NASCAR: Late driver change confirmed for Sonoma

Grant Enfinger is set to replace Noah Gragson at Legacy Motor Club in Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.

Legacy Motor Club’s Noah Gragson crashed hard toward the end of this past Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and earlier this week, he began to experience concussion-like symptoms.

As a result, the rookie driver of the No. 42 Chevrolet will not compete in this coming Sunday afternoon’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

Grant Enfinger is instead set to drive the No. 42 Chevrolet in this 110-lap race around the 12-turn, 1.99-mile (3.203-kilometer) Sonoma, California road course, the team confirmed on Thursday.

The 38-year-old Fairhope, Alabama native is a veteran of the Truck Series, and he competes for GMS Racing, the team which merged with Richard Petty Motorsports to form Petty GMS Motorsports, which ultimately became Legacy Motor Club in 2023. The Truck Series is not in action this weekend, so he was available to fill in for Gragson.

However, Grant Enfinger has never had the opportunity to compete in a NASCAR Cup Series race.

His only past Cup Series race attempt came at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November 2011, when he failed to qualify for Sinica Motorsports.

As for Gragson, there is no timetable on a possible return. On two occasions last season, we saw drivers forced to miss an extended period of time with concussion-like symptoms after suffering a hard hit.

Kurt Busch has not competed since his crash at Pocono Raceway in July, and Alex Bowman missed five races after his crash at Texas Motor Speedway in September.

Should Gragson return before the end of the regular season, NASCAR would likely grant him a playoff waiver, meaning that he would still be able to qualify for the playoffs (presumably by winning a regular season race), despite missing time.

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Sonoma Raceway starting at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, June 11. Begin a free trial of FuboTV before then and don’t miss it!