Truckin’ Thursdays: Daniel Hemric Back in Truck Series With Something to Prove

Last season, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing had a great year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, culminating in a third-place championship run for driver Christian Eckes.

Eckes has since moved up to the Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing, leaving behind a bad fast No. 19, MHR’s flagship truck. Whoever was getting that truck this season had big shoes to fill.

Enter, stage left, the newest young gun to drive the No. 19 for 2025 … Daniel Hemric?

To say that Hemric was a left-field choice is kind of an understatement. He hasn’t run a truck full-time since 2016, and only made one start after that in 2018. Since 2016, he has alternated back and forth between part- and full-time Cup and Xfinity competition.

However, those eight years in Xfinity and Cup didn’t treat Hemric too kindly. He had a lot of good runs, yes, but he only reached victory lane once, at Phoenix Raceway in Xfinity in 2021. That victory proved to be important though, as his muscling of Austin Cindric out of the way in the final corner earned him the Xfinity championship in one of the most clutch moments in motorsports history.

However, that one shining moment proved to be just that — one shining moment. Hemric has not reached victory lane before or since, and as such, fans have used his championship as a talking point for why NASCAR needs to make changes to the playoffs. He has spent the last three seasons with Kaulig Racing, two in Xfinity and one in Cup. He was able to earn several more top fives and top 10s in Xfinity, but no wins.

He was promoted back to Cup after flaming out with Richard Childress Racing back in 2019, but only scored four top 10s and was released at season’s end.

So now here he is. Back in the Truck Series full-time for the first time in nine seasons. He’s back driving the No. 19, just like he did with his last full-time team, Brad Keselowski Racing. However he’s arguably in much better equipment than he was in 2016, as MHR is arguably the top Chevrolet team in the Truck Series as it stands.

Not to mention, Hemric is in MHR’s aforementioned flagship truck, so wins should not only be expected, but a reality. Eckes achieved eight wins across two seasons in the No. 19 — both seasons featured four wins apiece. Realistically, Hemric should be able to notch around four wins between his experience and the equipment underneath him.

However, winning has not been Hemric’s forte in any NASCAR series. The Phoenix Xfinity win is his lone victory in his 338 combined starts between Cup, Xfinity, Truck, ARCA Menards Series (including East and West), Whelen Modified Tour, Whelen Southern Modified Tour and CARS Tour. That, combined with his lone win earning him the Xfinity title, have led people to question whether or not he should still be racing.

But if there’s any year he can start winning, and winning a lot, it’s this one. He’s off to a great start, too. He finished a strong seventh to start the season at Daytona International Speedway. At Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hemric started third and was running up front most of the day before getting caught up in a lap 74 crash.

But even with part of the fender ripped off, Hemric was able to work his way back to the lead before the damage caused his truck to get tight late in the race, plummeting him to 16th at the checkered flag.

MHR as a whole hasn’t lost a step, even with an almost brand-new lineup. Rookie Connor Mosack won the pole at Atlanta, while fellow first-year full-time teammate Jack Wood won stage one of the race. All while lone returnee from 2024 Tyler Ankrum continues to knock on the door of career win No. 2.

Hemric can also serve as a good mentor to his younger teammates as they try to work their way up the NASCAR ladder with him. Hemric also drove for Bill McAnally Racing in the ARCA Menards Series West opener at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, qualifying on pole and running up front late before a flat tire sunk him to ninth of the 12-car field.

Hemric can (and should) win with MHR — he’s laid a solid foundation in his first few starts and has a good work environment around him, between the people who work on his truck, the equipment he has underneath him and his younger teammates he can mentor. He has a great chance to silence the doubters and work his way back to the Cup Series.

If you’re looking for a driver to watch with intrigue throughout the 2025 Truck Series season, it might be that No. 19 gold-and-blue NAPA Chevrolet.

Truckin’ Tidbits

• It was announced this week that Road Ranger would sponsor Sheldon Creed and Haas Factory Team in 13 Xfinity races. This is an interesting development, considering that Road Ranger has sponsored defending Truck Series champion Ty Majeski the last few seasons. It appears that Road Ranger will only sponsor Creed and will leave Majeski entirely. What will Majeski and ThorSport Racing do to fill the sponsorship void left behind? Also, a hypothetical question worth asking — given the relationship Majeski and Road Ranger had, does the HFT/Road Ranger partnership open a potential door for Majeski to make Xfinity starts with Haas, a fellow Ford team?
• Corey Heim will make select Cup starts with 23XI Racing this season as part of a brand-new development deal. As part of the deal, he will make some Xfinity starts with Sam Hunt Racing as well. The fact that Heim isn’t in either of these series full-time this season, and instead is back in the Truck Series a third time, is asinine. Hopefully this deal will allow him to go full-time in one of those series for 2026.
• An appeals panel upheld Parker Kligerman’s disqualification from his Daytona win. Heim is officially the winner. However, multiple people from Henderson Motorsports, including driver Kligerman and crew chief Chris Carrier, have maintained that the only reason they were DQ’ed was because NASCAR inspected their truck improperly and had incorrect measurements on the truck. However, with no other option to appeal again, it will be interesting to see if/how Kligerman and Henderson escalate things further in some way.