In a brand new interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Entrance Row Motorsports driver Noah Gragson revealed that he deliberate to punch Kevin Magnussen of their San Diego post-race confrontation, however was warned of “long-term penalties with my job” if he adopted via on such a plan.
Racing at Naval Base Coronado, Gragson engaged in a multi-lap feud with Trackhouse Racing’s Kevin Magnussen, who was making his NASCAR Cup debut within the Challenge 91 entry.
Motorsport.com has an entire lap-by-lap breakdown of the on-track struggle with a video montage compiled by NASCAR, which yow will discover HERE.
It lasted about 13 consecutive laps earlier than Magnussen wrecked Gragson. After the race, Gragson confronted Magnussen, they usually threw expletives at one another for 90 seconds earlier than going their separate methods.
In a brand new interview on Thursday, Gragson expanded on his frustrations from San Diego with Magnussen, which led to his race-ending crash.
“What I am most mad about is that you simply’re in our ball area, in our ballpark, and we’re out right here and we race the 38 race season,” mentioned Gragson. “To return in right here on Lap 3 and be jamming up the within and operating into guys and driving into their doorways, not simply myself however different guys, it is irritating and also you see it lots with guys prior to now. Perhaps I am only a magnet to it, however Sage Karam involves thoughts. You get different guys who are available in from the open wheel and possibly not simply open wheel, I imply a number of the V8 guys, not Shane [Van Gisbergen] however Will Brown, we truly had a reasonably humorous dialog final yr after Daytona, however I feel they see how a lot rougher and the way far more contact there’s than possibly some FIA types of motorsports.
“The place in F1, they form of have a zero touching coverage, like we do have a little bit of contact however they really feel prefer it’s 10x greater than that and that is what pisses me off. You are coming into our ballpark and operating into us so, he hit me tremendous exhausting going into Flip 12, after which after I watched him do it to a few different guys, and it made me mad and I raced him exhausting for the remainder of the day. I used to be blocking him as a result of I used to be over it. Sick and drained after which he wrecked us.”
Sage Karam truly responded to Gragson’s feedback on social media, saying in a reply to the audio interview: “Perhaps it is simply you pal.”
Gragson’s job in jeopardy if he fought Magnussen?
Watch: Full recap of NASCAR conflict between Magnussen and Gragson
Gragson then revealed that his post-race intentions had been to truly combat Magnussen. Gragson has been concerned in a number of bodily altercations prior to now, together with Ross Chastain in 2023, Daniel Hemric in 2021, and Harrison Burton in 2020. Nevertheless, he was warned of significant penalties if he truly punched Magnussen following the race San Diego.
“I actually, actually, actually, needed to go combat,” admitted Gragson. “I used to be about to throw a punch and I acquired instructed proper earlier than I acquired over there that there is going to be long-term penalties with my job if that was the case, and so I needed to actually restrain it.
“It is a no-win scenario. We’re not going to cope with that man most likely ever once more, and if we do, it will be enjoyable. I might be excited, but when not, it’s what it’s. I’ve moved on. I am racing once more this subsequent weekend and I’ll do as better of a job as I can for the #4 staff and, yeah.
“This season, there’s plenty of frustrations on high of that, and that that form of boiled over to that second, however that was form of the ticking time bomb and it lastly went off.”
Gragson presently sits twenty ninth within the NASCAR Cup championship standings, trailing each FRM teammates Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith, with a finest end of ninth. San Diego’s crash was additionally his third consecutive DNF, which seemingly added to the frustration.
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