The 2025 Cup Series season is just over a month away. Preparations are in full swing accordingly, with drivers shedding the past and looking forward to a bright future.
Noah Gragson is bidding adieu to his emotional career at Stewart-Haas Racing, and gearing up for a stint with Front Row Motorsports.
However, he is taking treasured slices of his past team with him – with the hope of immortalizing it.
Gragson is booked for the No. 4 Ford – as FRM has bought a charter from Tony Stewart’s old team. Great drivers wheeled race cars carrying the same number before, including Kevin Harvick. Now Gragson is looking forward to cementing that legacy with the help of a remarkable individual.
Noah Gragson has the best helping hand
A driver-crew chief relationship is always sacred. While the racer wheels the car, the crew chief acts as their eyes and ears on the racetrack. Noah Gragson’s rookie season in the Cup Series may have turned awry after NASCAR suspended him and Legacy Motor Club fired him. But his induction into SHR was fruitful in a lot of ways – besides serving a 2-time championship-winning team, Gragson worked with a veteran crew chief. Drew Blickensderfer has been in the sport for 16 years and helped Gragson ink 16 top 15s, 7 top 10s, and one top five in 2024. Despite SHR shuttering a 16-year-old legacy at the end of the season, some things remained – like Gragson and Blickensderfer’s equation.
Which car number will Noah Gragson drive for Front Row Motorsports in the 2025 Cup Series season?
Together, they will wheel the No. 4 Ford – the same car in which Kevin Harvick fetched the 2014 championship for SHR. To replicate that legacy will take immense effort – which Noah Gragson is prepared for with a sweet 2-word nickname for his crew chief. “Yeah, No. 4…we’ll be calling my crew chief Drew Blickensderfer Lil Rhod, Lil Rhodney – he’s taken over for the 4 car. So it’ll be a pretty good year and would be a lot of fun, I know that.”
Lil Rhodney will indeed be a massive title for Blickensderfer. Rodney Childers once worked as the crew chief for Kevin Harvick, winning a championship together in the No. 4 car, even making it to the Hall of Fame along the way. With the No. 4 car coming back in such a big way, a former SHR driver taking it at a new team, Childers was bound to react. He went on to say, “Definitely gonna be extremely odd for me to see the [4] on track this year.” What might be even more odd for Childers is to compete against the No. 4 since Childers is now a part of Spire Motorsports.
Noah Gragson is also excited to be driving alongside Todd Gilliland. They were paired at the now-defunct Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series from 2017-2018. Gilliland will continue wheeling the No. 38 Ford for 2025 as well. Gragson continued, “It’ll be good to start the year off with Front Row Motorsports…to do it with Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith, his teammate, were all pretty close. I think that’s going to be pretty good.” Gragson’s spirits are buoyant also because FRM got a big legal victory. “We got charters, which is awesome.”
Well, the NASCAR lawsuit looked like it would turn ugly. After Michael Jordan and Co. filed the lawsuit in October, the court proceedings tilted its favor toward NASCAR. Ranging from the federal judge dismissing their motion to NASCAR trying to call off the lawsuit, 23XI Racing and FRM’s futures were at stake. The only avenues left were the teams competing in open slots for the 2025 season, which would have had a tremendous economic impact. Even amidst that bleak scenario, a few people clung to hope – including Noah Gragson. The former SHR star believed in FRM’s fate.
The 26-year-old rooted for his new team’s survival chances, despite having little idea about the lawsuit. Gragson admitted in early December, “I’m not the most educated guy on what’s going on with the lawsuit and I’m not even just saying that because you’re recording me right now. Like, I have no idea what’s going on and I just do what I’m told.” He continued, “I’m probably not the guy to ask, but I do feel confident we’re going to race.” Sure enough, the federal court granted the team charter status on their second motion. Now Gragson can freely prepare for a star-studded season with his crew chief.
The 2025 season will kick off sooner than we know it. Let us wait and see if Noah Gragson can live up to Kevin Harvick’s legacy.
