After a surprisingly strong begin to the season for Noah Gragson, the No. 10 workforce has slowly rolled towards the sting of a cliff they’re in peril of falling off.
Massive issues weren’t anticipated for Gragson in 2024, particularly contemplating his rookie season was among the many worst in NASCAR historical past, each on and off the observe. After signing with a middling Stewart-Haas Racing over the offseason, few pundits thought Gragson would do something notable on the racetrack.
Nonetheless, Gragson proved the doubters mistaken by way of the primary 12 races of the season, grabbing 5 top-10 finishes and being as excessive as nineteenth in factors – a place which might’ve been higher if not for a 35-point penalty after Atlanta.
Whereas a strong 14th-place run within the thirteenth race of the season at Darlington adopted three consecutive top-10 finishes for Gragson, the final 5 races have been nothing in need of a catastrophe for a No. 10 workforce that has regarded just like the struggling workforce everybody predicted they might be.
After a crash took Gragson out of the Coca-Cola 600, the final 4 races have not been significantly better. Gragson’s finest end during the last 4 weeks is sixteenth at Iowa, and whereas he ran inside the highest 10 for parts of Sunday’s race at New Hampshire, he was concerned in two incidents – the latter of which took out Bubba Wallace – and relegated to a Twenty seventh-place end.
The shortage of pure pace from Gragson has been alarming during the last 4 races, particularly with the remainder of Stewart-Haas Racing ending inside the highest 11 at New Hampshire. Gragson’s teammate Josh Berry has two straight top-seven finishes, whereas Chase Briscoe completed runner-up at New Hampshire.
Whereas true that Gragson can be twenty second in factors with out the Atlanta penalty versus twenty fifth, he’d nonetheless be 88 factors exterior of the playoff image – possible must-win vary with simply eight races remaining within the common season.
For a driver who can be a free agent after the 2024 season ends, it is time for Gragson to buckle down and attempt to carry out as he did within the first third of the season, or his cellphone could also be silent after the season finale at Phoenix.
