Gragson passed JR Motorsports teammate Josh Berry for the lead with 21 of 90 laps remaining but Ty Gibbs took over second and began his tough challenge to run down Gragson, who had fresher tires.
Still, with five laps to go, Gibbs managed to getting to the inside of Gragson. Gragson fought off the first challenge after the two made brief contact.
On the final lap, Gibbs got inside of Gragson again in Turn 3, but again Gragson was able to hold position on the outside and took the checkered flag ahead of Gibbs by 0.281 seconds.
The win is the third this season for Gragson, 24, and eighth of his career.
“It was probably the best I’ve ever driven there. I’m worn out,” Gragson said after he and his team climbed the fence to celebrate.
“It wasn’t that hard of a race, just I was working my ass off to keep (Gibbs) back. He’s pretty fast. My team did an incredible job coming off pit road (first) there and put four tires on. I had to work for it.
“I was getting tight, tight, tight. With 15 to go, I didn’t know if I could hold him off but we just kept digging. This team is unbelievable.”
Gibbs said he was definitely at a disadvantage on tires.
“I was still surprised to be able to hang with (Gragson) when he was on (four new tires),” Gibbs said. “I had a great car. I felt on my part, I made some mistakes but we’ll come back at it next weekend.”
Berry ended up third, A.J. Allmendinger fourth and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 were Sam Mayer, Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, Daniel Hemric and Cole Custer.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, most of the lead-lap cars pit with Gragson first off pit road.
Austin Hill stayed out and inherited the lead. On the restart on Lap 46, Austin Hill was followed by Myatt Snider, Gragson and Brandon Jones.
On Lap 47, Santino Ferrucci spun in Turn 3 in the middle of the field, which sent cars scurrying in all directions.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. caught part of the wreck and was knocked toward the pit road wall, where he collided with Jeb Burton who was traveling right in front of it after avoiding the wreck.
The awkward collision sent Burton’s No. 27 into the air and it landed upside on the frontstretch. The race was immediately red-flagged. Burton quickly indicated over his team radio that he was OK and was extracted from the car after several minutes.
Jeremy Clements and Ronnie Bassett Jr. was also collected in the accident.
After a nearly…
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