Noah Gragson and Chase Briscoe, who drove for Tony Stewart's Stewart-Haas Racing in 2024, are thick as thieves, and the duo does not leave any stone unturned when they get together.

After their hilarious 'Waxing Moon' theory from April this year, where they somehow connected the phase of the moon to how NASCAR tires behave on the track, the duo has now shed light on another superstition-like lore.

In a recent appearance on the "Bussin' With The Boys" podcast, when Gragson and Briscoe were asked if they had any superstitions, they claimed that NASCAR drivers like to keep their throttle foot warm by wearing a sock. Briscoe said:

“Racecar driver, they all typically, before race day, they’ll only sleep with their right sock on to keep their gas pedal foot warm.”

When asked by the hosts about athlete's foot and whether they keep a sock on even when they are at the beach, Gragson said:

“My left foot, I never get athlete’s foot. But I always keep a sock on my right foot. If I’m in flip flops, sock on my right foot.”

They then spoke about how they found out about the superstition. Gragson suggested that it might have been Tony Stewart who might have told it to Chase Briscoe, and the latter agreed that it indeed was.

“Once I got to NASCAR, the veteran guys are like, 'Hey, if you’re not doing this, you probably should.' Yeah. Tony told me when I was younger,” Briscoe added.

Different Socks for Different NASCAR Tracks?

Despite many outsiders' opinions of NASCAR drivers only turning left, multiple road/street course circuits are part of the NASCAR calendar, giving drivers a way to showcase skills across track types.

While ovals require a lot of focus on throttle and lifting, braking is a crucial part of road courses. Often, sharp turns feature at road courses, meaning just throttle and lifting never works well.

Briscoe touched upon how drivers need to wear socks on both feet for road/street courses, where the left foot is also used as much for braking. He said:

“Road courses are coming up, so you wear two socks because you’ll be using both feet.”

The hosts were baffled but agreed that it makes sense even more so after Briscoe said that he’s been doing the sock thing his whole life.

After Pocono this weekend, NASCAR will head to the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego for its debut race at the street circuit on June 19-21, followed by the road course race at Sonoma the week after.

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Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Yash Kotak