The Precedent Exists, NASCAR Has To Suspend Noah Gragson

Noah Gragson committed an inexcusable offense on Saturday (July 2), and left unchecked, it could alter the landscape of NASCAR going forward.

On Saturday, I set up my DVR to record the Henry 180 at Road America, as I was traveling to an antique tractor show and would miss watching the NASCAR Xfinity Series race live. Saturday would be the best day for the show, and I had other plans for Sunday and Monday. Sometimes technology has its advantages. But on my way home from the show, I received a text from my friend, Bryan:

“Lol. Stupid by Noah. Stupid by NASCAR for not throwing a caution sooner[.]”

I was stopped at a light and didn’t have time to look up exactly what happened, nor did I suspect the severity of what transpired — and the aftermath.

On lap 25, Gragson’s car darted to the right on the straightaway between turns 3 and 5 and collided with Sage Karam, driving Alpha Prime Racing’s No. 45 entry. Dust bellowed from the No. 45 car’s rear and right side as he slid through the grass. Some drivers like Brandon Jones and Josh Berry were able to avoid disasters. Others were not so lucky.

Landon Cassill, Myatt Snider, Tyler Reddick, Brett Moffitt and Brandon Brown were collected in the dust bowl of mayhem. The interval from initial contact between Gragson and Karam to the time NBC displayed the caution on TV was 13 seconds.

The whole situation initiated when Karam and Gragson hit in turn 1. Karam appeared to take the middle lane, giving Gragson the inside around the corner.

But Gragson turned the corner as tight as Karam likely suspected, and their car doors hit. Their contact led to Ty Gibbs passing Karam before turn 2 and Gragson before turn 3.

Karam followed Gibbs on the inside of Gragson. As the pair exited the corner side-by-side, Gragson’s car did dip off the track, but that was not out of the ordinary for the race. Several cars were doing that by themselves with no pressure.

Then it happened. Gragson’s car turned right and into the left side of Karam just before the Sargento Bridge.

It’s rather unfortunate that NBC did not have more cameras — even unmanned, stationary cameras — that could’ve helped paint a better picture, not of what happened, but of the vicious impacts drivers experienced and exactly what they could and couldn’t see.

Outside the medical center, Snider told Frontstretch that what he heard and saw was “racing in an unprofessional…