Date: June 9, 2017
Event: Winstaronlinegaming.com 400 (Race 7 of 23)
Series: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth (1.5-mile oval)
Format: Three Segments; 40 laps/40 laps/87 laps
Start/Finish: 1st / 7th (running, completed 167 of 167 laps)
Winner: Christopher Bell of Kyle Busch Motorsports (Toyota)
Noah Gragson won his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole and led 13 laps early in the race, but the rest of his night was not that easy. He came back from two laps down to earn his fourth top-10 finish of the year, coming home in seventh place.
Stage One Recap:
- Gragson led the field to green from the pole and led 13 laps, the first laps he’s led in NCWTS competition. As the run progressed the handling on his Switch Tundra was not as good and he fell back to eighth where he finished the first stage. He pitted for right-side tires and a chassis adjustment and restarted the race in fourth to begin stage two.
Stage Two Recap:
- He worked his way up to second, but eventually the Switch Tundra became way too loose. He completed the second stage in eighth, the same as the first stage. This time he came to pit road for four tires and another track bar adjustment to tighten up his Tundra. He restarted the final stage in 10th.
Stage Three Recap:
- By lap 100, Gragson was scored in ninth place. A few laps later he radioed to the team he felt a vibration and thought he had a loose wheel. He was forced to make a green-flag stop and the KBM team said the left-rear wheel had been loose. To add insult to injury, he also received a pit road pass-through penalty which cost him another lap under green. He fell back to 19th place and was two laps down, but the team refused to throw in the towel. With a series of cautions in the closing laps, Gragson was able to get both of his laps back and was scored in ninth for the final restart with two laps to go. As the field came around to take the white flag there was a scary accident in the frontstretch grass which ended the race. Luckily nobody was injured and Gragson was able to finish the race seventh, while his KBM teammate Christopher Bell won the race in a photo finish.
NOAH GRAGSON, driver of the No. 18 Switch Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports:
Talk about your race?
“I don’t know how we ended up seventh. We started on the pole really good and I felt like as the night came my Switch Tundra loosened up a little bit and we were already on the side of being loose, so it was just really hard to race in traffic. We came down pit road and tightened it up pretty good and then we had a loose left-rear wheel. Pitting under green put us a couple laps down. There was damage to the studs so the lug nuts couldn’t get tight. We pitted multiple times to put a spacer on and keep tightening the lug nuts, but we kept fighting through a lot of adversity today. I’m shocked we got back up to seventh. We kept fighting and that’s really what this team’s all about this year.”
Winstaronlinegaming.com 400 Recap:
- KBM’s Christopher Bell won the race followed by Chase Briscoe, Grant Enfinger, Ryan Truex and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top-five finishers.
- The race featured 10 cautions for a total of 42 laps. There were eight lead changes among five drivers. Gragson led 13 laps, while Bell led 92.
How Gragson’s KBM Teammates Fared:
Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 4 Toyota, finished 1st
Myatt Snider, driver of the No. 51 Toyota, finished 16th
NCWTS Driver Championship Standings:
Gragson remains 10th in the Truck Series Championship Standings, 29 points out of eighth, the final playoff position.
Next Race:
The Truck Series returns to action on Saturday, June 17 at Gateway Motorsports Park. Live coverage of the Drivin’ for Linemen 200 begins with the NCWTS Setup Show at 7:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.
