“We Were Misinformed on Some Stuff” – Noah Gragson Opens Up About His Disappointing Stewart-Haas Racing Debut

For Noah Gragson, the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season will be about redemption. The former Legacy Motor Club driver got into deep trouble for his social media antics last year as he was forced to leave the team and was temporarily suspended by NASCAR. This year, the 25-year-old has signed for Stewart-Haas Racing. But his first outing with the team did not bear the result he would have hoped for.

In the Clash at the Coliseum pre-season event, the #10 Ford Mustang driver qualified P17 after final practice and could only manage a P20 finish in the main race. The team seems to have a lot to work on before The Great American Race, which the 25-year-old hopes will go a lot better than what happened in Los Angeles.

Tony Stewart’s driver praises and criticizes team’s communication skills

After the race, Noah Gragson shed some light on why things turned out as bad for him as it did on Saturday. But first, he gave credit where credit was due as he praised his team for their communication (even though there were some lapses) and the adjustments that his crew members made to the car.

“Overall, it was a good weekend. Our first objective was to make the race. We did that, and then got a little mixed up as a team on communication and had some errors to start the race and went a couple of laps down. Still super proud of our team. It was our first week together. Really proud of the communication between Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief), myself, and spotter Andy Houston and the rest of the guys, just making good adjustments to make the race,” he said as per Speedway Digest.

However, he did not shy away from expressing the things that went wrong during the event. Contradictory to what he said earlier, Gragson did mention that there were some lapses in communication and that they were misinformed about certain things. However, the 25-year-old is still hopeful of getting things right at Daytona next weekend.

“Our communication mishaps as a team going into the race with a modified schedule – we were misinformed on some stuff. Other than that, I’m proud of these guys and proud of the effort, thankful for all the hard work and just grateful to be out there. Our goal was to make the race and, although we want to win, we at least got to go out there and be a part of the show…I can’t wait to get back out there. We’ll clean it up for Daytona,” Gragson added.

Ahead of the race at the LA Memorial Coliseum, Gragson had outlined communication as one of the main aspects that the team could work on this weekend before the Cup Series season officially began. These lapses in communication that he spoke of will certainly be the things the team will look to rectify at Daytona.

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Building communication is what Noah Gragson was focusing on before the Clash

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The Clash at the Coliseum is treated by a lot of drivers as a testing ground. It is the only pre-season race before the season officially starts and several drivers learn about the car in a competitive environment thanks to the event. For Noah Gragson however, it was not just that. It was also about learning about how his new team works in a race and building trust with the people he now works with.

“It’s good to get an extra rep before the real season starts with the Daytona 500. Any chance you get to build your communication – it takes a long time to be like peanut butter and jelly with the crew chief, it takes a while to get that communication where you’re finishing sentences for each other. Any chance you get to spend with each other is valuable, whether it’s going to dinner or it’s in the race car, and the Clash is definitely a good opportunity to learn each other,” the 25-year-old had said as per motorsport.com.

Just one more week and the Daytona 500 will be upon us. Drivers are raring to get their Cup Series season underway and after what happened in 2023, that is even more true for Noahh Gragson. Will the Stewart-Haas Racing man redeem himself in 2024? Only time will tell.

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