Noah Gragson is entering his second year as a Cup Series driver. Having raced for Legacy Motor Club last year, the youngster has earned a move to one of the competition’s powerhouses, Stewart-Haas Racing. Finishing the Clash at the Coliseum with a top-20 finish, the 26-year-old would have preferred a change in fortunes at the Bluegreen Vacations Duel 2. While a multi-car wreck intervened in his plans to do so, the No.10 Ford driver has hesitated to pin the blame on anyone.

The crash in the 46th lap took some big guns out of the race, including the Las Vegas duo of Noah Gragson and Riley Herbst. Herbst was hopeful of a strong finish after leading the race 10 laps into it. Gragson also enjoyed the front-row experience for a fair part of the race. However, their enthusiasm came to an end on lap 46 when Brad Keselowski chipped the right rear of Kyle Busch.

Noah Gragson had expected a better outcome after fighting for the lead at Daytona

Racing in the Rick Ware Racing #15, Herbst showcased his superspeedway expertise after utilizing the early pit stops from other drivers to move into the lead. Gragson used a similar strategy and partnered him in the front row. However, after entering a green flag stop in the laps that followed, the situation changed drastically. Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin had replaced the Las Vegas duo, and it took Noah Gragson a few laps to eventually move into P6.

Describing his outing on Thursday, Gragson claimed, “I thought we ran pretty good, got up to the front, and worked really well with Riley Herbst.”

“In these duels, before you hit, you’re just trying to save fuel and then seeing how the lines are, I don’t know if that’s exactly how it’s going to race side by side like that on Sunday. I ran up front, was pushing Riley pretty good, and then we made our green flag pit stops. We came down and then where we blended after a half dozen laps or so, I was sixth or seventh in line on the top row.”

Further talking about the incident and shying away from taking names, the driver said, “I’m not sure who’s involved and I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m really proud of everybody on the No.10 team. They’ve been working really hard. It s*cks going to a backup car but just kind of cruising in the back. Not cruising but not of our own doing getting involved in it.“

The big crash has begun a circle of fingers being pointed at each other. While it might seem that Noah Gragson has displayed maturity to not divert the blame at someone like Kyle Busch, who has been blamed by many others, the Ford driver said that he didn’t have a clear enough view to particularly blame any driver.

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Gragson isn’t aware of the conditions that caused the crash

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In an interview earlier, Kyle Busch explained that he didn’t have a clear sight of what was happening going into Turn 3. With the row of cars ahead of him, it was difficult to determine the consequences of a bump in traffic. With the cars racing in a compact formation, Brad Keselowski’s bump opened the grid like a pack of cards. As Busch slid onto the #24, William Byron slid into Ryan Blaney. Being right behind Keselowski in 8th, Noah Gragson failed to navigate around the crashed cars.

“I didn’t get a really great view of it because we started eighth and then Riley and I pushed our way upfront and shuffled into the bottom lane,” revealed Gragson.

“It was pretty mildly impressive and once we made our green flag pit stop, I didn’t see the rest of the pack behind us but it was fine. After we pitted, guys were just trying to go. It was probably too aggressive but I couldn’t tell.“

Aggressive racing at the Daytona 500 has been the reason behind umpteen crashes at the venue. Should Noah Gragson find a way to evade these crashes from the second last row on Sunday, he could find himself in a top-5 position or even on the podium. What do you think?

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