NASCAR has handed down punishment to driver Noah Gragson for the dangerous wreck he instigated at Road America in Wisconsin on Saturday.
Gragson, who races for J.R. Motorsports, had 30 points removed from his season total for intentionally wrecking Sage Karam. He was also fined $35,000.
The move from Gragson was so egregious that Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of Gragson’s team, expressed his surprise that there wasn’t an immediate penalty for his own driver.
“I was shocked, to be honest with you, when I saw Noah make that decision,” Earnhardt said Wednesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I was just completely shocked and in a bit of a disbelief not only that he made that choice but that he, you know, that it created such an accident and got so many other guys involved. That was tough to watch, really tough.
“I think that NASCAR doesn’t want to over-officiate the races, but I think in some situations there’s some things that do cross over a line. And I felt like that was definitely one of those situations where had I been in the booth directing the race I think I would’ve had to bring Noah to pit road and hold him there for a while.”
Karam and Gragson first came together at the exit of turn No. 3, where they scraped sides. It was there that Gragson lost his patience and yanked his wheel to the right, sending both Karam and himself spinning.
From there, things evolved into a multi-car crash, with the incident collecting Landon Cassill, John Hunter Nemechek and Josh Bilicki. Myatt Snider, Tyler Reddick, and Brandon Brown were next to be wrapped up in the collision.
Brown notably collapsed near the wall after exiting his car.
After the race, Gragson immediately took credit for the crash saying, “He starts it, I’m the one who finished,” and that he got “sick and tired” of battling with Karam.
Gragson went on to finish the race in eight place.