Noah Gragson has opened up on his controversial spat with Kevin Magnussen at San Diego. The Front Row Motorsports driver admitted that he would’ve traded punches if not for long-term career consequences.
The Gragson-Magnussen dustup went viral after F1 Twitter picked up the incident. Driving Trackhouse Racing’s No.91 entry, Magnussen battled Gragson for multiple laps before dumping him on lap 38.
The damage was too severe for Gragson, and he ultimately retired with a P35 finish. Post-race, the two drivers found themselves in an expletive-filled exchange on pit road.
In an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR radio, Gragson made an honest admission about the altercation.
“I really, really, really wanted to go fight and I was about to throw a punch and I got told right before I got over there that there’s going to be longterm consequences with my job if that was the case and so I had to really restrain it. It’s a no-win situation. We’re not going deal with that guy probably ever again. If we do, that’ll be fun,” he said.
“This season there’s a lot of frustrations on top of that that kind of boiled over to that moment,” Gragson added, “But that was kind of the ticking time bomb and it finally went.”
Noah Gragson also blamed Kevin Magnussen for repeated contact with other cars. Meanwhile, the No.4 driver blocked, doored, and punted Magnussen on multiple occasions, while the No.91 team pondered whether it’s better to pass Gragson in the pits.
At one point, Gragson even flashed Magnussen the middle finger as he passed. After clearing him, however, Magnussen had a lower-order finish in 27th, but logged the fastest single-lap pace.
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Kevin Magnussen shares scathing take on Noah Gragson
Kevin Magnussen met with reporters post-race and shared a pretty damning take on Noah Gragson. The former F1 driver expressed his respect for the entire field, except Gragson.
“I’ve watched NASCAR before, so I know that’s how you guys play it, so it’s what it is. I mean, he was playing a bit stupid out there. He could have had a good race, but he chose not to,” Magnussen said.
Noah Gragson has been in the middle of many such altercations throughout his career. He got punched by Ross Chastain after the latter spun him out in the 2023 Kansas race. Two years earlier, Gragson got to swing at Daniel Hemric during an O’Reilly Series race at Echopark Speedway.
In the points standings, the 27-year-old currently sits 29th with a single top-10 finish and four DNFs to his name. Gragson has finished outside the top-20 more often than not, while FRM teammate Zane Smith has scored six top-10 results, two of which are top-5.
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