It has become a regular pattern in recent years to see a NASCAR Cup Series driver return to the lower divisions of NASCAR competition, and they’re all seeking a chance to return to the peak of stock car racing.
But that isn’t the case for McAnally Hilgemann Racing driver Daniel Hemric.
Hemric, a 34-year-old North Carolina native, has been one of the ultimate journeymen in the world of NASCAR in the past five years. Since 2015, he has had a roller coaster of a career. Hemric has endured nine full-time seasons among seven different teams spanning multiple series that include a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship and not one, but two Cup Series promotions from full-time rides at Richard Childress Racing in 2019 and Kaulig Racing in 2024.
But mid-2024, Hemric began having conversations with Kaulig leadership about his future, and after a lackluster season that only saw four top-10 finishes and no top fives, it appeared the Kannapolis native wasn’t going to be sticking around.
And he was just fine with that.
“Nothing about our performance as a whole made sense for them to continue to spend money for that kind of output,” Hemric told Frontstretch. “It wasn’t lack of anybody’s part. The writing was on the wall, and I understand it. I get it.
“But I was also at a point to where I was truly … just a little fed up with going to try to hustle and find partners to go execute at your highest level you and your race team could on certain weekends. A 25th, 26th, 27th [place] result was the best you can get out of that, and it wasn’t really fun for anybody.”
Enter MHR team owner Bill McAnally.
McAnally, an owner of four full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series entries, had just come off a prosperous year with Christian Eckes that saw a whopping four wins, 15 top fives and 22 top 10s topped with a third-place result in the series’ standings. However, when his star driver Eckes had been promoted to the Xfinity Series, he had a gap that needed to be filled in his No. 19 entry.
“I think it was around the [Las Vegas Motor Speedway] fall race,” Hemric recalled. “I had a good idea [MHR] is where I was leaning towards. … It was super intriguing to have a chance to continue the journey, but also to do it with a group that have proven themselves as winners within the Truck Series and have grown a lot within a short time.”
Yet despite Eckes’ success with the No. 19 team in recent years, Hemric doesn’t feel any pressure to replicate it. A NASCAR veteran by every measure of the word, he’s outgrown the feeling of pressure.
“I know many athletes say it, that no one puts more pressure on you than yourself,” Hemric said. “But in the grand scheme of things, those days are kind of past me from a pressure standpoint. … I know I can do it. I’ve always known I can do it. I may not have hit a 100 home runs equaling race wins, … but I don’t know what else I could have done to prove myself that I can do this.”
By returning to the Truck Series, Hemric has taken a similar path as current Legacy Motor Club driver John Hunter Nemechek, who was let go from Front Row Motorsports after one year on the Cup level in 2020 and returned back to the Trucks for two full seasons while en route to his return to the Cup level.
But unlike Nemechek, Hemric’s return to the Truck Series isn’t about starting a Cup return. He’s already been there, and he’s already done that.
“In all fairness to [Nemechek], I was there,” Hemric said. “When I got the call to go Cup racing in 2019, … I built up in my head that when I finally got the chance to go Cup racing, I was going to be able to do it as long as I wanted to do it and not for as long as they were going to let me do it, and then, eight months later, I was out of a deal.
“I made it known … I was going to come back and run Xfinity and run whatever I could with the full intention of getting back [to Cup]. But, for me, going back, winning a Xfinity Series championship, finally winning on that stage and going back Cup racing, I’ve fulfilled the journey over.”
Instead of restarting the climb back to Cup for a third time, for he and team owner Bill McAnally, this partnership is about creating a Truck Series legacy.
“That was one of mine and Bill McAnally’s first two or three phone calls we had,” Hemric said. “Bill’s been building this relationship with NAPA for 35 years, … and continually through Bill’s experience in this sport, he’s had young guys coming in and drive. He’s known it, and they’ve known that when they came to drive, they were going to be there for a year, two years, maybe less, maybe more, but their goal was to continue forward.
“When we started discussing this, I was like, ‘Man, it’s not about me coming to do this to say hey, look at me, I can still do this to give me another shot in Xfinity or Cup.’ That’s one thing we laid the groundwork for, and that was one of his main points.”
After a decade of racing nearly full-time in NASCAR, Hemric had never been able to stay with a team for longer than two years and only earned one win in the Xfinity Series finale at Phoenix Raceway in 2021. It was the one and only time he had done his signature backflip in NASCAR, and after waiting four years, he was almost out of practice and youth.
“I had a partner standing on pit road with me at Vegas,” Hemric remembered. “He’s like, ‘Can you still do [the backflip]?’ I said, ‘Well, I haven’t practice in a long time.’ I was standing in our backyard this week, and the kids were like, ‘You should practice.’
“So, I did one. I was like, ‘Well, that’s good. I guess the old knees can still do it,’ but I am getting older, and a lot of folks don’t know that I’ve had extensive knee surgeries in both of my legs.”
With the winless drought and constant unstable employment in mind, to hear that McAnally was looking for a driver that was willing to stick around for some years was music to Hemric’s ears.
“I would do this until I quit driving,” Hemric said. “The root of me being here was to be competitive week in and week out. Hopefully, as that happens, I can solidify my own legacy and be content with wherever that is.”
Building a new legacy is no easy task, especially when you have to compete with some of the talented rising starts of NASCAR on a near-weekly basis. However, five years from now, Hemric still has personal expectations not only for himself, but his new home of MHR, too.
“I would see myself as a one or more-time Truck champion with a lot of race wins,” Hemric predicted. “And hopefully with a group that’s decided to stay and build and grow together. I know it’s not going to stay the same forever, but I just want people to understand and see what Bill McAnally puts into this.”
Only one week after Hemric spoke with Frontstretch, that vision immediately began taking shape when he finally won his first career Truck race after 55 starts while at Martinsville Speedway. It was only the former Xfinity champion’s second career win across all three of NASCAR’s top three series.
And yes, he even did the backflip.
Victory backflip! pic.twitter.com/s2y8oNr7lT
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 29, 2025
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT