Noah Gragson’s performance at this year’s Grant Park 165 in Chicago was a marked improvement from the previous season, as he finished in a respectable 14th place. Making his team and fans proud to know that all his hard work is paying off, little by little! To show how far he has come since his suspension last year, which followed the sensitivity training, Gragson honestly answers questions regarding his career and what has helped him grow as a person.

No doubt, the SHR driver has shown mighty resilience and dedication coming into the season. As he continues to bounce back from past setbacks and emerge as a rising star within the NASCAR Cup Series, let’s take a look at all that he has achieved.

Did Noah almost quit NASCAR?

Noah Gragson will join Front Row Motorsports on a multiyear deal beginning in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the team announced Wednesday at the NASCAR Productions Facility. However, his journey with the indefinite suspension over a social media interaction in the past year has been a rollercoaster of emotions and self-discovery, to say the least. Even at the beginning of this season, the uncertainty lingered, as Gragson acknowledged that he may never know what the future holds.

But now that it looks like he has worked on himself and his new team, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for this young sport! But this is what Gragson felt a few months ago: “Last year I was probably the most down on myself, and I was ready to move back to Vegas and go do landscaping or build pools out there,” Noah answers honestly, talking about this progress since last year.

“I didn’t enjoy racing anymore. But this year, I found my love for the sport again, I found why I want to do it and I found myself. So my appreciation for the sport has flipped 180 in the last 12 months and a big part of that is to the people I have around me,” he added.

Obviously, it wasn’t an overnight achievement for Noah Gragson, but with the right guidance, he claimed to find himself again, and his appreciation for the sport has undergone a complete 180-degree transformation over the last 12 months. For this, Gragson credits the people around him as a big part of this remarkable turnaround. Because teamwork makes the dream work, right?

Most important factor for his progress? It is the people around him and having a place where he feels safe to be himself. Once his supporters encouraged and helped him focus on the right things, it opened up more possibilities for him to see and inevitably gave way to achieving more than he thought he could this year.

Further discussing the sensitivity training times, Gragson realized he had been closed-minded, and selfish, and that he had failed to consider the perspectives and situations of others. This proved to be a major turning point in his life, which he then referred to as “one of the best things that has ever happened” to him.  Gragson emerged from the experience as more self-aware, reflective, and committed to being a better representative of the sport.

After completing the reinstatement process in September 2023, Gragson was granted a second chance in NASCAR and was taken in by Stewart-Haas Racing as their new driver for the #10 Ford in the Cup Series for the 2024 season. But look how life comes full circle! Now the driver is all set to step in with his new team, Front Row Motorsports, in 2025.