NOAH GRAGSON
Richmond Advance
No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Event Overview
● Event: Cook Out 400 (Round 23 of 36)
● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 11
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps
● TV/Radio: USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Notes of Interest
● The NASCAR Cup Series gets a two-week respite as broadcast partner NBC covers the Summer Olympics in Paris before returning to action Aug. 11 for the Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing, will have to carry the momentum from his savvy ninth-place drive in the Brickyard 400 July 21 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway through the break and on into Richmond. Gragson has finished 14th or better in three of the last four races, a run that includes two top-10s. Gragson’s Indy effort was his seventh top-10 of the season, with a third-place performance April 21 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway being his best of the year. With 14 races still remaining, Gragson is already having a career year, with more top-10s, laps led and laps completed than he’s ever had 22 races into a season.
● The Aug. 11 NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond will mark Gragson’s fifth career Cup Series start at the track, with his best result coming earlier this year. In his most recent visit to the .75-mile oval on March 31, the 26-year-old Las Vegas native finished 12th, bettering his previous best result of 24th, earned on Aug. 14, 2022 in his first Cup Series start at Richmond.
● Gragson’s Richmond record in the NASCAR Xfinity Series is more comprehensive, with seven career starts between 2018 and 2022. It’s more robust, too, with three top-five finishes and five top-10s highlighted by a victory in September 2021. Gragson’s average start at Richmond in the Xfinity Series is seventh and his average finish is ninth.
● Gragson first turned laps at Richmond in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. It was Sept. 10, 2015, when he made his lone K&N Pro Series East start at the track. It began inauspiciously, with Gragson qualifying 32nd. But in the 70-lap race, he put on a show, picking up 22 positions to finish a solid 10th.
● Richmond is a short track, and short-track racing is where Gragson’s racing career began. He owns victories in two of the United States’ most prestigious Late Model races – the 2017 Winchester 400 at the half-mile Winchester (Ind.) Speedway and the 2018 Snowball Derby at the half-mile Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida.
● Drivers and their crew chiefs will have options when it comes to choosing what kind of tire they want to bolt onto their racecar at Richmond. Goodyear is bringing a “prime” tire, which is a slick racing tire, and an “option” tire that is also a slick but with a softer, faster-wearing compound. The lettering on the prime tires will be yellow and the lettering on the option tires will be red. In theory, the prime tire will last longer but provide less grip, therefore compromising speed. The option tire will provide maximum grip at the beginning of a run, allowing drivers to make significantly more speed, but their high-degradation rate means that speed will be short-lived. These tire combinations were originally trialed during the NASCAR All-Star Race weekend May 18-19 at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. Richmond marks the debut of the option tire in a regular-season, points-paying race. Here’s how it will work:
● Teams will get two sets of each tire for practice.
● A set of prime tires must be used during qualifying on Saturday. That set will then be transferred to Sunday’s race allotment.
● Teams get eight sets of sticker tires for the race – six prime sets and two option sets.
● For the race, NASCAR will not mandate when teams use their respective sets. However, all four tires must match at all times.
● There will be a single, 45-minute practice session on Saturday for all cars leading into NASCAR Cup Series qualifying.
● Overstock.com adorns Gragson’s No. 10 Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Richmond. The partnership amplifies the recent relaunch of Overstock.com, home of crazy good deals that offer quality and style for less. Overstock.com is for the savvy shopper who loves the thrill of the hunt and it includes product categories customers know and love, like patio furniture, home furniture and area rugs, while reintroducing jewelry, watches and health-and-beauty products.
Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Prior to Richmond, you’ll have back-to-back off-weekends thanks to NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. How big of a deal is that break, not just for you, but also for your crewmembers?
“I think it’s good. This is a seven-days-a-week grind. You land on Sunday night after a race and you focus forward on what’s going to happen the following Sunday, and you spend your whole week focused on that. So it’s important to get a little rest and recovery and fire off strong for the rest of the year.”
Formula One has a mandatory two-week summer shutdown, where no work can be done in the race shop, as it’s monitored by the FIA. Would you like to see something similar in NASCAR?
“Yeah, I think so. Honestly, if you just gave people some Saturday-night races, too, that’d be pretty nice. Just something where you have maybe one or two days to be able to not think about racing and regroup, mentally.”
You have this two-week break where you’re not at the track, but how hard is it to turn your mind off from racing?
“I’ll take full advantage of not thinking about racing. Once the racing season starts, there’s no time to screw around or go out with your buddies. It’s a lot, but when you run well, that’s what keeps you motivated. So you just try to stay on top of things throughout the week and keep yourself sharp and disciplined and focused on the next task at hand because you want to run well. It’s strictly business once the season’s in effect, so with the break – luckily it’s two weeks – you can go on vacation. Some guys will relax. I like to go golf and have fun and go surf. That’s how I relax.”
You last raced at Richmond on March 31, which was more than four months ago. How has the competition changed since then?
“I just try to focus on myself and what I can control and my goal is to go out there and drive the car as fast as possible. I’m not racing anyone else, I’m just racing myself, just doing the best job that I can.”
How did that March race at Richmond go for you, and is there anything you can take away from it and apply to your return trip there in August?
“We pretty much ran 10th to 14th all night and really couldn’t break through and run any better than that. We never really ran worse than that, just had a smooth, solid day and finished 12th. Hopefully, we can build on that when we go back.”
Have some of the more recent short tracks, or even flat tracks, like New Hampshire and Iowa, provided some insight as to how you’ll unload at Richmond?
“It’s different every week, it seems like. Sometimes you go to the track and think you’re going to be pretty good, and you’re not as good as you thought because the car doesn’t have as much speed in it. Other times, you’re like, ‘I don’t know about this place,’ and you haul the mail and it’s fast. So it’s definitely just trying to be as prepared as possible, that’s the main goal.”
Is there a difference in how Richmond races between the first race in the still comfortable air of spring compared to its second race in the heat of the summer?
“The place is worn out from a grip standpoint, so it’s always kind of slick and greasy, but definitely in the hotter temperatures you’re sliding around a lot more. I like it if our car’s fast. If it’s fast, they’re going to be slipping and sliding more than you.”
You only have four NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond, but you have seven NASCAR Xfinity Series starts there with a good bit of success – a win in 2021 along with three top-fives and five top-10s. What allowed you to achieve that success at Richmond?
“Richmond’s a worn-out racetrack and you have to be really disciplined to drive it low and straight off the corner. Ever since I went there in the K&N days, we had good pace there. It’s a real rhythm track and being able to be disciplined is important. If you miss the yellow line by an inch, it’s a 30-percent grip loss, so it’s really important to get to the line there, which I like, having to be disciplined, kind of like an old Atlanta.”
How different is a lap around Richmond in a Cup Series car compared to an Xfinity Series car?
“It’s way different just because you’re shifting. A lot of the things that worked in Trucks and Xfinity and the old Cup cars and K&N, it’s a little bit different because you’re shifting and the tires are a lot wider, so you’re going naturally faster through the corner in the new Cup cars. But the same keys of getting down to the bottom are a big focus.”
You’ll have the prime tire and the option tire at Richmond, just like what you trialed in the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. What was it like at the All-Star Race with the option tire? What kind of strategy went into it, and how do you think it will apply at Richmond?
“The only thing from North Wilkesboro that we can really utilize is how much faster the tire was. Granted, it was a repaved track, so that softer option tire really didn’t fall off and you were better off just keeping that on there the whole time instead of losing your track position. With it being worn out at Richmond, I’m sure it’s going to be faster, but I don’t know how much different the fall-off is going to be. Is it going to fall off a lot quicker than the hard tire, or over the span of a 40- or 50-lap run, which one is going to be more dominant? Will it be the hard tire and not losing as much time through a run, or will it be the soft tire?”
So is learning about the prime and option tire more trial and error than anything else?
“It’s trial and error. The All-Star Race was a test, but I don’t think North Wilkesboro was the right test for it. It just showed that Goodyear could make a softer tire with a little more grip, but with an old, worn-out track, will it wear out a lot faster where you could pass at the beginning of the run? Will you have to save it? It would be kind of fun to do a whole race on a super-soft tire, something where if you don’t push it at the beginning, you’re going to be able to run through at the end of the run, and vice versa. We’ll see. I think you’re just going to use them the last two runs of the race, pretty much.”
No. 10 Overstock.com Team Roster
Primary Team Members
Driver: Noah Gragson
Hometown: Las Vegas
Crew Chief: Drew Blickensderfer
Hometown: Decatur, Illinois
Car Chief: Jerry Cook
Hometown: Toledo, Ohio
Engineer: James Kimbrough
Hometown: Pensacola, Florida
Spotter: Andy Houston
Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina
Over-The-Wall Members
Front Tire Changer: Ryan Mulder
Hometown: Sioux Center, Iowa
Rear Tire Changer: Trevor White
Hometown: Arlington, Texas
Tire Carrier: Tyler Bullard
Hometown: King, North Carolina
Jack Man: Sean Cotten
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
Fuel Man: James “Ace” Keener
Hometown: Fortuna, California
Road Crew Members
Mechanic: Chris Trickett
Hometown: Grafton, West Virginia
Mechanic: Beau Whitley
Hometown: Carmel, Indiana
Tire Specialist: Jacob Cooksey
Hometown: Westbrookville, New York
Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller
Hometown: Monroe, New York
Transporter Co-Driver: Steve Casper
Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina
Transporter Co-Driver: Matt Murphy
Hometown: Augusta, Georgia
