With Todd Gilliland (No. 34) and Zane Smith (No. 38) now under contract to drive for Front Row Motorsports in 2027, the three-car operation now only has one seat left to fill, the No. 4.
Noah Gragson is the current driver of the No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, and has been since the start of 2025, but questions have loomed large as the Summer progresses about whether the Las Vegas, Nevada-native is planning to return to Front Row Motorsports (or if FRM is planning to have him return), or if he’ll be taking his talents elsewhere.
Jerry Freeze, General Manager of Front Row Motorsports, spoke with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 on Tuesday evening, and said that the organization is in the final steps of securing Gragson’s tenure with the organization for a third season.
“We want Noah [Gragson] back at Front Row Motorsports, and I feel pretty good about it,” said Freeze. “We’re working through the last details in his agreement, so I feel pretty good about it. I look for something out of us in a few weeks on that, but, you know, these programs, there’s a lot of moving pieces to it, and you gotta pull all of it together.”
It’s been a tough year, and a tough tenure at Front Row for that matter. The 28-year-old driver currently sits 31st in NASCAR Cup Series point standings on the strength of a single top-10 result at Talladega Superspeedway in April. Last season, in his first year with FRM, Gragson finished 34th in points after a top-five at Talladega, and top-10s at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) and Charlotte.
“We believe in his talent. He won so many races at JR Motorsports and also [Kyle Busch Motorsports] in the Truck Series and he got off to a rocky start in his Cup career at [Petty GMS Motorsports] and seemed to be on his way when he got to Stewart-Haas and Stewart-Haas kind of went out from under him, and kind of like Zane, he ends up in our little group.”
“We just haven’t found the consistent speed with that car. Last year, I felt like we had a little more speed we just got caught up in a lot of accidents and this year, we’re just lacking a little bit of speed. So, like I said, there’s always pieces of the puzzle that has just gotta all mesh and come together and we believe in Noah and look for him to be at Front Row for the foreseeable future.”
Gragson’s status at Front Row Motorsports being unconfirmed, at least for now, opened the door for NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series driver Layne Riggs, who told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio last week that he believed he had a shot at collecting a ride in the Cup Series for 2027. That is still possible – FRM isn’t the only open seat on the market – but a shift to the team’s Cup Series program would have been the most logical move.
