MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Dec. 1, 2020) – Coming off a rookie season in which they posted strong numbers, Noah Gragson and the No. 9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee team at JR Motorsports continued the momentum throughout 2020, earning career-highs in race wins, top fives, top 10s and laps led.
The 22-year-old drove the No. 9 Camaro to his first-career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona International Speedway to kick off the 2020 campaign and then followed up with a second triumph at Bristol Motor Speedway in June. Gragson also nearly doubled his top-five results as he increased from nine in 2019 to 17 in 2020. The JRM driver also racked up 25 top 10s, three more than 2019, including an impressive seven straight finishes of eighth or better heading into the NXS playoffs.
“My rookie year in the Xfinity Series was a big learning curve after being in the Truck Series for two years,” Gragson said. “Between learning how the cars drive and going to tracks I had never raced at before, I felt like Dave (Elenz, crew chief) and the No. 9 team gave me all the equipment to be successful. Having the year under my belt really helped prepare us for the 2020 season and I think it showed as we seemed to be in contention every week.
“Everyone on this No. 9 team is a family and they had my back through everything this year. I couldn’t be more thankful for this team and I am really looking forward to being with them again in 2021.”
Launching his sophomore season in Daytona, Gragson ran up front throughout the event, leading for 28 laps, including the pivotal last lap, as an incident occurred down the backstretch, ending the race under yellow. The Las Vegas native parked the Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee Camaro in Victory Lane for his first-career NXS win just a few short weeks after celebrating a new partnership with the trio.
Following Daytona came the West Coast swing in which Gragson returned to his home track of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he has never finished outside of the top 10 during his NXS career. 2020 would be no different as Gragson used a late-race yellow to drive inside the top five, crossing the finish line fourth.
Heading further West to Auto Club Speedway, Gragson had a strong performance going as he ran inside the top five until heavy contact with another driver forced Gragson to pit road. Beating NASCAR’s crash clock, Gragson soldiered home to a 26th place finish. The No. 9 team showed impressive speed at Phoenix the following week, winning Stage Two before scoring a seventh-place finish.
Following a two-month hiatus for the COVID-19 pandemic, racing returned at Darlington Raceway and Gragson picked up where he left off, finishing fifth at the track “Too Tough To Tame.” Gragson had another strong performance going at Charlotte Motor Speedway as the No. 9 Camaro held steady in the top five until a late-race incident forced the team to start working on repairs. Fixing what they could, Gragson came back onto the track on the lead lap and finished an impressive 11th after suffering major damage.
Heading to Bristol following Charlotte, Gragson found himself in position to win at the track dubbed “The Last Great Colosseum.” Running second to teammate Justin Allgaier with less than 10 laps remaining, Gragson shot to the inside, making slight contact with Allgaier before taking his second checkered flag of the season. The No. 9 team followed up the win with four consecutive top-10 finishes, with a second at Atlanta Motor Speedway, third and fifth at Homestead-Miami Speedway and a 10th at Talladega Superspeedway.
As the season went into the heat of summer, Gragson seemed to lose his grip on the consistency he had earlier in the year. Following his string of top 10s, Gragson had only two finishes inside the top 10 with a best finish of third coming at the inaugural Indianapolis GP. The strong performances and consistency were reborn as the NXS headed to Road America, one of Gragson’s best tracks. Gragson found his rhythm with a sixth on the 4.048-mile road course and followed that up with a third at the inaugural event on the wet surface of the Road Course at Daytona.
Heading into the third doubleheader weekend of the 2020 season, Gragson had the momentum shifting in his direction. The No. 9 Chevrolet springboarded into two more top-10 finishes during the Dover double as Gragson finished an impressive fourth and sixth on the weekend.
Traveling back to the site of Gragson’s first-career NXS win at Daytona, a repeat seemed within reach as all four JRM teammates began working with one another. Falling as far back as 27th at one point, the four cars worked their way up inside the top five and 10 multiple times before the inevitable happened. Shortly after restarting the second stage, all four JRM Chevys found each other in the high line but an incident just in front of the teammates caused an early exit for Gragson as he couldn’t maneuver his way through the carnage and was relegated to a 31st-place finish.
Following the Daytona incident, Gragson set out with a vengeance that began at Darlington. The No. 9 Camaro strung together four straight top-10 finishes before embarking on a strong playoff run. The first round of the NXS playoffs saw Gragson finish second at his home track of Las Vegas, third at Talladega and second at the monsoon-like Roval at Charlotte, easily securing his way into the Round of 8.
Kansas Speedway opened the Round of 8 and Gragson showed the same speed the No. 9 team had throughout the year as he jumped out to an early lead before a caution bunched everyone together on lap 10. Following the restart, the second row took the leaders four-wide as they entered Turns 1 and 2 which proved to be costly as Gragson and Austin Cindric made heavy contact on the exit of Turn 2. Unable to repair the car within NASCAR’s allotted time, Gragson found himself in a hole as he finished 36th and dropped from above the cut line to 32 points below the final spot into the Championship 4.
Undeterred by the finish at Kansas, Gragson and the No. 9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/Black Rifle Coffee set their sights forward to Texas. Gragson drove to a third-place finish in Stage Two and was in contention to lock himself into the Championship 4 on the last lap as he held a small lead. As the top two drivers entered Turns 3 and 4, Gragson’s Camaro washed up the track and Harrison Burton was able to pass the No. 9 just a few feet before the checkered flag. With the second-place finish Gragson was only 24 points out of the final spot in the final round of the playoffs.
The NXS returned to Martinsville Speedway for the first time since 2006 and only the second time since 1994 for the penultimate race of the 2020 season. Needing a strong performance to raise his odds of advancing to the Championship 4, Gragson did just that as he picked up the win in Stage One and finished second in Stage Two. Restarting third with less than 30 laps remaining, Gragson found an opportunity to win his way into the Championship 4 within reach. Utilizing multiple lines to find speed throughout the 30-lap run, Gragson was unable to work his way past teammate Justin Allgaier and eventual race-winner Harrison Burton. The strong third-place performance left Gragson just 14 points shy of running for a championship to end the 2020 season the following week.
With championship hopes dashed, Gragson and the No. 9 team went to work on their strategy for the season-ending race of 2020 at Phoenix. Using a late-race yellow, Elenz called Gragson to pit road for their last set of fresh tires to use during NASCAR’s version of overtime. Restarting third with two laps remaining, Gragson used the unique dogleg to his advantage as he took the leaders three-wide. Running side-by-side with Austin Cindric as they entered Turn 1, Gragson used a slide job to gain the lead but Cindric performed a crossover move on the exit of Turn 2. Nose-to-nose they entered Turn 3 and Cindric performed his own slide job on Gragson. Driver No. 9 went to work trying to utilize a second crossover but ran out of time, ultimately finishing second to end the season.
Gragson’s career year was highlighted by two wins, 17 top fives, 25 top 10s and an impressive 622 laps led. Through two seasons with JRM, Gragson has racked up 47 top-10 finishes, besting all JRM drivers during the last two seasons.
“The 2020 season was a rollercoaster-type year,” Gragson concluded. “We started off strong with a win at Daytona and a few top 10s but then the pandemic hit and we stopped racing for two months. Coming back, we started off strong and then tailed off slightly through the summer months but then came back strong as we made our way towards the playoffs.
“If we remove our Kansas finish from the playoffs, we didn’t finish worse than third and that’s a testament to the fight this team has in them. We’re riding a lot of momentum through this offseason and we’re going to hit 2021 even harder.”