HOMESTEAD, Fla. – It was better than last November at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway for Daniel Hemric, but it wasn’t enough Saturday in the Ford EcoBoost 300 to see the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular take home the championship crown.
His outgoing personality and ability to show up at the end of the race circled Hemric as an opportunist to steal the thunder from Championship 4 favorites Christopher Bell and Cole Custer, but in the end, Tyler Reddick our dueled them all and claimed the 2018 championship crown.
“Really from the start of the weekend, we just struggled to make speed, that 80 percent mark on the race track or ride around the fence,” said Hemric after the race. “Once we realized, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do.”
Despite not winning a race in the second-tier NASCAR national series division, Hemric could have done what his fellow RCR teammate Austin Dillon did in 2013 —- winning the series championship without winning a race.
On Saturday though, that would haven’t been good enough. The players were up front and stayed there.
Christopher Bell, Cole Custer and Tyler Reddick all spent their time at the front of the field and Hemric’s No. 21 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet at times boasted fast lap times and a competitive car – but when it came time to execute, Hemric finished fourth – and claimed third overall in the championship fight.
Hemric started the race 10th, the worst of the Championship 4 – but climbed to second at the end of Stage 1.
With track position crucial, Hemric appeared to be in a prime position to attack.
But a slow pit stop plummeted him through the field for the start of Stage 2. Despite the deficit, he was able to climb back to fourth by the end o Stage 2.
Once Stage 3 began, Hemric settled inside the top-five, but with a green flag pit stop looming, crew chiefs were put in a position to make a call that would either win or lose them a championship.
Crew chief Danny Stockman Jr. elected to keep his driver on the track longer than two other of his Championship4 rivals – a decision that left too much ground to be made up once pit stops cycled out.
Praying for a late race caution that never materialized, Hemric had to settle for a fourth-place finish, third best among the championship contenders.
“About 20 laps into the run I thought our car would really, really come on,” said Hemric. “I thought it was really going to pay off for us, but whenever we went to that next to last green flag run, and I saw the 9 car was the first one to pit, it was borderline like if you don’t pit within a lap of that, then you’re committed to run a long time.”
The Kannapolis, N.C. native said he appreciated the risk that Stockman took – hoping a caution would come and potentially turn the Championship 4 race upside with Hemric benefiting the most.
“You know, I applaud Danny Stockman for at least making a gutsy call to try to stretch it as long as we could, hoping a caution would come out,” he said. “It never did, and we got to a point where we had to pit, and by that point, we had lost, I don’t know the numbers exactly, but probably at least nine to 12 seconds to the leaders as early as they pitted.
“Just not ideal. Just cautions and stuff didn’t fall the way we needed them to give ourselves a shot, but I thought we did a good job of making our race car the best we could throughout the night, and just didn’t have enough.”
Despite the sorrow, the 27-year-old will try and put the Homestead defeat behind him and concentrate on 2019, where he’ll take the reins of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
“It was behind me 20 minutes ago,” he said. “You know, I’m happy to know what’s on the horizon for me, and because knowing what was ahead of me, I was able to a hundred percent focus on the task at hand over the course of the last couple weeks in the playoffs and wasn’t lack of effort on anybody’s part why we didn’t obtain the goal that we set out to do 33 races ago.
“Proud of how far this race team has come, how far this organization has come on the Xfinity side of things, and to know that myself and my group of guys have been a huge part of getting it to where it’s at.”
When asked about the opportunity to compete in the Xfinity Series at least on a partial schedule next year, Hemric said there were not any immediate plans – but said if the opening came, he would accept.
“I told Richard (Childress, owner) I’ll race as much as he’ll let me or put me in one,” sounded Hemric. “I don’t have anything set in stone or a schedule by any means, but if we can find the right partners to step up and give me a shot to run a couple races, I’ll run whatever the max is if we have cars to do it.
“I think just racing is good, period. You ask any racer, right, he’d run a wheelbarrow if he could in a race. Just driving something I think is a benefit, let alone having an opportunity to be on the racetrack that much more any given weekend.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
