Jeremy Clements Impresses Early at Indy Before Pit Issues End Victory Bid

INDIANAPOLIS — It certainly was not the ending of the day NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts team owner Jeremy Clements was hoping for at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

After finishing 37th, three laps down, Clements could only wonder what could’ve been because the beginning of the July 25 afternoon started off wonderfully.

The Jeremy Clements Racing crew qualified fourth, and with a starting position like that at a venue where track position means more than anything, it was looking at least contending for a finish up front.

Not only did it contend, Clements’ No. 51 Chevrolet actually drove up, led laps and won the first stage of the race, an impressive feat for a team that has only won one other stage in its existence.

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. Clements’ No. 51 came to pit road during the first stage break in the lead and came out eighth. Being stuck behind dirty air, the No. 51 struggled and plummeted through the field.

“I’d have to have a longer run to manage it or clean air,” Clements told Frontstretch. “And we’re trying to tighten this up, but just didn’t get it where I need to when we’re in traffic to battle harder, so if you lose your track position, it’s about impossible to get it all back.

“We’re just mired in 20th or so because of our bad pit stop.”

To make matters worse, the next pit stop didn’t make things any better. Clements had already fallen to near 20th place, but another bad stop put the No. 51 even further out of contention.

“We lost eight spots every pit stop,” Clements said. “And this package we have, it’s so hard to pass. … So we just struggled on pit road and got me back there in the hornet’s nest, and then you’re just fighting all you can, and our car was a little too loose. When I was up front, I could manage it, but man, when I got back there with all that dirty air couldn’t manage it. Then it was tough to battle. Guys put it on my door and I’d about lose it.”

But right after that is when it went from bad, to worse, to horrible. Clements’ Chevrolet had voltage issues at the end, prompting the team to make unscheduled pit stops.

Despite a fast start and a stage win, Clements ended the 100-mile event three laps down.

“We just started running low on voltage after stage two, and I turned everything off I had,” Clements recalled. “It was dying quickly, and I didn’t know if it was affecting our speed.”

Despite the poor result, however, Clements led nine laps before the end of the day. It may not seem like much, but it was actually the most laps the team has led in the entirety of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

So at least there’s a small silver lining.

“Yeah, that’s cool,” Clements admitted. “I mean, it really is. We had a fast Chevy, and it’s awesome to pull away, and I wish they’d waved the checkered flag right then and it’d been over, but I’m kidding. It’s just awesome to have that good of a Chevy and show them what we can do.

“But we’ve got to fix our mistakes with the battery, whatever’s going on there, and on pit road. We fix that stuff, we can contend with these guys.”