NASCAR Cup Driver Noah Gragson Got Walloped In The Face Yesterday

Here’s what happened on pit road between @NoahGragson and @RossChastain. pic.twitter.com/MMcOLASlgq

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 7, 2023

Whom amongst us doesn’t love some pit row punches?! There was driver drama following this past weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Kansas and boy did it deliver the goods. The driver with the bad haircut, a notoriously aggressive driver, ironically took issue with how close Ross Chastain (the guy in the hat) was at one point in the race so he confronted him. Noah Gragson (bad haircut) came in extremely hot and grabbed Chastain by the shirt to send a message. His first mistake here was getting hard with the shirt grab and not being prepared for a retaliation. If you come in and do that to another man, you gotta be on your toes. Naturally, Chastain’s alarm bells went off almost immediately after Gragson gave him a firm shake and he landed one of the cleanest right hooks since Rougned Odor knocked Jose Bautista’s glasses off his face.

It’s rare that you get this pure of a connection between fist and face and this one was a thing of beauty. What a reaction by the guy in the brown shirt to come in and stifle Gragson’s follow-up punch attempt – it was stopped in its tracks and they were pretty easily separated after that. The situation is all made more awkward because they’re Chevy teammates, so they see each other regularly. If you’re gonna lead off with the shirt grab then you gotta be more prepared than that, plain and simple. It’s hard to decipher what exactly was said leading up to the punch, but you can clearly see Chastain urge him to stop not once, but twice. This reaction from Denny Hamlin was pretty spot-on. Fair is fair in this one and he kinda asked for it.

Showing Kansas winner Denny Hamlin the Ross Chastain – Noah Gragson fight. pic.twitter.com/pECPYB3Gml

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) May 7, 2023

It should be noted that I initially said Noah Gragson deserved a punch to the face for his haircut. After further review he lost a bet to Austin Dillon, that’s why he’s sporting a heinous bowl cut.

Gragson’s no stranger to dust-ups and this isn’t the first time he’s has thrown hands after a race. In March of 2021, he was in an altercation with another driver, Daniel Hemric, after putting her in reverse and almost squishing Hemric’s crew on pit row. Hemric didn’t like this and interrupted Gragson during an interview.

Take a look at this exclusive angle of the altercation between @DanielHemric and @NoahGragson. pic.twitter.com/Y0B14hCrx5

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 21, 2021

Noah Gragson is widely considered to be one of the most controversial drivers out there. He’s also considered a young talent and one of a new generation of drivers, but not all the headlines are good. He’s drawn the ire of JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Jr. and Kurt Busch called his hyper-aggressive behavior on and off the track a “slippery slope“. He’s even been fined for intentionally causing crashes, which feels very unsafe and not cool.

Everybody loves a good heel, but not so much when cars are driving upwards of 200 mph and some of the things he’s doing could seriously injure/kill people. On the other hand, isn’t this what NASCAR fans want? Someone with some fire formulating storylines in real time? He appears to be comfortable as the bad boy of racing for now, but he may want to throw an ice pack on his face and learn to dodge a fist in the future.