NASCAR doesn’t penalize Noah Gragson for incident, fight

Noah Gragson will not be penalized for his part in a pit road incident that led to a postrace fight with Daniel Hemric at Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The Las Vegas driver and Hemric were involved in a chain reaction event that resulted in both overshooting their pit boxes and having to back into their correct stalls. Hemric had driven into Gragson’s pit to avoid another car that in turn forced Gragson to overshoot his box. When Gragson backed up, he made contact with Hemric’s car and nearly struck members of Hemric’s crew.

Hemric initiated a heated conversation with Gragson after the race that quickly turned physical with several punches being thrown.

“Unfortunately, the 18 (Hemric) and the 9 (Gragson) were both victims of someone else’s mistake,” NASCAR vice president Scott Miller said on SiriusXM Monday in confirming that Gragson would not face disciplinary action. “Noah found himself outside the pit box and the only way he could really get back in was back up as far as he could.

“I think he misjudged it there and hit the 18 and all kinds of mayhem ensued from there.”

While Gragson continued and salvaged a fourth place finish, Hemric said his car was damaged by the contact dropping him to ninth place at the checkered flag.

The flareup was the latest in a series of controversial incidents involving the 22-year-old Gragson.

During a recent race at Homestead, Florida, he had built a big lead when a lapped car driven by David Starr cut a tire and drove into his path. Gragson crashed two laps from the finish, costing him a certain victory, and afterward during his TV interview he used an expletive in describing Starr.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.