After four races, Gragson and his No. 10 Ford team are SHR’s most consistent performers, and it’s much welcomed by the driver and team.
Gragson’s 26th-place position in the series standings is deceptive, as it includes a 35-point penalty the team incurred from NASCAR for unapproved roof air deflectors found on his car at the Atlanta race.
On the track, Gragson has a pair of top-10 finishes and ran in the top 10 most of Sunday’s race at Phoenix before fading to 12th on the final long green-flag run. Without the penalty, the 25-year-old Las Vegas native would sit a respectable 15th in the standings.
The strong runs have done wonders for Gragson’s confidence – he lost his ride at Legacy Motor Club in his rookie season last year after he was suspended by NASCAR for a violation of its code of conduct – but also for SHR, which has battled its own performance issues the past two seasons.
While teammates Ryan Preece and Josh Berry have struggled to start the year, Gragson and Chase Briscoe have shown the organization has made strides.
“We will keep going and keep learning. Every race. Every weekend. It is still early. It is the fourth race,” Gragson said. “We ran inside the top 10 for most of the day and it is kind of a bummer, but it is exciting to be good and to be disappointed with an 12th-place finish.
“That is exciting for our team. We want to keep it going.”
Finding confidence
Gragson was already extremely upbeat about his offseason move to SHR but just four races in, he seems to have bonded well with his new team and crew chief Drew Blickensderfer.
“I have a lot of faith in Drew and the rest of these guys. They have been really good for me in building my confidence,” Gragson said. “We are a tight group and I have these guys’ backs.
“It is always a lot of fun when your stuff has speed, and you can show up and commit your hands and drive into the corner hard. Briscoe was good all day and had a good charge there at the end.
“It is a lot of confidence coming to the race track compared to what I had last year at this time.”
Even though it was just his second career series start at Phoenix, Gragson was one of the few drivers who believed the new short track aero rules which debuted in Sunday’s race made a positive difference.
“For me, this thing drove super good compared to what I have had in the past here. I don’t know if it was the package last year or what. You probably have to ask some more experienced guys, some guys that ran up front in both races,” he said.
“I felt good with it. I felt like we could move around a lot and the tire was good. It was a fun day.”
