NASCAR team owner slams ‘over entitled mouthpiece’ Noah Gragson

NASCAR Xfinity Series team owner Carl Long slammed driver Noah Gragson, calling him an “over entitled mouthpiece” following Saturday’s incident.

For the third Homestead-Miami Speedway NASCAR Xfinity Series race in a row, JR Motorsports’ Noah Gragson appeared to be well on his way to victory in the race’s closing laps.

And for the third race in a row, victory escaped the 22-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native, who is still seeking is first victory since winning at Bristol Motor Speedway last June, which was before any of those three races at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Homestead, Florida.

This time, Gragson was leading the race handily over Our Motorsports’ Tyler Reddick in second place with just over two laps remaining.

MBM Motorsports’ David Starr, the veteran who had started the race in 40th (last) place, had not yet gone a lap down, but he was about to be lapped by Gragson.

Running in 12th place, just ahead of Gragson, Starr had an issue with his right front tire in turn three and slid up the race track. Gragson, who was running the high line, was unable to react, and his #9 Chevrolet slammed into the back of the #13 Toyota.

Under these circumstances, it literally could have been anybody leading or anybody in 12th place, and the same thing would have happened. But in his post-race interview, a frustrated Gragson did what he has done before and let out a NSFW word on live television.

He stated the following:

"“What are you gonna do – you’ve got dipshits in the way, every single week.”"

Watch the edited version below.

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Richard Childress Racing’s Myatt Snider went on to win the race in the second overtime period, becoming the second consecutive first-time winner in the series after Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs won at the Daytona International Speedway road course the week prior in his series debut.

Of course, the point can be made that Gragson wasn’t specifically referring to Starr, since lap traffic has been an issue in more ways than one and he noted that it was the case every single week.

But Starr’s incident, even though he hadn’t been lapped, clearly had something to do with the comment.

And team owner Carl Long took that personally, writing a lengthy Facebook post slamming Gragson as an “over entitled mouthpiece” and including a picture of the tire which had the issue that led to the collision.

Here is what Long wrote in his post.

"“This is the Rf [right front] tire that came apart on David Starr while running 12th position on lead lap, with a few Laps remaining. The tread came apart as he dropped down to give Gragson the top lane. The car then slid up into the wall. Gragson made a statement that we were dip$hits that did not belong on track! Well this over entitled mouthpiece did not have enough talent to miss our wreck. We were happy to take home a top 12 finish, that rolled right out of our hands just like the tire rubber rolled off of this tire. There are not many people left in this garage who have worked as hard and sacrificed as much as myself to get to this level.. Statements like his could and usually does come back and cost him..”"

The Xfinity Series is set to return to action this Saturday, March 6 with the Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET.