Second-chance potential comes quickly for Noah Gragson at Talladega

Noah Gragson savored a solid NASCAR Xfinity Series debut last weekend at Richmond Raceway. But the runner-up effort was tinged with a shade of regret after coming close to unseating teammate and eventual race winner Christopher Bell. "I'm going to go to bed for the next 20-next years and think, 'Man, I wish I could go back to that night at Richmond and maybe do something a little bit different,' " Gragson said. "But you win some, you lose some." The terms of his arrangement with Joe Gibbs Racing mean that Gragson, 19, will get an immediate second chance at Xfinity paydirt this weekend. He'll drive the No. 18 Toyota in Saturday's Sparks Energy 300 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Talladega Superspeedway, then will follow that with the last event in his three-race audition, May 5 at Dover International Speedway. RELATED: Full schedule for Talladega | Dash 4 Cash field Gragson has just one previous appearance at Talladega, finishing 14th last October at the 2.66-mile venue's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event. But he says he's well aware of the track's unpredictable nature, largely due to engine restrictions that foster tightly wound racing in large packs. "Talladega, that one might come back in a ball or something and I'm not sure that's the kind of roll of the dice," Gragson said after his Richmond debut. "I know we'll have a fast Toyota Camry there with Switch on the hood. Man, I'm not too good of a restrictor-plate racer just because I don't have a lot of experience. "I watched Daytona this year from the spotter stand of the Xfinity race and man, they couldn't get off of each other. They were beating and banging and spinning out, so I don't know what my strategy is going to be." Firmed-up game plan or not, Gragson's performance was enough to leave crew chief Eric Phillips "very encouraged" about his young driver's prospects over the next two weekends. Phillips and the No. 18 team head to Talladega with three straight top-five finishes, a stretch that includes Ryan Preece's victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. "Pretty impressive his first time to show up in an Xfinity car here at Richmond, which I would say this is one of the hardest race tracks that we're going to run all year," Phillips said. "To run second says a lot about the kid, and I think it says a lot about our program. We've got really good cars right now. We probably started off the year behind a little bit at JGR and we've worked really hard, but tremendous job and tremendous poise by Noah all day."