LEBANON, Tenn: In his sixth start of the season for Sam Hunt Racing, Jeffrey Earnhardt was able to battle the scorching heat and a mid-race spin to earn his second top-10 NASCAR Xfinity Series finish of the season in Saturday afternoon’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway.
Earnhardt also earned his best starting position of the season when on Saturday morning in treacherous track conditions, he qualified his No. 26 Forever Lawn Toyota Supra a team-high 11th giving the team some much-welcomed confidence for the 188-lap race at the 1.33-mile speedway.
With a well-balanced race car, Earnhardt maintained a spot inside the top-15 throughout the opening two stages and looked to Stage 3 to surge forward and compete for a top-10 finish.
His progress, however, was stalled on Lap 117 when Earnhardt’s Toyota broke loose while battling Sheldon Creed for the 11th position which sent the No. 26 Forever Lawn Toyota Supra around for a lazy half-spin which ignited the race’s fourth caution.
Minimal damage to his car allowed Earnhardt to stay on the lead lap and restart 21st with 66 laps remaining in the race.
A fast car allowed the grandson of the legendary Dale Earnhardt Sr. to climb back inside the top-15 in 11 laps.
With several drivers and teams on varying pit strategies ahead of him, Earnhardt and his Allen Hart-led team would take advantage of their green flag pit stop bolting the No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota Supra back inside the top-10 with less than 20 laps remaining.
10 laps to go had Earnhardt moved into eighth and in the closing laps, he was able to advance one more position to seventh when the checkered flag flew – collecting his second top-10 finish of the season.
“It’s great,” said Earnhardt after the race of his finish. “I think any time you can get a good finish, it’s a big confidence boost, you know? Second place at Talladega, that was big. But when you come and race at a track like this it’s challenging and you come away with a good run, it’s a really big confidence boost.”
Earnhardt contributed to his success at Nashville Superspeedway to Hart and his ability to keep adjusting on the handling of his race car given the circumstances and the complexity of the race.
“Yeah, you know, Allen (Hart) and the guys they just kept dialing it in. We got a little too free there,” admitted Earnhardt of the spin in Stage 3.
“They dialed it right back in. Got us where we needed to be.”
For the 33-year-old driver, the performance at Nashville was a much-welcomed rebound from an incident at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway and a good boost of energy ahead of his next race with the Mooresville, N.C.-based team at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway next month.
“Definitely something we can build on,” sounded Earnhardt. “Really just thankful for all of the ForeverLawn guys that are out here. We had like 70 people out here this weekend that came to support us. Thankful for their support.
“Sam (Hunt, car owner), all of the guys at the shop that bust their butts to put this thing together and give us fast cars; they’ve done it all year long. Just very thankful for this opportunity and we’ll take this, build on it and go get them at Atlanta.”
The seventh-place effort is the fifth top-10 for Sam Hunt Racing in 60 overall Xfinity Series starts. Earnhardt joins John Hunter Nemechek and Brandon Gdovic as other drivers who have delivered top-10 runs for the former ARCA Menards Series East driver.
“Having such a strong finish in Nashville is a real testament to everyone working at SHR,” offered Hunt. “We work to continue moving the needle every day back home. We’ve known our capabilities all year, and I’m just so glad to see Jeffrey close a race out as strong as he did today.
“Lots of momentum back for the team, thankful for our sponsor ForeverLawn this weekend, and hungry to get to Road America next week with John Hunter (Nemechek).”
Nemechek owns the stat for the best finish by a Sam Hunt Racing driver with a third-place finish at Richmond (Va.) Raceway last September. Nashville brought the organization their third top-10 of 2022.
In addition to Atlanta, Earnhardt who earned a career-best second-place Xfinity Series finish in April at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway driving for Richard Childress Racing will also pilot a Sam Hunt Racing entry at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Fri., Sept. 16.
Additional races are possible this season with SHR but have not been officially announced by the team or driver.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
