Following the Highest Finish in 2 Years, Noah Gragson’s Crew Chief Urges Drivers to “Unload” and Improve in 2024

When the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season commenced, one of the drivers who had a lot of pressure on them was Noah Gragson. Due to his antics on social media, it’s no secret how the season prematurely ended for the 25-year-old last year. So when he was approached by Stewart-Haas Racing for a full-time seat, Gragson knew that he would need several good performances to prove his worth as a Cup Series driver again.

The first of those performances came on Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the #10 car finished in an impressive P6. The 25-year-old was not a happy man after his qualifying effort,t as he started P30 in the event. However, it turns out the #10 car had quite an impressive race pace, as he swiftly made up a lot of places and finished in the top 10.

Noah Gragson gets his first taste of redemption in the 2024 Cup Series season

It has been a long time since Noah Gragson has done that, and he was jubilant after his P6 finish. But it’s not just the driver that has something to prove this year; it’s the team this year. For the past few years, the #10 team has had Aric Almirola as their driver, who is a veteran of the sport and expects to fight at the front. But the car was simply not good enough.

This year has already been a lot better for the team, as it earned its highest finish on a 1.5-mile track race since the spring Vegas race of 2022. This is exactly what every single member of the #10 team needed. Crew chief Drew Blickensderfer was a proud man at the end of the event but iterated that there was still a lot of work left to be done and a lot of areas to improve in. For now, the focus will be on building confidence.

“I thought our cars had probably more potential this year and that showed it. He did great. He took a beating in qualifying going out first, just learning and days like today build confidence to where we should improve on that,” Blickensderfer further added. “We haven’t been in that situation in the last year or two so that confidence builds so I think what to take from it is just momentum, he’s gotta unload in Phoenix and just feel better about everything we have going on.”

For Gragson, it was more than just a finish in the top 10 in the Cup Series. Running as well as he did despite starting so low down the order and finishing P6 in front of his home crowd was all the validation he needed after the tumultuous time he experienced in 2023.

Cup series star hails Stewart-Haas Racing for having “a good foundation”

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The 25-year-old had a long gap from racing, during which time he was sent to sensitivity training and had a lot of time for self-reflection. Noah Gragson realized that before becoming a better driver, he needed to become a better person. But when Stewart-Haas Racing offered him a chance at redemption, there was no way he could let it slip, and thankfully, he felt comfortable in the setting right from the get-go.

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“I knew I needed to be better. There’s a lot of pressure on a driver. There’s a lot of challenges that come that way—not even away from the racetrack. You get caught up in work, and I had never found balance in my life. I had never probably never truly found who I was,” Gragson said, asper the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I really fit in over here. I feel a lot more comfortable. I feel a lot more happy and confident in myself. That starts with a good team and a good foundation.”

The result could not have come at a better time for the #10 driver, who had 35 points deducted by NASCAR recently due to an infraction with his car’s roof rail deflections. He will be looking to carry this momentum into the Phoenix weekend, hopefully finishing in the top five and proving that Las Vegas was not a fluke.

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