MT. PLEASANT, Mich. — Beard Motorsports announced that Noah Gragson will drive its No. 62 Chevrolet Camaro in the 64th running of the Daytona 500 Feb. 20 at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway.
It marks Gragson’s return to Beard Motorsports, as the generational race team founded by the late Mark Beard Sr., and now run by his wife, Linda, tabbed Gragson for last year’s Daytona 500. Gragson was collected in a multicar accident just four laps short of the finish in his 150-mile qualifying race, which prevented him from advancing to the Daytona 500.
As a non-chartered team, Beard Motorsports has no guaranteed starting spot in the Daytona 500, meaning it has to race its way into The Great American Race.
“To say that we can’t wait to get back to Daytona is a massive understatement,” said Amie Beard, executive vice president of Beard Motorsports. “From the moment my father founded this race team, we all took a tremendous amount of pride in showing up and performing right alongside the established teams in the sport. Last year didn’t go the way we wanted, but that’s just made us more motivated to return.”
That motivation is echoed by Mark Beard Jr., who helps his sister, Amie, manage the race team.
“We have a NextGen car, we have Noah, and we still have our alliance with Richard Childress Racing,” he said. “Some folks might be ready for the offseason, but we’re definitely on for Daytona.”
Gragson has a similar mindset. With qualifying unavailable at the other superspeedway races in 2021, Beard Motorsports didn’t have the chance to race again. The 2022 Daytona 500 provides that long-sought opportunity for Beard Motorsports to get back to the track, and Gragson to get that first career NASCAR Cup Series start.
Brendan Gaughan, the former NASCAR Cup Series driver who finished his racing career with Beard Motorsports, is now its vice president of racing operations.
“Beard Motorsports has proven that it can run with the big teams there at Daytona, and I’m just really looking forward to getting another crack at it,” Gragson said. “We know we have to race our way into the Daytona 500, and I’m very appreciative of the faith the Beard Family has in me.”
Gragson is a five-time winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the first of which came in the 2020 season opener at Daytona. His recently completed 2021 season netted three wins and a spot in the Championship 4, where the Las Vegas-native ultimately finished a career-high third in points. The 2022 season will be Gragson’s fourth full year in the Xfinity Series, and he returns to the familiar No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports.