RICHMOND, Va. – Daniel Hemric is embracing the busiest weekend of his NASCAR career.
From competing in Friday night’s ToyotaCare 250 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as one of four eligible Dash4Cash drivers – to the pressure of competing in your first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race the following night – you can say that Hemric may be feeling pressure.
But, if Hemric is feeling pressure – he isn’t showing it.
Armed with two competitive Chevrolet Camaros prepared by Richard Childress Racing, Hemric is set to take one race at a time before turning his attention to making a splash in the first of his two planned Cup starts, Richmond and the newly created Charlotte Roval in the fall.
Hemric is still eyeing his first NASCAR National Series victory since bursting onto the scene full-time in 2015 – but while that elusive checkered flag will likely come sooner rather than later, the 27-year-old is determined to make his first weekend of double duty competition a successful one.
‘There is definitely a lot going on, to say the least. I have a newfound respect for those guys who do double duty every week. It’s been a lot to take in,” said Hemric. “It’s been a good time and a great problem to have trying to figure out how to get from one place to the next in the manner that you need to. It’s been fun. I think our No. 21 South Point Hotel Casino Chevrolet has been good since we got here.
“We’ve been trying to fine-tune on it to figure out what we’ve got to do to try to make sure we have a shot at the end of tonight’s race to run for the Dash 4 Cash and hopefully be able to help not only ourselves, but a local non-profit organization that will receive $10,000 from Comcast and Xfinity and help those families and everybody that’s going to benefit from that and be able to reach internet essentials and stuff they’ve got to have.
“That’s cool. And, on the other side of it, the Cup car. I just got out of it for the first time. It’s been a lot of fun to be able to feel the differences. You can simulate and do all the stuff you want to do to prepare for a moment like this, but there’s nothing like doing it in real time.”
In real time, Hemric grabbed the attention by putting his No. 8 Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff sixth quickest in the second practice, but for the Kannapolis, N.C. native, his focus with the Cup car isn’t necessarily about speed – but rather comfort and the ability to progress, something he experienced during practice on Friday.
“So, I’m having a lot of fun,” added Hemric. “Those guys have done a great job with our No. 8 Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff Chevrolet to allow us to unload and make me feel comfortable and let me go through practice and make changes and do the stuff you need to do in feeling it all out for the first time.
“I’m just trying more than anything else to just enjoy the weekend.”
Hemric admitted Friday that it would be normal to think he would be nervous with all the anticipation set at one of NASCAR’s premier short tracks. Whether it’s scoring a $100,000 payday or exceeding the expectations in your Cup debut – but the former Late Model standout says he’s been calmer than he thought.
“Heck, I’m 27 years old, right? So, it’s 22 years in the making to try to figure out how to get to this stage. I don’t know exactly how I feel,” he explained. “I thought I’d be a little more nervous than what I’ve felt. But, I think between getting in the Xfinity car and having time on the race track, and then just running straight over and getting in the Cup car has made the transition as easy as possible.
“And by Lap 4 or 5 on the race track, it was like okay, I need more front tire. I need more rear grip. I need all the basic stuff you try to ask out of a race car as a driver. Think that’s helped to calm the nerves and staying busy has kept all that stuff kind of in-check as well.”
Securing second in the championship standings after seven races, Hemric would not only like to win Friday night’s second round of Dash4Cash and accelerate him to the penultimate round next Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway – but propel his Richard Childress Racing team into the Xfinity Series playoffs with his first career victory.
Knowing that his team led by crew chief Danny Stockman has made significant gains over the past 14 months or so, Hemric’s goals on both sides of the fence seem to be reasonable – and obtainable.
“First off, talking about tomorrow’s Cup debut, I think coming here, I wanted to first off get through practice with no issues. I was trying to be smooth and trying to be solid. And I felt like we’ve done that,” he mentioned.
“But in the race, I think if we can get a decent qualifying position, I’d like to be able to see ourselves at the end of 400 laps being able to compete inside the top 25 or top 20. I think if we can do that as a group with only being a one-off race right here, obviously knowing we’re going to come back at it in the fall at a road course, but it’s tough to do. It’s tough to bring guys out of the shop and know what the expectations are.
“That’s why I say we’ve got to take it a step at a time. That’s what we’ve done do far. I think if we can run inside the top 20, we hit a home run.”
As for Xfinity, “I think we’ve done all the right things as a team to be that much better every single week,” he sounded. “As we’ve done that, that’s put us in a situation where we’re leading more laps, we’ve got more speed through practice and qualifying. When you do that, that’s what you have to do in order to even deserve to win races.
“I don’t want to win races off of fuel mileage. At this point I’ll take whatever I can get, but what we’re doing is allowing us to win when we do win, to win on speed; and that’s something I’m proud of to see the organization take that turn.
“And I think we’re still that much off, but we’re close enough now to kind of I guess pounce on somebody else’s mistakes and we’ve done a good job of putting ourselves in that position to take that chance if we’re put in that situation.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
