Noah Gragson's first season with Front Row Motorsports has highlighted two things. The first is that the No. 4 team has speed. The second is that the team has what appears to be atrocious luck.
At this point, Gragson just wants to know "who he pissed off."
"It's almost to the point right now where we're frustrated, but we just laugh," Gragson said in response to a question from AltDriver. "We'll be like, 'Come on, man. Dude, I don't know what to tell you.' It's just one of those years.
"We keep believing in each other. If we trust each other, it'll turn around eventually. It's kind of like roulette. If you keep betting on black and it's hitting red, eventually it's gonna turn."
Last weekend's race at Dover Motor Speedway was a fitting example. Gragson started second to last after rain washed out qualifying and NASCAR set the lineup using its metric partially based on the previous race on the schedule. He had struggled at Sonoma Raceway, which hurt him at Dover.
Despite the poor track position, he raced his way through the field. He first cracked the top 15 and then he put himself inside of the top 10 with nine laps remaining in the race.
This is where the situation completely changed.
Christopher Bell spun while battling for the lead. Gragson went to check up to avoid the wreck, but Ty Gibbs hit him from behind and spun him into the inside SAFER barrier. He then slid into William Byron, which turned the points leader into the barrier as well.
Instead of finishing eighth or better, Gragson ended the day with a DNF and a 32nd-place finish.
BELL SPINS GOING FOR THE LEAD pic.twitter.com/lPtXpqOHsF
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 20, 2025
"That's kind of been the story of the year," Gragson said. "The 54 (Ty Gibbs) hit us and wheel-barrowed us down the front straightaway and wrecked. I've just gotten collected in a lot of wrecks and it's pretty frustrating."
This was far from the only race in which Gragson and the No. 4 team showed speed before something unexpected happened. He specifically pointed to the Daytona 500 when he was racing in the top 10. He finished 28th after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Logano got together and sparked a multi-car crash with fewer than 20 laps remaining.
Gragson also pointed to the February race at EchoPark Speedway when he had speed once again. Daniel Suarez clipped him in what was an eight-car incident. Gragson finished 34th. He was then collected in incidents at both Phoenix Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"It's just like, 'Man.' We've just got to finish these things," Gragson said. "Never in my career in anything has -- I'm not a big believer in luck, but maybe I am now because I don't know who I pissed off or what happened, but it's definitely not going our way this year."
The frustration is evident when Gragson discusses the near-misses in his first season with Front Row Motorsports. Yet, he still remains positive as he continues working with crew chief Drew Blickensderfer and the No. 4 team.
The reason for some optimism is that the cars have speed. It's not that they are running in the back of the pack and then getting collected in incidents. They are putting themselves in the top 10 before disaster strikes.
They expect to have this speed once again as they head to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend. After all, Gragson delivered a top-10 finish in last year's race. He drove for Stewart-Haas Racing at the time, but he still had Blickensderfer calling the shots as crew chief.
If they have this speed, they can put themselves inside of the top 10 as the race progresses. At that point, the only goal will be to avoid the bad luck that has derailed their efforts in other races this season.
"We just said, 'Hey, we've got an opportunity this weekend at Indy. Let's prepare like we're gonna try and win the race.'
"No matter what happens, it's definitely degrading, I would say, to wreck. It's almost like you don't know which way is up at times, but you just have to try and keep the confidence and stay focused, and I feel like for as bad as it's gone this year result-wise, we've kept a pretty level head in the grand scheme of things."