AVONDALE, Ariz. – Richard Childress Racing (RCR) driver Daniel Hemric didn’t contend for the win in Saturday afternoon’s DC Solar 200.
In fact, one of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ most popular drivers didn’t even finish inside the top-five.
However, the Kannapolis, N.C. native posted his second consecutive top-10 finish putting his No. 21 team on a solid foundation heading into the final leg of the West Coast Swing next Saturday.
Continuing his trend of qualifying inside the top-10 thus far in 2018, the sophomore driver qualified his No. 21 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet eighth on Saturday morning.
From the drop of the green flag, Hemric began his climb. At the end of Stage 1 and the first red flag for inclement weather, Hemric has muscled himself to fifth in the rundown.
Using strategy at the end of Stage 2, Hemric collected crucial Playoff points by finishing second but had to make the roar from the back to the front during Stage 3 after pitting under yellow and restarting 16th.
Even though his rise through the field over the final stretch included a green-flag pit stop, Hemric led the Richard Childress Racing brigade with a sixth-place result.
While still looking for that elusive first career Xfinity Series win, Hemric heads to Auto Club Speedway next weekend with a sense of optimism about the start of the year with his Danny Stockman-led team.
“I’m proud of the effort of this team,” Hemric said after the race. “We’re doing what we need to be doing, and that is putting solid days together. If we keep doing that we’ll find ourselves in position sooner rather than later.”
Despite two lengthy delays in the action because of an uncharacteristic rainstorm in the Sonoran Desert, Hemric left ISM Raceway collecting a race-high 15 stage points putting Hemric fifth in the series standings after four races.
Hemric said the team’s strategy calls throughout the race paid off for the most part.
“We were playing our cards the best we could to maximize our stage points today,” Hemric said of their race gambles. “We put ourselves in position to race for the win at the end of the second stage but lost some track position when we had to pit after that and restarted about 16th.”
With his second consecutive sixth-place result, Hemric craved more from his third start at ISM but also realized he couldn’t be greedy either.
“We showed the strength of this South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet by being able to drive back into the top five,” he said. “I had to abuse the front tires to do that. I thought we would be in good shape, but it just started fading there at the end.”
Hemric’s third straight top-10 finish in Phoenix elevated the 2017 Championship 4 contender from 11th to fifth in the championship standings, 21 points behind fourth-place runner Christopher Bell.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
