NASCAR: Long-awaited driver announcement finally made
By Asher Fair
Petty GMS Motorsports have confirmed that Noah Gragson is set to replace Ty Dillon following the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Earlier this summer, Petty GMS Motorsports announced that they had made the decision to move on from Ty Dillon after the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Dillon joined the team this year when they were formed by a merger between Richard Petty Motorsports and GMS Racing. He was initially slated to drive the #94 Chevrolet for the latter.
The 30-year-old Welcome, North Carolina native ended up behind the wheel of the #42 Chevrolet. Erik Jones, who began driving the #43 Chevrolet for Richard Petty’s team last year, is his teammate.
The team later made the obvious decision to extend Jones’s contract, considering the success he has had in 2022. If not for a 35-point penalty that he and the #43 team were issued at Pocono Raceway, he would be sitting in 11th place in the point standings. Unfortunately, Dillon would only be in 29th without his.
When it was first announced that Dillon would not be back for a second season with the team in 2023, the name that emerged as the most likely replacement was Noah Gragson.
Now the team have confirmed that Gragson is indeed set to join Jones at the two-car outfit next year.
NEWS: @NoahGragson Joins Petty GMS to Drive the No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Starting in 2023! pic.twitter.com/BbMIsbhVKn
— LEGACY MOTOR CLUB (@LEGACYMotorClub) August 10, 2022
Excited to have @noahgragson join @PettyGMS to drive the #42 car next year! #richardpetty #pettygms #noahgragson #42 pic.twitter.com/YIrditxtpJ
— Richard Petty (@therichardpetty) August 10, 2022
Gragson is currently in his fourth season competing full-time for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, and he also took on a part-time Cup Series role with two teams this year. He competes for Kaulig Racing and Beard Motorsports in select races.
The 24-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native has competed in seven races for the former and two for the latter so far this year, and he is slated to make seven more starts behind the wheel of Matt Kaulig’s #16 Chevrolet before the season concludes.
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Gragson is set to make his Petty GMS Motorsports debut in the Busch Light Clash exhibition race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, February 5, 2023. He is set to make his first official start with the team in the 65th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 19.