Noah Gragson seemed well on his way to winning his third race of the year, but a slip in the final corner of the last lap allowed Harrison Burton to scoot by and win his third NASCAR Xfinity Series race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday (Oct. 24).
The O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 already featured plenty of playoff drama prior to the last-lap climax. But Burton’s car was on rails during the final 10 laps and his Toyota grew increasingly larger in Gragon’s mirror until he was on the leader’s bumper.
Gragson started the last lap about half-a-second in front of Burton, yet could only watch as Burton blazed through the first two corners and cut the deficit in half with a half-lap remaining. Both cars stayed in the high lane to avoid a lapped car in turn 4. However, Gragson bobbled slightly and moved up the track, allowing Burton the preferred line and giving the No. 20 the advantage with just several hundred feet between the cars and the checkered flag.
WHAT A FINISH!@HBurtonRacing passes Noah Gragson to WIN at @TXMotorSpeedway! pic.twitter.com/Nhksxcw0FB
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 24, 2020
Gragson seemed shell-shocked during his post-race interview, pausing several times to stare off into the distance. He was one of the few playoff drivers – up until that final corner – who hadn’t had any sort of misfortune or setback over the course of the afternoon.
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“I don’t know,” Gragson said. “I felt like we had a fast car there, just a little tight on exit all day. Just…frustrated at myself…I was pretty tight there at the end, I saw [Anthony] Alfredo holding Harrison off and thought we were getting away. …Then I saw the [No.] 20 get by the [No.] 21, and he ran me down in like two laps and I knew he was coming. I just didn’t expect him to get there.”
That split-second lapse of control made the difference between clinching a Championship 4 position and heading to Martinsville Speedway next week below the cutline.
“Fuck,” he continued after another long pause. “Sorry. I don’t know. Frustrated but thankful for my guys, [crew chief] Dave Elenz, the rest of this team, we’ll go to Martinsville. I like that track, just – I mean that could be make or breaking your season right there. and [I] just threw it away.”
Heartbreak for Noah Gragson.
In one corner, he went from being locked into the Championship 4 to 24 points below the cutline by not winning today at @TXMotorSpeedway. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/wiMu2rhwF6
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 24, 2020
The result, indeed, could be a make-or-break moment for the JR Motorsports driver’s 2020 championship hopes. He heads to Martinsville seventh in the eight-driver playoff standings and on the outside looking in, 24 points back from fourth-place Justin Haley. He’s nine points removed from sixth-place Ross Chastain and 19 points ahead of last-place Ryan Sieg, who suffered issues of his own during the event at Texas.
The mistake cost Gragson a guaranteed spot in the series finale’s Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway. The win would have been a much-needed boost for the team after he suffered a crash last week at Kansas Speedway. That incident forced him to retire from the race under the damaged vehicle policy, finishing last.
Gragson hasn’t visited victory lane since the spring race at Bristol but has recorded a pair of second-place finishes over the last several weeks. He also sat on the pole for both the Charlotte ROVAL and Kansas.
JOHNSTON: What a Runner-Up Finish Cost Noah Gragson
O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 Recap: Burton Ecstatic Over Last-Lap, Comeback Win
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.