Getting to pit road can be the most difficult part of superspeedway racing. This time, Casey Mears made a mistake and tagged Noah Gragson. Both drivers ended up stuck in the infield as NASCAR was forced to throw the caution flag.
Duel 1 at Daytona has its first caution flag. We will see if cautions breed cautions in this race or if this is a singular incident. Noah Gragson had his qualifying time disqualified last night for violating the new no-air-blocking-with-your-hand rule. So, he was in the back of the line when pit stops came up tonight.
Gragson and Mears appear to be fine. The cars are going to be able to race. Mears got stuck and Gragson was able to make his way out of the infield, but only after the caution was thrown.
Mandatory Credit: Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images
Noah Gragson has had some bad luck and misfortune at Daytona. Seeing Mears come in out of nowhere to take him out on pit road has to be a hard pill to swallow. Then again, he might have no one to blame but himself. If he had a better qualifying time, or a qualifying time at all, he could have been in a better position ahead of Mears' mistake.
Front Row Motorsports has had success on the drafting tracks in recent years. They have to be able to find that speed in the race, and find each other to pack up, or they won't have much to show for this weekend.
Eventually, things have to start going well for Noah Gragson. If not, he's going to be in a tough position. He's had time in the Cup Series to develop and get things right. At this point, if he's not up to the same standard as his teammates on a regular basis, there will be questions.
Then again, Gragson is a talented superspeedway racer. He could go out and have a top-five finish, and it wouldn't be exactly shocking. Right now, he has a slightly damaged car and a poor starting position to go with it.