Hemric Makes Late Charge to Finish Second in Lone Star State

Daniel Hemric made a valiant challenge for victory at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) on Friday evening and came away with a runner-up result. The driver of the No. 19 NAPA 100th Anniversary Chevrolet Silverado RST captured his third top-five finish in the last four races with a remarkable recovery in the closing laps to secure his best-career result of second at TMS. He tallied 49 points, second-most of all drivers, which allowed him to advance to third in the championship standings.

Hemric took the green flag alongside his MHR teammate Tyler Ankrum after showers cancelled practice and qualifying on Friday afternoon. From the outset, Hemric battled with a lack of rear grip in his Chevrolet and quickly found himself outside the top-20. After pitting under a lap 21 caution to assess left-side body damage, Hemric was able to stay on track during a caution at lap 31 to make a formidable strategy play. He restarted fifth on lap 38 and earned seven points in fourth position at the end of Stage 1 on lap 40.

Stage 2 went green on lap 48, and the second segment featured Hemric as a consistent threat in the top five. Despite a rash of three cautions, crew chief Josh Graham kept Hemric on track as the No. 19 NAPA team was able to execute a clean stage and collected seven additional points in fourth place at lap 80.

A pit stop under the second stage caution proved costly for Hemric, as a malfunctioning air gun thwarted the always-reliable No. 19 pit crew. It resulted in Hemric restarting 19th on lap 88 leading into the night’s long, green-flag run. Hemric was stuck in 17th as green-flag stops occurred after lap 100. He stayed on track until pitting under green on lap 128. After the four-tire stop, Hemric ran 14th but lost a lap to the race lead.

Relief came in the form of a lap 147 caution, which allowed Hemric and several others to take the “wave around” when the leaders pitted under yellow and rejoined the lead lap. While restarting ninth on lap 154, Hemric escaped a multi-truck accident and advanced to fifth. He lined up fourth for a green-white-checkered restart to end the evening and made the most of his opportunity. Despite being on roughly 50-lap older tires, Hemric made a stunning three-wide move at the white flag for the race lead. His attempt came up just short, and he finished second for his fourth top-five of the season.

“Looking at the box score, you start second and finish second,” Hemric said following the race. “Stages look like they finished okay, but it was a struggle. The first stage, definitely didn’t hit the balance like I wanted to with this NAPA Silverado RST. Wanted so bad to get ourselves back in the ballgame and Josh Graham did that with some adjustments and some strategy. Next thing you know, we find ourselves doing what we do as a No. 19 group, and that’s create our own culture to grind it out no matter what the day gets thrown at us. That’s what we did. We came up one short and we’re disappointed, but when you’re doing it on 50-lap tire disadvantage, you’ll take days and results like that. Great execution by everybody. Pit crew did well. We had a pit gun break at the end of Stage 2. We lost track position. Second’s not fun, especially after you taste winning this year. We had a lot of people here from NAPA, celebrating NAPA 100. 100 years in business. It’s a true privilege and honor to wear this brand. Thank you everyone for that. Gates Hydraulics, Bill McAnally, Bill Hilgemann, appreciate you guys.”

Start / Finish: 2 / 2
Points Standing / Total: 3rd / 288 pts. (-80)

Next Race: Saturday, May 10, Kansas Speedway
How to Watch or Listen: 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1 or SiriusXM

NAPA: @NAPARacing
Daniel Hemric: @DanielHemric
Bill McAnally Racing / McAnally-Hilgemann Racing: @BMR_NASCAR