"Sucks to get annhiliated": Noah Gragson gets candid about frustrating early exit at Nashville

NASCAR driver Noah Gragson was running in the back of the field when an on-track incident ended his chance of securing a respectable finish at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 1. Following the end of the race, Gragson expressed his frustration with his untimely exit from the Cracker Barrel 400.

This comes shortly after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was dive-bombed by Carson Hocevar at Turn 3, where the former went crashing into the SAFER barrier before returning to the garage. On lap 113, Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman was on the inside line when he misjudged a corner and drove into Noah Gragson's #4 Ford. The incident caused sizeable damage to both Gragson's and Bowman's racing machines.

After being released from the infield care center, the Front Row Motorsports #4 driver shared his thoughts on Bowman's move and his imminent exit from the race.

"I gave him like a whole two lanes off the bottom, he just merks me in the left rear, just annihilated us. I don't get it, it just just sucks. It's super early in the race. That was a hard hit, like tough. It's kind of been the story of our year so far," he said via Frontstretch [00:41 onwards].

Having said that, Gragson took a moment to appreciate the efforts from his team, Front Row Motorsports, for their hard work every weekend, before circling back to getting 'annihilated' by the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

"We've been building good cars. We ran good at Charlotte and felt like we'd had good speed at some of these tracks. Just need to get on a consistent basis, but still super proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports. Just sucks to get annihilated in the left rear like that when I gave them a bunch of room and uh, I don't get that," Noah Gragson added.

The 26-year-old Nevada native has secured two top-10 finishes in 14 races this season, with his best finish coming at Talladega, where he finished P4. Adding to his misery, Gragson has suffered three DNFs in 2025. He is currently ranked P31 in the drivers' standings with 214 points.

“It's never gonna hurt me”: Noah Gragson’s crew chief pushes for horsepower boost in Cup cars

Recent reports indicate that NASCAR is currently reviewing the horsepower limits for Cup Series cars. This comes shortly after a wave of criticism, with veteran drivers like Kyle Busch suggesting that the Xfinity Series offers a better overall racing product in terms of power and performance.

Recently, Noah Gragson's crew chief, Drew Blickensderfer, gave his two cents on a possible increase in the NextGen car's allocated horsepower.

"I'm a big fan of more horsepower, especially when I know I'm in a Ford and I've got Doug Yates behind me. I know he's gonna give us everything, so it's never gonna hurt me, the more horsepower you give us so I'm a fan of that, especially beyond the shortcuts," Blickensderfer said [00:44 onwards].

Reports suggest that if there were an increase in horsepower, it would only be for short track racing and road courses.