“I drove my ass off” trying to catch Gibbs for title

After JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier lost the lead, it was up to Gragson to pursue Ty Gibbs in the closing laps. But even with a little help from another teammate (Sam Mayer) while he was being lapped, Gragson couldn’t quite get there.

Afterwards, he went up and shook hands with Gibbs. When asked why, he simply replied: “Because they did a good job. They beat us.”

A tense relationship

Speaking on his tense relationship with Gibbs and how he could relate to him with some of his own mistakes in the past, Gragson did not mince words: “Yeah, I think I’ve been in that position before. It takes a lot of things, and it’s to be honest with yourself, it’s to have honest people around you, to sit you down and say, hey, change needs to be made.

“You know, I’ve had a conversation with Ty the day after Portland and Gateway and let him know how I felt, let him know if he gets into us, what the consequences are going to be, and just — I used to be buddies with him when he was younger. You know, probably three, four years ago, he was a super cool kid. He really was. But I don’t know, it’s just kind of changed over the last couple years, and I’ve told him that, and he knows that.

“I don’t want to really go into much more detail about that out of respect for him and whatnot, but I told him that hey, you used to be a super cool kid and you kind of turned into a little bit of a douchebag … He can still grow from it, and he did a great job. They won the race fair and square today. It takes great people around you to learn, and I think he is capable. He has the potential to learn. He’s a great race car driver, and I’ve been in those shoes, too, where it just seems like you can’t do nothing right, and it’s you against the world and whatnot. But at the end of the day, I think he’s got potential, and he hasn’t reached his full potential yet off the track.”

Hindered, but not derailed by slow pit stop

Gragson made a strong run to the front after a slow pit stop cost him five positions. He charged from eighth up to second and ended the race within a few car lengths of the newly crowned champion. He refused to believe his race was over after the setback on pit road.

“Because we came off pit road, we were in eighth, it was what it was,” he said. “We still had laps left, and we still had opportunity. We weren’t wrecked. We weren’t in the garage. We still had opportunity. Just got beat there at the end. Started getting tight, probably…