UPDATE (Friday, June 3 at 5:00 pm ET): On Friday, a video of Noah Gragson’s practice crash from Portland International Raceway surfaced, after someone in the stands posted the self-taken video to Instagram (@pitbull_294):
ORIGINAL STORY:
It was a rough start to the race weekend for Noah Gragson, the driver with the most top-five finishes, Stage Wins, and laps led during the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
In a moist opening to practice at the 1.97-mile Portland International Raceway road course, Gragson found trouble, which led to massive damage to the front end of his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.
Ethan Smith (Twitter @EthanHSmith_) captured a photo of Gragson heading back into the garage:
Mega oof pic.twitter.com/PHk8WrxZk2
— Ethan Smith (@EthanHSmith_) June 3, 2022
Bryan Nolen of Fronstretch.com also captured a photo of Gragson’s wounded car:
Heavy damage to the front of Noah Gragson’s car.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/7HbLsxSiJn
— Bryan Nolen (@TheBryanNolen) June 3, 2022
Fortunately, NASCAR confirmed that Gragson had been evaluated and released from the infield care center.
While details of what happened to Gragson are sketchy at the moment, practice was not being televised, reports on Twitter from people at the track say that Gragson went off course during the accident.
It looks like the No. 9 team will more than likely need to roll a backup car out for Saturday’s race.
Gragson had turned the sixth-best lap of the session prior to the incident.
