Hemric Marches Up Standings with Top-10 in Texas

Daniel Hemric took a significant leap forward in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks Series points standings at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night by recording his third top-10 finish of the season. The driver of the No. 19 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST notched a seventh-place finish after recovering from hardship on pit road in the first half of the event. As the season crosses the one quarter mark, Hemric sits 13th in the championship points after gaining three positions in the Lone Star State.

The MHR contingent qualified in a cluster on Friday afternoon with Hemric starting 14th, just behind two of his stablemates. The opening 40-lap stage was a consistent, smooth run for Hemric as climbed to 12th in the opening laps. One caution on lap 24 offered an opportunity to play a contrary strategy, but Hemric stayed on track to restart ninth on lap 30. With several trucks taking advantage of fresh tires on the ensuing restart, Hemric ran 11th at the end of Stage 1 on lap 40.

After a hiccup on the team’s first pit stop of the night, Hemric restarted 23rd on lap 48. He quickly advanced to 18th, but his tight balance from the first segment morphed into a lack of rear grip also. A caution on lap 74 allowed Hemric to pit for another set of fresh tires before the end of the segment and was scored 23rd by the end of Stage 2 at lap 80.

The night took a positive swing in the event’s second half for Hemric and the NAPA Nightvision team. The No. 19 immediately went forward after the lap 87 restart and was running 14th when a green-flag pit cycle commenced on lap 121. Hemric pitted on lap 127, but a hangup resulted in him cycling back to 21st position. A fortuitous caution allowed Hemric to close the gap and restart 14th on lap 149. He took maximum advantage of two restarts to climb to 10th and lined up 11th for a green-white-checkered finish. Hemric used the bottom lane to generate momentum in the final two laps and charged to a seventh-place result. Gaining three positions in the standings has closed Hemric to within 17 markers of the Chase bubble.

“We certainly salvaged a decent finish tonight,” Hemric said after the race. “Our NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet had decent balance down in turns 1 and 2 tonight. We got real tight and lost some pace leading into the green flag stop. Just lost some time on pit road but appreciate Kevin [Bellicourt] and everybody making good adjustments so we had something to race with on those late restarts. We gained a few points, going in the right direction as far as that’s concerned. Hopefully this gets us going and we can start stacking consistent nights.”

Start / Finish: 14 / 7
Points Standing / Total: 13th / 146 pts. (-111)

Next Race: Friday, May 8, Watkins Glen International
How to Watch or Listen: 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1 or SiriusXM

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Daniel Hemric: @DanielHemric
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