In the final year of Stewart-Haas Racing’s operations in 2024, Chase Briscoe was a teammate of Noah Gragson. The two NASCAR Cup Series drivers recently reminisced about those days during an unprecedented moment in Briscoe’s career. Briscoe had never exchanged helmets with another driver before until he decided to do so with Gragson. In the process, he parted with a piece of memorabilia from his SHR days. While receiving the gift from his former teammate, Gragson also opened up about his learning disability.
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Briscoe gave Gragson the helmet he used from his 2024 season on The Dale Jr. Download podcast. It was the one that had ‘Mahindra Tractors’ on it as a sponsor, the one he won when he emerged victorious at the Cook Out Southern 500 in Darlington that year. But more importantly, it included a note from him to Noah. When Gragson tried to read the note out loud, he began to struggle with the words. He joked about Briscoe’s handwriting at first, but then he paused to reveal a lifelong personal battle.
“I am very dyslexic,” Gragson said. “I’ve had a big learning disability and dyslexia. Reading comprehension has kind of been a challenge my whole career. Just bear with me. I’ve gotten better at it, but that’s another thing I’m very vulnerable about that I’m willing to express.”
Briscoe immediately stepped in to help him read the rest of the message. The message essentially told the Front Row Motorsports driver that although they hadn’t started on the best of terms, they had gone on to become best friends. “Keep being you,” the message ended.
It was a nod to their ever-evolving relationship, which started on the wrong foot at the 2017 Truck Series race in Daytona, the first time either of them raced at the national series level. On the second lap of that race, Briscoe accidentally dumped Gragson. There were tensions between the two in the coming weeks and months, but they grew close over time, as revealed on the podcast, where Briscoe appeared to understand Gragson’s difficulty with reading the note on the helmet.
They spent the 2024 season driving as teammates during Stewart-Haas Racing’s final year of operations. Now, Briscoe drives the No. 19 for Joe Gibbs Racing, while Gragson races for Front Row Motorsports.
Gragson had previously opened up about his disability. In 2023, when he returned to the Cup Series, he spoke at length about how he struggled with reading comprehension as a child, explaining that reading even five pages could take him up to 30 minutes. Over time, however, he worked on it and gradually improved.