CONCORD, N.C. — A ninth-place finish last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway has been the bright spot in what has been a difficult NASCAR Cup Series campaign for Noah Gragson.
The driver of the No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang has struggled on the race track and along the way has — in a sense — lost himself.
Known for his vibrant personality and memorable social media posts, Gragson has gotten lost in a world of negativity and drastically reduced the way he interacts with the world.
“I just don’t really tweet much. I don’t really post a lot on Instagram anymore,” Gragson said during a Ford Racing media call. “I don’t really give the fans any ammunition because they’ve lost that privilege, unfortunately, because it takes one person to mess it up for everyone.”
Gragson, 27, was a 13-time winner in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, but has struggled since becoming a full-time Cup Series racer in 2023.
“It’s just the nature of where my career and life has gone the last five years. It’s just not as enjoyable anymore to go on there and read the stuff,” he continued. “There’s just a lot of different situations that present itself that I’m finally like, ‘Why do I even put in the effort if people aren’t gonna appreciate me?’
Gragson says the fuel that drives the negativity is not winning races.
“Yeah, everybody has an opinion and if you’re winning, you’re OK. It’s when you’re not winning that it’s a firestorm and people want to just point and say, ‘It’s this, this and this.’ Well, you never said any of that stuff when I was winning races, so what’s the difference now?” Gragson asked. “But, at the same time, I do think that it is a balance, but at the end of the day I think the people who are closest to me know that I work hard behind the scenes throughout my whole career and I’m truly passionate about the sport.
“It’s not like I’m just going out there and messing around. I do my work throughout the week and when I get to the race track I try to enjoy myself as much as I can. If you’re waiting until Friday or Saturday to start preparing for the race, it’s way too late. At the same time, I think you’ve got to be smart about things, but there are the select people that also know and just have a problem with everything and they ruin it for a majority of the people who enjoy my personality. They ruin it for all those people.”
Gragson said his team, which is led by crew chief Grant Hutchins is working hard behind the scenes to right the ship.
“I feel like maybe we had a little bit more speed last year overall as far as the 4 car, but we’re working hard behind the scenes,” he said. “That being said, it’s one of those things that we’ve just tried to take it week by week and figure out what we can do. I feel like the communication is probably better than it’s ever been as far as just I’m having to do so much communication with the team.
“I’ve got a new crew chief and all that, so it’s a little exhausting but you don’t want to cut any corners. So, I would say something you probably don’t see is the amount of communication.”
Texas Motor Speedway is next for Gragson and the No. 4 team.
“I try to take it day by day and week by week and just try to prepare for Texas,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll be the fastest thing at Texas or I’ll be the slowest thing at Texas, but I’m preparing to be the fastest thing at Texas.
“I know last year in practice we were pretty good. Last year in qualifying we qualified 18th and then in the race I spun out early in the race but came back and was running in the top 10. At the beginning of stage three we wrecked down the back straightaway and I got collected into it with Bubba. Bubba tagged us and sent us wrecking, so last year I felt like we probably had more speed, but the luck wasn’t necessarily there. We were in the wrong place at the right time and just got collected in a bunch of wrecks.
“Now we’re finishing all these races, minus the mechanical failure with the brakes at Phoenix, but it’s just unbelievably frustrating when you get done with the race and it’s like, I haven’t gotten three laps down at these tracks ever, and now the speed is just not there. I’m trying to work hard with my team and my group to get that back, but there’s only so much I can do.”
