Skip to main content
Join Now
NASCAR Logo

Noah Gragson pins blame on Alex Bowman, hates missed Nashville opportunity

Nick Profile Picby: Nick Geddes06/03/25NickGeddesNews
Noah Gragson
Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Noah Gragson crashed out of Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Lap 114. Gragson blamed Alex Bowman, who appeared to get loose while running the inside line through Turns 3 and 4.

Bowman made contact with Gragson, sending them both spinning into the outside wall. Gragson said that Bowman “annihilated us,” ruining his bid at a strong run in the “Music City.”

“I gave [Bowman] a whole two lanes off the bottom, and he just trekked me. It annihilated us,” Gragson said after the race, via Nate Ryan of NBC Sports. “Was so early in the race and that was a hard hit. It is just sort of the story of our year so far. We’ve been running good, running better, then we get taken out by things not of our doing.

“We just have to go faster to get away from it all. Have been building good cars. We ran good at Charlotte. I feel like we have good speed at some of these tracks. I am really proud of everyone at Front Row Motorsports. It just sucks to be annihilated like that.”

Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman make contact with each other at Nashville

Looking to build momentum off of his third top-10 of the season from the week prior at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Gragson finished a season-worst P38, posting his fourth DNF of 2025. It’s just been that kind of year for Gragson, his first driving for Front Row Motorsports. Now 14 races into the regular season, Gragson is 31st in the points standings with an average finish of 22.4.

While Bowman is still 12th in the points, his performance of late has been concerning. He has finished 27th or worse in six of his last eight starts. Bowman got off to such a strong start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. At one point, he was in the top-five in points.

That’s gone, as is his comfortable cushion above the playoff cutline. Bowman is just 45 points clear. Meanwhile, his Hendrick Motorsports teammates — William Byron, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott — are all in the top-five in points and well on their way to the postseason.

Being on the playoff bubble is a place Bowman does not want to be. He’ll look to turn things around this Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.