Noah Gragson Qualifies Well But Probably Won't Sustain It
3 weeks agoDespite not being particularly noted as a road racer, Noah Gragson delivered an unexpected ninth-place qualifying run for the lame-duck Stewart-Haas Racing team at Watkins Glen on Saturday. He surprisingly outqualified most of the pre-race favorites. However, he has never finished better than 14th in a road course in the NASCAR Cup Series and he's making only his first start at Watkins Glen on Sunday because last year's race came after Legacy Motor Club fired him. He did finish in the top 10 of all three of his NASCAR Xfinity Series starts there, but those results don't seem to be especially predictive of performance in the Next Gen car for most drivers. Even though this is Gragson's best start in 16 races, almost all of his runs in the past several months have been anonymous, and he's had four crash DNFs in the last seven races, so one probably shouldn't expect much.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference