Are NASCAR Cryptocurrency Sponsorships A No-Go?

Noah Gragson’s penalty: too harsh, too lenient or just right?

NASCAR announced this week that Noah Gragson has been fined $35,000 and 30 docked points for intentionally wrecking Sage Karam and causing a 13-car melee at Road America in the NASCAR Xfinity Series

But the penalty wasn’t announced until July 6, four days after the race’s conclusion. Gragson was allowed to continue on for an eighth-place finish.

It would’ve been a bad look for NASCAR to do nothing. And that’s what it was looking like until the penalty was handed out.

Gragson’s attempted wreck of Karam is far from the only such incident to occur this year; at Darlington Raceway, Joey Logano wrecked William Byron for the win and received no penalty. But Gragson’s incident received considerable attention because it happened on the straightaway in a blind section of the racetrack, and the resulted crash destroyed a dozen racecars. With hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and a risk of injury for an intentional crash, it was the right decision for action to be taken.

However, the penalty feels too small. The $35,000 fine is miniscule when compared to the damage that teams will have to repair. And after the 30-point penalty, Gragson dropped from fourth in the regular-season points to … fourth. As he is already locked into the playoffs, the points penalty will dock him a handful of playoff points at most.

The penalty also looks lenient when compared to the penalties that NASCAR hands out for pit-road safety violations. A runaway tire suspends the crew chief and tire changer of a team for four races. In the same race, Riley Herbst was given an immediate penalty for a safety violation on pit road. There are also pass-through penalties for removing equipment from the box, driving through too many pit stalls and being over the wall too soon.

Gragson’s points penalty effectively scored him the same number of points that the drivers taken out in the crash scored, but there was a surprising delay in handing out the penalty; especially when Gragson admitted that the contact was intentional in his post-race interview.

However, as small or delayed of a penalty it may be, it will still do its job in deterring future intentional crashes like this. There hasn’t been a shortage of overly aggressive driving and post-race incidents in 2022, and this penalty is precisely what is needed to send a message.

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