“Definitely a bummer”: Noah Gragson disappointed after NASCAR rival “pushed in the wrong area” at Talladega

Noah Gragson blamed Erik Jones for causing a multi-car wreck in the Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. The Front Row Motorsports driver claimed that Jones was a 'little bit aggressive' and pushed him in the 'wrong area'.

Gragson was left to rue an early exit on Sunday's race. The No.4 driver was running up front when a push from Jones sent him into AJ Allmendinger on the inside lane. The crash caused a chain reaction that took out many drivers, including playoff contender Chase Elliott.

Allmendinger had to be helped out of his car and was seen limping his way to the infield car centre. Gragson and Jones, meanwhile, took heavy damage and retired from the race at P36 and P35, respectively.

"Erik Jones was pushing really hard," Gragson said in a post-race interview with NBC Sports, "You usually get those pushes late in the race in the third stage, but he was just pushing hard. It’s unfortunate. The back straightaway here is really rough and I was pushed in the wrong area and started wheelbarrowing down the backstretch before he caught me."

"He was pushing really hard in the corner, places that guys don’t normally push in the first stage, whether it’s through the trioval or the corners. It just seemed a little bit aggressive in the first stage and we still had nine laps left, so that was definitely a bummer,” he added.

Noah Gragson had led just two laps before the unfortunate incident. The result marks his first finish outside the top-30 since the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

Chase Elliott was marked dead last and as a result, stands 62 points below the playoff cutline. He's now in a must-win situation at Martinsville to keep his title hopes alive.

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"I don’t feel like it was too aggressive": Erik Jones addresses his shunt with Noah Gragson

Erik Jones remained ambivalent about his Stage 1 shunt with Noah Gragson. The No.43 driver couldn't single out a defining moment that caused the wreck.

"He seemed pretty stable, so I don’t know if I pushed too hard or got him in a bad spot or if I got aggressive too early," he said via aforementioned source.

"I don’t feel like it was too aggressive, but maybe he was more unstable than I thought he was," he added.

Compared to Erik Jones, Noah Gragson has a rather poor rank in the driver's standings. With a single top-5 and three top-10s, Gragson currently sits 34th with 423 points to his name.

Jones stays ahead at 25th, one spot below his Legacy Motor Club teammate, John Hunter Nemechek. The 29-year-old has four top-5 results under his belt, helping him record an average finish of 19.8