SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Noah Gragson runs well in NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In four combined events — one on the oval and now three on the road course — Gragson has three top fives and four top 10s.
On Saturday (July 30), Gragson won stage one, was forced to pit due to his damaged No. 9 and rebounded to finish 10th.
“I just enjoy this place,” Gragson told Frontstretch post-race. “It’s special, it’s a lot of fun and it doesn’t matter if it’s the road course or the oval. I really enjoyed it from the beginning and had a lot of fun with it.”
Gragson led six laps en route to picking up his eighth stage win this season. He now has 23 playoff points, currently tied for the most in the series.
STAGE 1 WINNER: @NoahGragson
The No. 9 stayed out during out the previous caution and holds of the field to collect their series-leading 8th stage win of the season!#NASCAR #Pennzoil150 pic.twitter.com/aK8qJSvgaW
— NASCAR on TSN (@NASCARonTSN) July 30, 2022
“We’ve got to keep winning races, keep running as hard as we can at the end of the day,” Gragson said.
Shortly into stage two, Gragson’s No. 9 received damage when he was involved in a three-wide incident including Sage Karam. Karam and Gragson tangled at Road America, culminating in Gragson wrecking Karam and then NASCAR subsequently penalizing Gragson for his actions.
“The No. 45 yet again still doesn’t know how fenders work and stuff, but just a part of it,” Gragson said.
Karam, meanwhile, had a different opinion.
“It got like three- or four-wide down there,” Karam said. “When it gets three- to four-wide, there’s no real room to go. He was behind me and I think he was actually the one who made it three-wide, so I just kind of had nowhere to go. Then I got to the inside of him and I guess he was mad that I got into the side of him. But, I mean, it’s all unintentional. They’re putting their car in that situation to make it three- or four-wide, and I get it. Everyone’s aggressive, but don’t get mad when it doesn’t go your way.
“So that was just the take on that. I’m not mad at Noah, I’m not trying to do anything on purpose to Noah. I just feel like he tried to get three cars in one corner and that just wasn’t going to happen. Then he gets mad at me. But it’s all good. We’ll move on.”
NASCAR mandated Gragson pit so his JR Motorsports crew could repair his…
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