After the EchoPark 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 20, Xfinity Series drivers Daniel Hemric and Noah Gragson participated in a post race altercation that included throwing punches.

The incident stemmed from a pit road incident in which Gragson backed his number nine JR Motorsports car into Hemric’s number 18 Joe Gibbs Racing car during a pit stop. No one was hurt but Hemric’s crew members were sent scrambling to aviod getting hit.

After the race, Daniel Hemric got out of his car and interrupted Noah Gragson’s post race interview to show his displeasure at the pit road incident by throwing punches.


As with all altercations, each side has their version of the events…

According to Daniel Hemric, “pretty simple. He had no idea what was going on out on the race track. We come down pit road and the guy pitted behind us when you accelerate when I was pulling into my box, and it made me have to steer around the guy going to the 9’s (Gragson) box. I backed up and yes, it messed up both of our pit stops.” Hemric added, “I backed up and he decided to put it in reverse and cram into the right-front fender and knock a hole in our Poppy Bank Toyota Supra nose. We had to pit again and fix it. That was completely deliberate and it was absolutely ridiculous. Where I come from, you get your eye dotted when you do stuff like that.”

And Noah Gragson had this to say, “I don’t know why he’s mad. We were behind him coming onto pit road … Then he was in our pit box and I had to come around him and not really sure why he was there, but had to back up and get there. … I’d be mad if I was in his shoes, too, just based off what he’s done in his career, but it is what it is and we’ll move on and keep on fighting. Man, what a day. Top five, we’ll go celebrate that.”

Despite the issues, both drivers finished the race in the top 10.

Noah Gragson was told to report to the NASCAR hauler to discuss the issue after the race; however, NASCAR has announced that the incident was not intentional and there will be no penalties issued.

NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller spoke on the incident saying, “we reviewed the incident which occurred between the nine and 18 cars on pit road during Saturday night’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and met with Noah Gragson after the event. A chain reaction of events led to the 18 and the nine both overshooting their pit stalls. The nine ended up both long and out of his pit box to the outside, and needed to back up as far as possible to have any chance at fully pulling into his box. After reviewing the video, it is our judgment that the contact was not deliberate.”