Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Noah Gragson of Stewart-Haas Racing, who is wrapping up his first full season in the NASCAR Cup Series and will move to Front Row Motorsports next season. This interview has been edited and condensed, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions podcast.
1. What is currently the No. 1 thing on your bucket list?
There’s a lot of things I’d like to do again, like go into Whistler, Canada, and go downhill mountain biking. The last time I did that was 2015. It’s tough when you’re racing every weekend and you can’t afford to get hurt and whatnot, and it’s a summer sport. I can’t think anything (he hasn’t done) off the top of my head; maybe go to Australia. That’d be cool to go check that out.
2. How much media coverage of NASCAR do you consume?
A little bit. I’ll watch different interviews with different guys, just to learn off them and see what they say and how they answer questions and whatnot. Just see what they’re thinking. Sometimes clips of podcasts — I see your guys’ podcast (“The Teardown”) and Denny (Hamlin)’s (“Actions Detrimental”) and some Dale Jr. clips, and I also see different motorsports clips on Supercross and stuff. … So I’m somewhat in tune, but I’m certainly not on social media like I was two or three years ago.
3. Beyond winning, what is the best way to measure success in racing?
The best way to measure success is being able to lay down at night and say, “I did the best job possible.” Being able to say, “Man, I felt like I got my full potential at the end of the day.” And that’s in all areas. Did I do a good job being a leader for the team? Did I help rally guys up when times are down? Was I enthusiastic when I was around the fans and giving them the best moment they could have with a driver? Did I get the most out of the car on the racetrack? Did I take the best notes?
My only competition is really myself and trying to become better each day. But winning is great, and it definitely is the most rewarding feeling. Nothing comes close to that, even being satisfied with yourself and saying, “Man, I’ve grown as a person.” That’s great and all, but the end goal is performance and winning the race.
4. What is an opinion you have about NASCAR that you don’t think is shared by the fans?
It’s a family at the end of the day. The coolest thing is there’s friendships I’ve made in this garage or at tracks that have become close to me. My buddy Christian (Espinoza), he goes down to Talladega every year and there’s people he camps next to that I’ll go over and and see. I’ve become friends with them, and now we’re super tight and they were strangers. This whole industry — and the fans are included in that — it’s a family, and everybody wants the same thing. They all want to go to the racetrack and get away from reality. It’s an escape.
5. What is the biggest thing fans don’t realize about what you do for a living?
Being able to see the weekly grind of a Cup Series driver. The Netflix show definitely helps that out. But I’d like to do a series one day where it’s like all-access, 24/7. Like, “Hey, I’m going to bed. I’m waking up. This is where I’m going. This is what we’re doing.” And just see the weekly routine, right? Because it is a routine. You’re going to the simulator, you’re going to the shop, you’re having your meetings, you’re doing different media stuff. It’s about 75 percent of routine with some other stuff sprinkled in there. I wish more people would be able to see the whole process.
6. The next one is a question related to something current to yourself. I noticed you’ve gotten into EA Sports College Football 25. Where do you rank in terms of best in the garage? Can you be beaten?
I’ve been beaten. I’m very humble when I get beat, because it doesn’t happen often. (Crew members overhearing his comments in the hauler have an audible reaction.) But our tire guy, Jacob (Cooksey), he has a problem saying he just gets straight-up beat, where I’ll say, “Yeah, I had an off day. I didn’t play as well. You straight up beat me.” I’ve gotten beat by Chase Briscoe. So we all have our bad days, but I’m decent. I could win 60 percent of the games against all the drivers, for sure.
What is your ideal team to play with?
I don’t have a special team I play with. Whenever we play, you get three random teams. And then if you don’t like any of those three, you get one more random — and that’s a do-or-die. You have to stay with them (if you pass the first three deals).
What if they’re crappy?
Deal with it. We would do that on Madden, and then we were doing it on college football — but then there’d be a team like Ball State, where they’re horrible. There are only 32 teams in the NFL, so it’s not too big of a discrepancy. Where you could get all three bad teams in college football. So we started doing if your opponent gets a ranked team, you get to random (select) until you get a ranked team. Just to make it a little more fair.
7. This is a wild-card question. Let’s say you’re at Le Thai, one of your favorite restaurants at home in Vegas, and you’re in the middle of your meal. Halfway through eating it, a fan sees you and walks up to say hi. But he’s standing so close that spittle starts to come out of his mouth and you can see it raining down on your food. So what is the play here? You could either order a new dish, keep digging with the spit on it or just decide you’re done eating. How would you handle that?
This is gross, but I’d feel a little more comfortable if it was somebody I know who was spitting on your food. It’s still somebody else’s saliva, but if you know this person, I might keep digging.
If it’s a random person, it depends how good it is. But that’s a toss-up; I’d either keep digging or, if I’m full, just be like, “Ah, that’s that.” But if they’re really gross — that’s bad to say, but some people have different hygeine. So then I’d probably order a new one.
8. What do you like about the place you grew up? Las Vegas.
I like how many different activities you can do there. You can go mountain biking. You can go 45 minutes up to Lee Canyon and go snowboarding during the winter. You can go off-roading. You can go down the Strip and go gamble and party with your buddies. They’ve got skate parks there, they’ve got pools, they have a lake that’s not far away. The weather is hot, but it’s pretty nice for two-thirds of the year.
I like how fast-paced things are. That was the biggest difference in moving to North Carolina. When I was racing Trucks, we’d land on a Friday night and it would be 2 a.m. and I’d be like, “Alright, I’m gonna go stop by a fast-food restaurant or gas station.” And then they’re all closed. I’m like, “This is weird.” Or it’d be 10 p.m. on a weekday and I’d be like, “I’m gonna go get something to eat,” and everything’s closed.
In Vegas, everybody flows pretty quick other than near the Strip. … (In North Carolina), the pace of things is really slow — like people drive five miles under the speed limit on a two-lane road with double yellow lines, and you just have to wait behind them. It sucks.
9. What personality trait are you the most proud of?
Selfishly, it’s probably not my best one, but I can be somewhat entertaining. But that’s also my biggest downfall. I like to talk a lot, and sometimes it is not the right time to talk. It’s a double-edged sword.
“It’s a family, and everybody wants the same thing,” Noah Gragson says of NASCAR. “They all want to go to the racetrack and get away from reality.” (Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)
10. Which driver would you least like to be stuck with on an elevator?
Zane Smith (his longtime friend since their teenage years).
Why?
He’d just make it awkward. He’d rip off a fart or something in there. And you’re like, “God, I’m stuck with this guy.” Like if there were other people around, he’d just stink that thing up on purpose or something. He’s good at making it very uncomfortable.
11. What is a run-in you’ve had with a driver that TV or the media missed?
Probably the first third of the Sage Karam episode (when Gragson was penalized for intentionally wrecking Karam at Road America during a 2022 race). Then they caught my third and missed the last third, too — where he just runs into (me) after Road America. It’s like bro, just because you have fenders doesn’t mean you can just drive it off into someone’s door. It’s not a demo derby. Yeah, we bump and we hit, but we all race each other for the most part pretty respectful.
TV didn’t really catch — and the fans didn’t catch — the first third of that situation where it was three races in a row that we got doored and run over. Most of it was my fault for being in that position, not being faster. But it’s behind me. I learned from it, whether I’m in the right or the wrong. Obviously, I made a mistake at Road America. But probably another lesson is if I go faster, I won’t be around it.
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. The last one was Michael McDowell. He says, “What race have you enjoyed the most in terms of you get out of the car and you go, ‘Damn, that was the most fun I’ve ever had?’”
Probably the Roval in ’21, in the rain. It was Briscoe and myself and (AJ) Allmendinger. I wrecked three times from the lead, ran back up and got the lead and then wrecked again in the rain. That thing was all used up and destroyed.
(Briscoe suddenly enters the hauler.) Chase is here. Chase just walked in. Chase, what is the most fun race you’ve been in, win or lose, when you got out of the car and said, “Dang, I had a super fun time?”
Briscoe: The Roval Xfinity race was a blast. It was awesome. It was like a flood, but it was so fun.
Gragson: Dude, it was so sick, man. We were swapping the lead and then I’d wreck and then Chase would have the lead and then he’d spin out and then somebody else would get the lead and they’d spin out. You couldn’t see because everyone’s windshield wipers and the defoggers don’t work, so you’re looking through basically 12 inches or less than that. And then where the big video board was, you’d go through (Turns) 3 and 4, and it was super shiny on the racetrack — the video board would shine off (the wetness) and it would blind you. It was crazy, dude.
Do you have a question I can ask the next person?
Do you love the Cup Series as much or enjoy it as much as you thought you would as a kid? At what point did it become a job for you instead of a hobby or for fun? I imagine everybody in the Cup Series always took their racing seriously, but when you’re a kid, you have less cares in the world. So is the Cup Series as enjoyable as what you thought it would be as a kid?
GO DEEPER
NASCAR Kansas takeaways: Kyle Busch gets close again, playoff drivers rue missed chances
(Top photo of Noah Gragson last month at Atlanta Motor Speedway: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
