With a father, uncle and grandfather in racing, Jeremy Clements knew from an early age that he wanted to follow in their footsteps.
“Just grew a love for it very early on,” Clements told Frontstretch at Pocono Raceway. “I had a kart in the yard with my brother Jason that we would ride around. I’d be getting my dad to watch me, to grade me, just acting like I was racing in real life. I was wearing racing, NASCAR shirts to school as a second, third grader every day. Just loved it ever since then and started racing when I was seven. …
“That’s what I wanted to do my whole life, basically.”
Now 41, Clements reached a milestone at Pocono on Saturday (June 13) that was more than two decades in the making, as he made his 547th NASCAR O’Reilly Series start, tying Kenny Wallace for the most starts by one driver in series history.
But every driver’s career, no matter how short or long, can’t begin without a debut. and for Clements, race number one came at Pikes Peak International Raceway in 2003 at the age of 18 with owner Kenneth Appling.
“Looking back, I was excited, but we were so far in over our head,” Clements said. “We bought an old car, and we were here and they weren’t going to have enough cars to make that race. We had been racing some ARCA, been doing well on that, and just wanted to try, to see how we were to see how good we could do. And yeah, we just weren’t prepared. It was cool to do it, but I wish we could have been better prepared.”
On that day, Clements finished 31st and retired after a crash on lap 28.
For the remainder of the 2000s, Clements made sporadic starts between O’Reilly and ARCA Menards Series, winning a race in the latter at Nashville Superspeedway in 2007. After competing in the majority of the 2010 O’Reilly season with Johnny Davis Racing, Clements became a full-time owner/driver in his familiar No. 51 starting in 2011.
His decision to become an owner/driver was influenced in part by how much it costed to compete with powerhouse teams.
“I had done some practice/qualifying stuff for Joe Gibbs when Kyle Busch and Joey Logano were racing for their teams in ’08, ’09,” Clements said. “I sat in their office and heard how much it was to drive those cars. It was impossible for me to get that kind of funding. The opportunity was there, just never had the big funding behind me to put me in the seat. So this was the next best option. I’d always had my own race team, so just keep on going that route because it was way cheaper to do it.
“Obviously you’re not going to be as competitive by no means, so that’s frustrating. But just thought maybe we could put together some good finishes together and maybe get recognition and maybe get me in a good seat, but it’s tough.”
Moving up to O’Reilly from ARCA made financial sense as well.
“(O’Reilly’s) a great place to be,” Clements said. “We moved from ARCA to here and we were running up front in ARCA, but the payout was just terrible, so you couldn’t even win and sustain it. We had to make a financial decision, like we want to keep racing, we need to go this route. This was the best series that we could afford that would keep us afloat.”
At no point has the journey been easy. Instead, it’s been a grind to survive and thrive that never stops.
“In 2011, we switched to the new car, and we were racing the whole season with two cars,” Clements said. “That was extremely tough. You’re trying to piece it together year by year. Get better equipment, better cars, try to get more people. We’re racing, we’re all riding in the hauler. Like it was tough, we were doing everything we could to race and did that for a number of years. …
“Just trying to see what can make us better but not go under. I’ve seen a lot of comers and goers in this sport. They come in and they’re here for a season or two and then they’re gone. I can see why, it’s very easy to sink the ship.”
But Clements has persevered, and for 16 years, he has called the O’Reilly Series home. All his hard work was rewarded with his first O’Reilly win at Road America in 2017, and he returned to victory lane for a second time at Daytona International Speedway five years later.
Flash forward to the present day and he’s tied the all-time O’Reilly starts record, all while sporting a “passing the torch” paint scheme honoring the soon-to-be-former record holder once Clements makes start 548 at San Diego on Saturday (June 20).
“We were wanting to do something to honor Kenny,” Clements explained. “He’s had this record for 10 years. …
“We looked at maybe doing a throwback scheme of his car that race, but that didn’t really work out. So then, just talking to my designer, Michael Miceli, he does an amazing job with all our paint schemes, and he came up with this idea. …
“I think it’s an awesome looking scheme. we’re wanting to honor Kenny, and I love Kenny Wallace; great, funny awesome dude, great racecar driver.
Wallace gave his seal of approval.
“I texted him once it got made and sent it his way, and he was like, ‘man, that’s badass,'” Clements said.
Now that Clements is tied for the starts record and will take sole possession of it this weekend, he has no limit on how high he wants that total to go.
“I don’t really have a forecast for any of that,” Clements said. “I just love racing, getting to do what I want to do, which is racing. I don’t really see stopping it anytime soon as long as I can keep the car funded and my butt in it.”
Assuming he runs every race and the O’Reilly schedule stays at 33 races a season, Clements would reach start 600 in spring 2028, start 700 in spring 2031 and start 750 in summer 2032. There’s no telling how high he’ll take that number now that he has it, but every start he makes will be a new record from here on out.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
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