Noah Gragson’s bid for 1st Daytona 500 start ends in pileup

As Noah Gragson was being loaded into an ambulance for the obligatory trip to the infield hospital after his long-shot bid to race in the Daytona 500 ended Thursday night in a crash that was none of his doing, he could be seen conversing with paramedics before agreeing to step inside.

The young Las Vegas driver wasn’t injured and wasn’t being belligerent.

He said he wanted to take one last look around the place in case he doesn’t make it back.

Gragson, 22, drove from last place to as high as fifth in his qualifying race. He appeared on his way to locking up his first Daytona 500 start before being taken out in a pileup with four laps to go.

Based on his performance and the positive reaction it generated, there’s a good chance Gragson will be back.

“Very thankful for the opportunity to live out my dream. I tried my best,” he wrote on his Twitter account shortly after his valiant drive literally went up in smoke. “Thank you to the Beard family and @Brendan62 for letting me drive your race car.”

@Brendan62 is a reference to fellow Las Vegan Brendan Gaughan, who retired after the 2020 season and had recommended Gragson, a full-time driver in the steppingstone Xfinity Series, to replace him in the No. 62 Beard Oil Chevrolet. Gaughan had driven the car to several top finishes despite the team’s shoestring budget as a part-time Cup Series competitor.

Gragson’s near-miss brought out a lot of emotion in the garage area. Mark Beard, the team’s founder and owner, had died just before the car was loaded into the hauler for Daytona, leaving his widow, Linda, to carry on without him.

“I just wanted to give her a hug,” Gragson told The Athletic. “She’s going through a lot right now, and I really care about her and the rest of the Beard family. I wanted so bad to get them into the race.”

Around the horn

— The effort to make Las Vegas Motor Speedway safety compliant for last fall’s South Point 400 NASCAR race only to be shut down by COVID-19 might soon come to fruition.

Under relaxed state and local restrictions announced this past week and pending approval of its health plan, LVMS hopes to have 20 percent capacity — about 17,000 to 20,000 spectators — at the March 7 Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube and accompanying Truck and Xfinity Series races.

— UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame wide receiver Nate Hawkins, the Rebels’ first NFL draft pick who died Jan. 31 at age 70 from COVID symptoms, never missed returning to campus for homecoming, said football information director Mark Wallington, who would set him up with tickets.

“A couple of years ago Nate brought me a gift — a framed autographed photo of himself and Randall (Cunningham),” Wallington said. “He said I needed it for my desk. He was right.”

— Two years ago when his Texas-Rio Grande Valley team was making a run in the Western Athletic Conference tournament at Orleans Arena, I referenced the defense Lou Hill’s team was playing to that of the Rebels under Lon Kruger when Hill was a UNLV assistant — which brought a big smile to his face during the postgame news conference.

Hill, who died in his sleep at age 55 last Sunday just hours after returning to the bench following a bout with COVID, was a kind man who was proud of what the Rebels had accomplished during the Wink Adams-Kevin Kruger-Joel Anthony days. One of the myriad tributes to him said Hill was known for buying and delivering breakfast tacos to UTRGV faculty and staff.

To those who knew him or spent even a few minutes chatting with him, that will come as little surprise.

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Kurt Busch’s reaction after winning the 2017 Daytona 500 by leading only one lap — the last one:

“The more that becomes unpredictable about Daytona, the more it becomes predictable to predict unpredictability.”

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