. We’ll try our best tomorrow.”
https://twitter.com/NoahGragson/status/1271935860985004033
🤯🤯🤯🤯
Those last two laps!
RETWEET to congratulate @HBurtonRacing! pic.twitter.com/DrBRyau6SA
— NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) June 13, 2020