 |
| Sean Gardner/Getty Images |
NASCAR's 30 year old Daniel Hemric has been crowned Champion, after winning tonight's NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, claiming the 2021 series title. After a strong race for Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemirc made a last lap attempt at the win, and it worked.
Not only did Hemric win Championship tonight, but Daniel Hemric also broke a career long losing streak. Prior to this Championship Race, Daniel Hemric had NEVER won a NASCAR race of any kind, despite racing within the the organization since 2013, and holding full-time rides at all three levels of sport. In-fact, the last time that Daniel Hemric won any racing event was in the 2015 "All American" 400 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, a grassroots exhibition race unrelated to NASCAR.
The strongest drivers among today's season finale were Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemric, and John Hunter Nemechek. These three wheelmen never got too far away from the lead, though Austin Cindric gave even Hemric and Nemechek a run for their money. The first half of tonight's race was very clean, though as the laps ticked down, contact plagued the field. Astonishingly, after a short spell of green flag laps Cindric got nearly 2 seconds away from Hemric and Nemechek who underwent an intense battle for second.
Nemechek who was only a part-time driver this season has no chance at the Championship, regardless he raced his 'teammate' as though there was nothing on the line. Eventually Daniel Hemric got ahead of Nemechek, as AJ Allmendinger fell victim to a loose wheel and lost control of his car bringing out the caution flag.
That caution was one of the most significant moments in this race, and the bid for the title itself, as it brought Championship hopefulls Cindric, Hemric, and Gragson all back together to battle for a chance at the win. Cindirc's car was strong as the young driver held off Hemric and Gragson throughout a handful of restarts, one where Gragson even slipped up into the outside wall!
As the race went into overtime, two laps remained in the season. Hemric would once again restart on the bottom, not necessarily the preferable lane, and both cars fired off about even. Cindric and Hemric would fly through the turns side by side, until in the approach of the white flag in turn four Cindric began to pull ahead. Daniel Hemric defended 2nd place, and fell in behind hemric as the field barreled through turns one and two. In the final turns of the race, Hemric dove low underneath Cindirc. Austin Cindric held his line very tight in attempt to deny Hemric the speed he needed to win. In the apex of the corner, Hemric declined Cindrics restrictions and drove up in to Cindric. This slowed both drivers down, but allowed Daniel Hemric to have a larger margin of speed of Cindric than he would have had he just stayed in his lane.
Daniel Hemric got the nose of his No. 18 Toyota Supra about five feet ahead of Austin Cindric's No. 22 Mustang as the two came to the line. This clutch move by Daniel Hemric denied Austin Cindric a second consecutive Championship, and allowed Hemric to make some history of his own. The haters of Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 18 driver now have one less detail to hold against Daniel Hemric, in-fact Hemric earned himself a two for one by winning the race and the title.
Allmendinger who was absent in this race recap, and that was not intentional, it was solely based on his performance. The NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season Champion, AJ Allmendinger was was not of Championship caliber tonight and simply did not have the equipment to win the race tonight. This was an unfortunate time to miss the setup for Kaulig Racing's No. 16 team, as they have been by far one of the most dominant groups of the 2021 season. There Championship 4 appearance was more impressive than anyone else, and that should be taken into account. That team chose a bad time to make a mistake.
The No. 22 of Austin Cindric won stage one, and the No. 18 of Daniel Hemric won stage two.
The following are the complete race results (Click to enlarge):
 |
| NASCAR Media |
No comments:
Post a Comment