The NASCAR Xfinity Series has seen one driver win its last four races. That would be Noah Gragson, who drives the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports. Gragson’s win at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday tied him for the all-time Xfinity Series record of four straight wins in four consecutive races, set by Sam Ard in 1983.
RETWEET to congratulate @NoahGragson! 🤠
FOUR wins in a row, tying a @NASCAR_Xfinity record! pic.twitter.com/jpvW3vUvtu
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 24, 2022
Interestingly enough, as Jeff Gluck of The Athletic noted, Kyle Busch actually won all five Xfinity Series races he competed in last year. But those weren’t consecutive races, so Gragson‘s accomplishment is different. (The Cup Series record is 10 straight wins, by Richard Petty in 1967.)
In Saturday’s race, the first round of the Xfinity Series playoffs, the 24-year-old Gragson led a race-high 85 laps. And he picked up his seventh overall win of the year in the series. He also had another notable accomplishment; he didn’t puke, something he’s done after many races over the past several years. Fox NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass asked Gragson about that after a win in July.
Yeah, Noah Gragson barfed again after a win. And, yeah, I wanted to know all about it. He explains what made him puke on the frontstretch at Pocono: pic.twitter.com/QHQpkat4Yr
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 24, 2022
Gragson says there “I hold my breath for the last two laps…holding your breath, it’s like if you run a mile and you’re running at 100 percent, and your heart rate’s through the roof, and you’re breathing in all the smoke. …Well, you never know when your last one’s going to be, you’ve got to just appreciate them when you’ve got them, and make the most of the moment. So I don’t mind a little throw-up.”
And this time around, he didn’t even have to mind that. And he got to talk about how he didn’t ever expect this instead:
Noah Gragson said he needed a cowboy hat to go to the Cole Swindell concert here at the track tonight. So I asked him why. And then he talked about who would have thought he would win four consecutive races. pic.twitter.com/MPnZRjoyfz
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 25, 2022
In response to a question about what he would have said if he had been asked about winning four straight before the year, Gragson says (0:25) “I would have thought you were crazy, I would have thought whoever was saying that is crazy. But I know deep down we’re capable of it as a team. Everything’s just been going right for us. We’ve been executing at a championship level, especially in this last month and a half. …We’re really on a roll, and really in a good spot.”
We’ll see if Gragson can continue his winning streak at Talladega next Saturday.
[Screengrab of Gragson’s post-race press conference from Bob Pockcrass on Twitter]
