With the 2024 season slowly taking shape and revealing the key prospects for the 2024 title, there is one man who has arguably made a bigger comeback than even Bubba Wallace who had scored two top-fives at the double superspeedways.

While we were all expecting 23XI Racing to be competitive, the same wasn’t the case for Stewart-Haas Racing and Noah Gragson, both of whom had a lot to prove as the season began to unfold. With that said, Gragson’s stellar performance at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend shows just how promising this season could be for the #10 SHR garage wielding the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

Hometown hero Noah Gragson reveals Ford’s role in SHR comeback

It’s common knowledge that Noah Gragson had a lot to prove this year. After the driver was caught liking a racially insensitive post, it led to Legacy Motor Club parting ways with him. After spending ample time growing his character and getting prepared to take on his role at Stewart-Haas Racing, Gragson started off the new season with a top-ten at the Daytona 500, showing just how hungry the driver is to bounce back.

While Atlanta was the cause of misery for the #10 garage, the first one-and-a-half-mile race for Gragson in over six months paid off massively after the SHR rookie managed to bag a sixth-place finish, battling some of the top drivers of the night on each restart. With such a solid result in the books at the intermediate layout, the Vegas native was ecstatic to win at his home circuit.

Gragson shared after the race, “It’s been awesome. It’s great to be back in the hometown, I haven’t been in a mile and a half in a while so, we practiced really well. We were second in practice yesterday and thought we prepared really well and then I under-drove it really bad like a si**y out there in qualifying and qualified 30th but we kept inching up all day, kept progressing.”

While the 25-year-old was already confident after a good result at the season opener, showing a strong presence at the one-and-a-half mile track also spoke great volumes of Ford’s capabilities. Gragson expressed how the Mustang had been instrumental to the top ten finish, owing to its raw pace.

He shared with FrontStretch, “This is the first true testament. don’t know. Blaney was up there and mavbe a couple other guys in the Ford camp, but this Mustang Dark Horse is bit****’.” Speaking of the qualifying pace, Gragson was more than satisfied with how the Darkhorse stacked up against the Camry XSE and the Camaro ZL1.

Despite Gragson failing to qualify higher than 30th, he felt that other team’s results in qualifying, especially with Ford’s pole positions at the superspeedways, painted the true picture. Sidelining his fearful outing in qualifying, the SHR driver added, “It’s fast and it’s been really good. You can see the speed that it’s had in qualifying, not for me because I drove like a sissy out there. but with the other guys, they have three poles so far this year so we’re going good.”

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While it’s safe to say that Joey Logano’s pole positions were vital to show the Ford Mustang Darkhorse’s capabilities, Gragson also shared how having a fast car and a stable team has helped him feel comfortable and confident quickly after Vegas.

Will the Mustang Darkhorse and Stewart-Haas Racing be Noah Gragson’s saving grace?

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During practice, Noah Gragson had shown great pace, but owing to his time away from intermediate racing, Gragson couldn’t deliver his maximum in qualifying. With that said, the SHR driver quickly climbed up the ranks on each restart, eventually finding just the right spot to place his car in. At the end of the day, the #10 garage could be satisfied that they had pulled off a major recovery from the very back to finish at the very front.

Reflecting on his struggles with the restarts, Gragson stated, “Well, I was terrible on all the restarts and kept losing spots all day long and then I pretty much ran out of options of where not to go on restarts and I tried the last thing I hadn’t tried that is to shoot through the middle and I picked up spots so I know to put that down in my notebook but we’re going to keep working as a team. Really fast cars and I’m just grateful to be with this organization.”

The 25-year-old has experienced a roller coaster like no other driver over these past few months, and now that he seems to have hit the ground running with Tony Stewart’s side, it’s safe to say Gragson is confident in the team’s approach this year. Paired with the pace of the Ford, Gragson believes the team has the recipe for success this year. He shared his satisfaction with their results, “They’re really good, I feel at home, comfortable and all, content. We’ve still got a lot of fire in the belly, we’re ready to go.”

As for the Mustang Dark Horse, Gragson also shared how the car was vastly different to the previous year’s challengers, giving the Ford camp some positive feedback. Analyzing the Mustang Darkhorse, he stated, “This compared to last year just has a lot more speed. You can go where you want. We’ve got a good pit crew and just a good team.”

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Now that Noah Gragson is slowly returning to top form after going through several trials and tribulations over the past few months, do you think Mustang Darkhorse will help Gragson become SHR’s leading driver?