Noah Gragson discusses his fun day at Talladega Superspeedway after finishing a career-best third place and earning respect from his competitors in the draft.
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00:00 Noah Gregson with a third place finish here at Talladega.
00:02 We spoke to Brad Keselowski.
00:03 He talked about the incredible push
00:04 there you gave him at the end.
00:06 Those closing laps, though, that was pretty much the wildest
00:09 we saw all day long.
00:10 How do you feel about your Talladega day?
00:11 Yeah, it definitely was a tame day to start.
00:13 I think everybody was kind of trying to be easy pushing
00:18 and saving fuel.
00:19 And then once we got that last caution,
00:22 it seemed like everybody was really pushing hard that we
00:25 knew we could get to the end.
00:26 So my job was to get the six up front
00:30 and then hopefully race it out for the win.
00:32 And had a shot there, coming home third.
00:34 I really haven't had much experience
00:36 pushing in these cars or being up front
00:38 on these super speedways.
00:39 So a big part of today was learning and getting
00:42 in that experience, gaining trust and respect
00:44 from the other guys and veteran guys like Brad.
00:47 But it came up a couple of spots short,
00:50 but still a career best, a third,
00:52 and we're going to keep pushing as a 10 team.
00:55 As a driver, though, the fuel saving strategy
00:57 and how these super speedways have played out this season,
00:59 are you surprised that it's come down to basically saving fuel
01:03 a lot of these end of stages?
01:05 Well, I mean, yeah, the first two stages,
01:08 it seemed like everybody was saving.
01:10 I mean, we started second to last.
01:12 So I was like, man, I'm going to go up to the front.
01:15 Made it three wide to start the race.
01:17 And then everybody else followed.
01:18 It got pushed up to the front and then
01:19 could kind of control it from there,
01:21 especially in the second stage.
01:22 But a lot of fun, at least when you're up front,
01:25 because you're just riding half the route
01:27 and the rest of the guys are too.
01:28 So you have the track position.
01:30 But what's coming down after the green flag pit stops
01:33 and then come to the stage breaks,
01:35 and especially the checker is a lot of fun.
01:36 But can't say enough about all the fans.
01:39 It was awesome this weekend on the boulevard
01:41 and appreciate everyone's support.
01:43 Thanks, Noah.