In Saturday’s XFINITY Series Ford EcoBoost 300, getting the high line up near the wall to work was key for success. Richard Childress Racing’s Daniel Hemric simply could do not it on Saturday.
“We lost the ability to make hay with those guys way, way up top,” Hemric said after the race on pit road. “Our car really wanted to be down low by the white line. On the last run, our car really took off and we had a lot more speed than [the leaders] on the bottom. Then, I got the front tires hot trying to make lap time and faded there with 15 [laps] to go.”
Hemric continued on to state that he did try to run the top, but that he would simply give up too much lap time. As a result, they reverted to the plan that they first came up during practice on Friday, which was to run the bottom.
Despite the issues running high, Hemric could still run quite well. Starting 10th, he quickly moved up into the top five. He managed to run all the way up to second and was gaining on leader Cole Custer at the end of stage one. A bad pit stop dropped Hemric back to seventh and forced him to spend the entirety of stage two fighting back to regain his lost ground.
At that time, Hemric believed that he had a race-winning or a second-place car. When the sun went down, the No. 21 Chevrolet actually did get a little faster but then lost the ability to turn to a certain degree.
Hemric’s car likely had the right handling characteristics for success, given the complete lack of cautions outside of the stage breaks. He was not all that great early in a run, but the car really came to life later on.
Despite the handling issues, Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 was still a very good race for Hemric. After Christopher Bell‘s late flat tire, Hemric brought his South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet home in fourth. Given the form of the Championship 4, finishing fourth was only good enough to claim third in the points for 2018.
With the end of the 2018 XFINITY Series season also comes the end of Hemric’s full-time career in the series. For 2019, he will embark on his rookie year in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, replacing Ryan Newman in the No. 31 Chevrolet. Hemric has not closed the door on a potential part-time schedule in the series in addition to his Cup responsibilities. During his post-race press conference, he stated that he is more than open to more races. The ability to run XFINITY Series races in 2019 is going to depend on what Richard Childress allows him to do.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.