NASCAR star Noah Gragson says fans have 'lost the privilege' to see his personality

NASCAR Cup Series star Noah Gragson has opened up on losing the 'fun' from his public persona.

The Front Row Motorsports driver said that people have 'lost the privilege' of seeing his personality in the way they did when he was breaking through in the sport.

He also claimed that winning drivers get a license to act however they want, whereas drivers toward the back of the field have any displays of personality or 'fun' frowned upon, or even blamed for their struggles.

Gragson insisted that he works as hard as any other driver through the week, where fans can't see it, before trying to enjoy his race weekends as much as possible because 'If you’re waiting until Friday or Saturday to start preparing for the race, it’s way too late'.

Gragson: Winning fixes everything

Asked on a media call on Wednesday whether he'd moved away from his fun personality, he said: “Yeah, they made me move away. They don’t like having fun. With that being said, I think if you’re winning, people don’t care. You can do whatever you want.

"It’s when you run bad that people’s opinions are like, ‘Oh, he’s winning so it works’. And then you run bad and they’re like, ‘Oh, you need to change this, this and this', and you really haven’t changed anything.

"You haven’t done anything different from when you were winning Xfinity races to now, but I guess you just have to clean it up because that’s the way the world is these days. I’ve learned to just not go out there and show my personality as much as I can because people have lost that privilege.”

Asked if he thought that the difference between being 'allowed' to have fun or not is whether you're winning races, he said: “Yeah, everybody has an opinion and if you’re winning, you’re OK. It’s when you’re not winning that it’s a firestorm and people want to just point and say, ‘It’s this, this and this’. Well, you never said any of that stuff when I was winning races, so what’s the difference now?

"But, at the same time, I do think that it is a balance, but at the end of the day I think the people who are closest to me know that I work hard behind the scenes throughout my whole career and I’m truly passionate about the sport. It’s not like I’m just going out there and messing around. I do my work throughout the week and when I get to the racetrack I try to enjoy myself as much as I can. If you’re waiting until Friday or Saturday to start preparing for the race, it’s way too late.

"At the same time, I think you’ve got to be smart about things, but there are the select people that also know and just have a problem with everything and they ruin it for a majority of the people who enjoy my personality. They ruin it for all those people.”

Gragson: No more social media ammunition

Conversation returned to the topic later in the call, with Gragson saying he's vastly reduced his social media usage and that fans have 'lost that privilege'.

It was unclear whether his 2023 ban from NASCAR for liking an offensive meme related to the murder of George Floyd played into that mistrust of fans online, or whether he's simply fed up with fan criticism of his driving and antics.

Asked which part of his personality he feels he's given up, he said: “All of it. I just don’t really tweet much. I don’t really post a lot on Instagram anymore. I don’t really give the fans any ammunition because they’ve lost that privilege, unfortunately, because it takes one person to mess it up for everyone.”

He added: “It’s just the nature of where my career and life has gone the last five years. It’s just not as enjoyable anymore to go on there and read the stuff. There’s just a lot of different situations that present itself that I’m finally like, ‘Why do I even put in the effort if people aren’t gonna appreciate me?’"