Hemric Records Runner-Up In Chaotic Finish at Watkins Glen

Venue: Watkins Glen International

FINISH: 2nd

Start: 17th

Stage 1: 8th

Stage 2: 15th

Laps Led: 1

NCTS Point Standings Position: 4th

Daniel Hemric stormed back to a runner-up finish on Friday evening at Watkins Glen International in a triple overtime finish. The driver of the No. 19 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST came from the 17th starting position to record his eighth top-five finish of the season and scored the third-most points of all drivers in the field. Hemric remains fourth in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks Series standings heading into next week’s regular season finale.

Just as the green flag dropped, strategy considerations immediately followed. Hemric ran 18th during the first 10 laps and crew chief Kevin Bellicourt called Hemric to pit road on lap 12. Moments after Hemric entered pit lane, a fortuitous caution waved for a stalled truck in the inner loop. The NAPA Nightvision team completed a four tire pit stop under caution without losing a lap and allowed Hemric to inherit third position as most lead lap trucks pitted when the pits opened. After restarting third on lap 16, Hemric was able to notch three points in eighth position at the end of Stage 1 on lap 20.

Bellicourt kept Hemric on track during the stage caution and restarted sixth on lap 25. The No. 19 showed the best raw pace during the second segment as he ran sixth until a caution on lap 37. With the final fuel run in mind, Bellicourt elected to keep Hemric on track and inherited the lead under yellow. He restarted as the leader for a one-lap dash to end the second stage, but Hemric succumbed to a stumbling fuel pickup issue on the restart and was scored 15th at the end of the stage, despite having over four gallons left on board.

Hemric made his second pit stop under the second stage break for four tires and fuel and restarted 18th on lap 45. He was running 14th when a caution flew at lap 60 and allowed him to pit for fuel and four tires amid Bellicourt’s concern for potential fuel pickup issues in the final laps. He restarted 14th with nine laps remaining in regulation on lap 64 and navigated through multiple incidents to find himself inside the top five. Hemric restarted on the front row for the third overtime restart and made a bid to the inside for the lead entering the esses. The move for the victory came up short but took the checkered flag in second position for his 13th top-10 result.

Daniel Hemric Quote:

“I probably would have done a lot differently removed from it, five minutes or whatever it’s been. I truly thought with the tire advantage, it would be enough to overcome the struggles I had all day. Everybody works so hard here at MHR and I wanted to get NAPA Nightvision, Gates Hydraulics, South Point Hotel & Casino, Poppy Bank, everyone in victory lane. To be honest, I was surprised with how much potential he still had left. He did an absolute incredible job of managing what he had going on. We got to race these guys the rest of the season, right? The playoffs about to fire off here. Could have run over him, used him up, but at the end of the day we have to race these guys for a championship. Hopefully we made some deposits there and when it’s time to make some withdrawals we got some left.”