NASCAR won’t penalize Noah Gragson for a pit road incident that caused a fight

In the backdrop of Justin Allgaier’s 15th Xfinity win was a fight on pit road Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Drivers Daniel Hemric and Noah Gragson exchanged shoves and swings. The altercation ended when the drivers were physically separated by NASCAR officials and team members.

Hemric, who drives the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing, told the Performance Racing Network after the race that the frustration stemmed from an earlier incident during a pit stop in which Gragson backed into Hemric’s pit box.

“I backed up, and he decided to put it in reverse and cram it into my right front fender,” Hemric told PRN. “ … It was completely deliberate. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“Where I come from, you get your eye dotted when you do stuff like that,” Hemric said.

Hemric initiated the confrontation after the race, approaching and shoving Gragson as he spoke with media members on pit road. Each driver took a swing at the other, and as Hemric was pulled away by crew members, Gragson attempted to land a few more blows until he was also restrained.

Gragson, who finished in fourth, wrote on Twitter later in the evening that he unintentionally backed into Hemric’s box in order to get his car’s right side tires into his pit box and avoid a penalty. He narrowly missed hitting a No. 18 crew member servicing Hemric’s car. Gragson also posted a video on Twitter showing an aerial view of the maneuver.

“18 was in our pit box when I was turning into our pit stall,” Gragson wrote. “He backed up into his. I was out of position in the box and had to back up to get into my box. Unintentional backing into him. If they’d show the full replay, you’d see I didn’t just back into him for no reason.”

Hemric said after the race that a driver pitting behind him during the stop accelerated as he pulled into his pit box, forcing him to drive into Gragson’s pit box, which delayed stops for both teams. Hemric interpreted Gragson backing into his box as a retaliatory move. He responded to Gragson’s tweet a few hours later, declining to accept his explanation.

“The middle finger you gave me out the window was a pretty clear indication to me that you knew exactly what your intent was. Thanks for posting the facts @NoahGragson,” Hemric wrote.

NASCAR announced Sunday morning that it would not penalize Gragson for driving into Hemric’s pit box. NASCAR competition officials reviewed the incident and met with Gragson after Saturday’s altercation.

“A chain reaction of events led to the 18 and 9 both overshooting their pit stalls,” NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller said in a statement. “The 9 ended up both long and out of his pit box to the outside, and needed to back up as far as possible to have any chance at fully pulling into his box.

“After reviewing the video, it is our judgement that the contact was not deliberate,” Miller said.

Many members of the NASCAR industry have chimed in on the incident and resulting fight. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Harrison Burton said he had a short conversation with his teammate after the race, giving Hemric a fist bump on pit road as he walked away from scuffle. Burton and Gragson exchanged swings last year following an Xfinity race at Kentucky Speedway.

“I’ve been there before, obviously in that exact same situation,” Burton told reporters after the race. “I know that kinda sucks and you’re angry and that’s all I said.”

Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin also commented on the incident on social media. He wrote on Twitter, “This is not ok,” with a clip of Gragson backing into Hemric’s box. Hamlin also wrote, “Where’s @mikejoy500 when you need him,” tagging the FOX announcer. The tweet referenced an earlier series of tweets from Joy that many interpreted to be critical of Gragson following an Xfinity race a few weeks ago.

Gragson’s JR Motorsports team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. has not yet commented on the incident, but he is expected to on an upcoming episode of his podcast, the Dale Jr. Download.

Full results from the EchoPark 250 can be found here.