It has been a tumultuous rookie campaign for Noah Gragson in the NASCAR Cup Series, and on Saturday things took another turn. LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, which fields the No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that Gragson drives, has suspended Gragson for this weekend’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
According to the team, JR Motorsports racer Josh Berry will pilot the car this weekend.
LEGACY MOTOR CLUB made the announcement via a brief statement on Saturday, which read, “We have made the decision to suspend Noah Gragson effective immediately regarding his actions that do not represent the values of our team. Josh Berry will drive the No. 42 entry for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan.”
Gragson accepted the suspension and issued the following statement via X (formerly Twitter), which confirms the suspension was related to social media, “I am disappointed in myself for my lack of attention and actions on social media. I understand the severity of this situation. I love and appreciate every one. I try to treat everyone equally no matter who they are. I messed up plain and simple.”
Following the suspension of Gragson, which came directly from LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, NASCAR issued a statement supporting the team’s decision and states that Gragson is indefinitely suspended from NASCAR competition.
“NASCAR fully supports Legacy Motor Club’s decision to suspend Noah Gragson. Following his actions on social media, NASCAR has determined that Gragson has violated the Member Conduct section of the 2023 NASCAR Rule Book and has placed him under indefinite suspension,” the statement from NASCAR read.
NASCAR has confirmed that the suspension stems from a questionable like on Instagram by Gragson on a George Floyd meme, which was unearthed by social media users. Floyd’s death in May of 2020, while in police custody, sparked riots across the United States.
Michigan International Speedway will mark the second race missed by Gragson during his rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series. Gragson also missed the event at Sonoma Raceway while recovering from concussion-like symptoms following a hard crash at World Wide Technology at Gateway.
Gragson sits 33rd in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings after 22 races in 2023. The 25-year-old driver has yet to score a top-10 finish on the year and has a best finish of 12th, which came at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the spring.
5 Responses
What an absolute joke. How dare he have a different opinion than the mob, how dare he
I know Noah has to be careful about what what he says but so does everyone else in nascar. Even bubba…racism is everywhere. The word doesn’t mean anything anymore…and Ole George wasn’t a good guy…….
Just because there’s freedom of speech doesn’t mean you’ll face consequences for your action, im glad he learned this the hard way. Majority of nascar fans are white racists so i can see why fans would hate this but nascar has to show that racism is not ok, especially when a innocent black man lost his life due to racist police officers.
George is sober now
MORE NASCAR WOKE BULL$HIT! JUST ABOUT DONE COMPLETELY!