LINCOLN, Ala. — Daniel Hemric entered Friday’s (Oct. 17) race at Talladega Superspeedway two points above the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series cut line.
He leaves it in a must-win situation.
Despite having a fast truck, the NASCAR Xfinity Series champion had about everything bad that could happen occur during the Love’s RV Stop 225 before a DNF left him in 34th place. That finish puts him seventh in the Round of 8 points, 32 points below the cut line with just one race remaining before the cutoff.
A flat tire on lap 52 followed by contact from Toni Breidinger is what ultimately took Hemric out of the race, but his series of unfortunate events started on lap 5 of the race. Chandler Smith got into the back of Grant Enfinger, causing the No. 9 driver to lose control and slam into the side of Hemric before spinning and collecting more trucks.
Hemric continued on after the wreck, but he connected the incident over 40 laps later to that moment.
“The right side getting torn off on lap 6 caused it,” Hemric told Frontstretch. “I don’t know, I haven’t seen a replay, but I guess the 38 [Smith], I think, turned the 9 [Enfinger] into me, and that destroyed our truck their lap, whatever it was, early.
“And when that happened, yeah, we were playing damage control. Every single caution, [we] had to put a right rear tire on it. It was not cutting the tires down, but it was wearing through the side wall every couple of laps I’d run. So we were doing everything we could to clearance everything as much as we could.”
Still, the No. 19 truck showed speed. Hemric finished 10th in the first stage and was mixing it up near the front around the midway point of the race. But the McAnally–Hilgemann Racing team was at a tire disadvantage because of the issue, and it eventually came back to bite them.
“It was just we were out of tires, and we needed some help from NASCAR to give us more right rear tires to give us a chance to just salvage the day,” Hemric said. “Finally, we had to put one on that had already made contact with the body, and it found that same spot and cut to the sidewall tire.”
Hemric was in the middle of the pack when the tire went down, yet he didn’t lose control and the rest of the field was able to navigate their around him. That is until Breidinger got to him.
“That happened like late down the back straightaway in [turn] 3, and luckily, I was able to save it, gather it up,” Hemric said. “I was almost at the exit of [turn] 4, but I was 100 miles an hour, so off the pace to get ready to come to the pit road, and I just got smoked like 20 seconds later from somebody, so I don’t even know.
Breidinger’s No. 5 slammed into the rear of Hemric’s truck and effectively ended both of their days.
“Unfortunate, but that definitely put the icing on the top, I guess,” Hemric said. “Knocked the spoiler and the tail and all that off, so not ideal, but it makes next week pretty simple.”
Still, Hemric’s team tried to repair the truck but was not aware it was on the DVP and was ultimately parked.
“There was a little bit of a breakdown in communication,” Hemric said. “I don’t know, cut a tire down, not on DVP, come to pit road. I’m not sure if whenever whoever hit me created us to be on the DVP, but I didn’t think we’d be on DVP because the yellow didn’t come out.
“So there was a lot of stuff going on there, and actually we were sitting in our pit box. Guys were assessing the damage, and we realized the green flag cycle was about to start, so my crew chief did the smart thing and called the guys back over the wall to make sure that they weren’t on pit road during a green-flag cycle and we had to sit in the box. And then through that process I was like, ‘Hang on, is there any chance that we’re on the DVP?'”
It turns out they were.
“And then, once the green-flag cycle finished for the most part, we backed down pit road and got over here and we were told that, yeah, you were on the DVP, which is why we were done,” Hemric said.
That last part added insult to injury for the No. 19 team, as crew chief Kevin Bellicourt was called to the NASCAR hauler after for Hemric backing up on a live pit road.
When Frontstretch asked Hemric if next week at Martinsville is a must-win scenario to advance, he replied with, “Oh yeah, without a doubt.”
But the good news for Hemric is that he won in the series’ most recent trip to Martinsville, scoring his first career Truck win. In fact, he’s a fan of the situation he’s facing next week.
“That’s why you go every week, and, yeah, there’s no better place to be, in my opinion, than your back against the wall,” Hemric said. “So [I’m] ready for it.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.