After JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier lost the lead, it was all on Gragson to pursue Ty Gibbs in the closing laps. But even with a little help from another teammate (Sam Mayer) while he was being lapped, Gragson couldn't quite get there.
Afterwards, he went up and shook hands with Gibbs. When asked why, he simply replied: "Because they did a good job. They beat us."
A tense relationship
Speaking on his tense relationship with Gibbs and how he could relate to him with some of his own mistakes in the past, Gragson did not mince words: "Yeah, I think I've been in that position before. It takes a lot of things, and it's to be honest with yourself, it's to have honest people around you, to sit you down and say, hey, change needs to be made.
"You know, I've had a conversation with Ty the day after Portland and Gateway and let him know how I felt, let him know if he gets into us, what the consequences are going to be, and just -- I used to be buddies with him when he was younger. You know, probably three, four years ago, he was a super cool kid. He really was. But I don't know, it's just kind of changed over the last couple years, and I've told him that, and he knows that.
"I don't want to really go into much more detail about that out of respect for him and whatnot, but I told him that hey, you used to be a super cool kid and you kind of turned into a little bit of a douchebag ... He can still grow from it, and he did a great job. They won the race fair and square today. It takes great people around you to learn, and I think he is capable. He has the potential to learn. He's a great race car driver, and I've been in those shoes, too, where it just seems like you can't do nothing right, and it's you against the world and whatnot. But at the end of the day, I think he's got potential, and he hasn't reached his full potential yet off the track."
Hindered, but not derailed by slow pit stop
Gragson made a strong run to the front after a slow pit stop cost him five positions. He charged from eighth up to second and ended the race within a few car lengths of the newly crowned champion. He refused to believe his race was over after the setback on pit road.
"Because we came off pit road, we were in eighth, it was what it was," he said. "We still had laps left, and we still had opportunity. We weren't wrecked. We weren't in the garage. We still had opportunity. Just got beat there at the end. Started getting tight, probably needed to be a little freer.
"But really proud of everyone's efforts all year long. That's why I'm mad at the result a little bit, but I'm not. I don't know. I felt like last year I was way more mad just because -- I don't know, I think this year I did my absolute best, like I can lay my head down after restarting eighth with 25, 30 to go and getting up to second and almost having a shot to win the race.
"I'm content with that. I don't think the driver a year ago, two years ago, three years ago would be able to do that. I did my absolute best. I drove my ass off. I tried my best and gave it everything I had. Just got beat."
Gragson also admitted that he contemplated the wall-riding maneuver utilized by Ross Chastain last weekend, but didn't think it would work.
The difference a week makes
Gibbs has drawn a lot of criticism this year for his aggressiveness on track, attitude off-track, and most recently, for intentionally wrecking his teammate out of a Championship 4 spot to win Martinsville. A remorseful 20-year-old arrived at the track this weekend, and raced without incident with his title rivals for the entirety of the race. That fact did not go unnoticed by Gragson, but Gibbs still drew loud boos from the crowd after the race.
"I think we all raced with a ton of respect, and we all four raced as champions, in my mind," said Gragson. "We raced each other really, really hard, and sometimes doored each other, coming off the tri-oval or through the dogleg or entering the corner, but we raced hard.
"For me personally, that's all you can ask for is to race each other as hard as you can. But nobody -- we're all still racing our tails off. Even last night in the truck race, it was an unbelievable finish, and I think we all four raced as champions tonight.
"It was really cool."
Gragson's time as a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) driver is over for the foreseeable future now. In 2023, he steps up to the Cup Series as the driver of the No. 42 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet. In 135 NXS starts, he won 13 races including eight this past season.
"For a young guy like myself who's moving up to the Cup level, it's going to be a rude awakening. It really is," he confessed. "Justin (Allgaier) knows the difference between Xfinity and Cup racing; everybody is good. Every lap, every restart, every trip down pit road, every single time, everybody is good in the whole entire field. You're not racing 10 guys, you're racing 30 guys, so it's a lot harder."
