Why NASCAR Won’t Penalize Anyone After Noah Gragson-Daniel Hemric Incident

NASCAR has elected not to penalize Noah Gragson — or anyone, for that matter — over what transpired Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Gragson backed his No. 9 Chevrolet into Daniel Hemric’s No. 18 Toyota in a pit road incident that was the catalyst for a brawl after the EchoPark 250. Many viewed Gragson’s actions as intentional, but NASCAR saw things differently, announcing Sunday it will not punish the Xfinity Series driver.

Here’s the pit road incident, in case you missed it:

And here’s the rationale for not penalizing Gragson, Hemric or anyone from their respective teams:

“We reviewed the incident which occurred between the 9 and 18 cars on pit road during Saturday night’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and met with Noah Gragson after the event,” Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said Sunday in a statement, via NASCAR.com. “A chain reaction of events led to the 18 and 9 both overshooting their pit stalls. The 9 ended up both long and out of his pit box to the outside, and needed to back up as far as possible to have any chance at fully pulling into his box. After reviewing the video, it is our judgment that the contact was not deliberate.”

So, was that the right call? Let the debate begin.

Hemric, for what it’s worth, believes Gragson knew exactly what he was doing.