In a race decided by several late race cautions, Daniel Hemric survived a variety of incidents to score a victory in the Federated Car Care 100 Southern Super Series event at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.
The victory was his fifth in the Deep South Super Late Model tour and came as a result of his uncanny ability to conserve tires throughout the course of an entire race. Hemric started on the outside pole and quickly fell back to eighth, where he would run throughout the first two thirds of the event.
Hemric was also the beneficiary of several late race cautions — including two involving the most dominant cars of the day, which allowed him to catch up to the leaders and battle with them over the final 10 lap stretch.
Once given track position, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rookie was unstoppable and cruised away from Casey Roderick and Donnie Wilson for his first Late Model victory of the season.
It was also his first career victory at the storied and historic track just outside of Music City USA.
“Conserving was hard,” Hemric said. “I was worried when I was running eighth or ninth late and it didn’t look like we were going to get a caution so we had to start going.
“I didn’t know if we had saved enough once we did get those cautions. But we did and this Carswell Motorsports Chevrolet was really good. I don’t get to go short track racing as much as I used to so it was fun to race here and finally win at Nashville.”
Roderick settled for second after posting the fastest time in time trials. With his second place finish, he moves into second in the championship standings behind Texan Casey Smith.
“It was just one of those deals where I thought he [Hemric] was better in one set of corners and I was better in another,” Roderick said. “I know John was upset about that last restart, but from my vantage point he just came down on me on that restart. His tires were spinning. I just wanted to make the best move at that point so I went for the spot to his inside.”
The course of the entire race perhaps changed on lap 79 when a race leading Augie Grill got into the back bumper of Allen Karnes. Grill had been stuck behind the 47 for several laps and Grill was getting frustrated at being unable to put the veteran one lap down.
Grill finally put the bumper to Karnes, causing second place John Hunter Nemechek to pile into the back of Grill, ultimately sending the No. 112 hard into the Turn 2 wall. Nemechek would assume the lead while Grill was unable to finish.
The complexion of the race again changed on a lap 91 restart when Nemechek appeared to spin his tires on the restart, allowing third place Casey Roderick to get under the No. 8 Chevrolet. The duo made contact, sending Nemechek sideways in front of the field. Kyle Grissom had nowhere to go but into Nemechek and neither driver would finish the race.
Hemric was shot out of a cannon on the final restart on lap 191 and cruised to victory just ahead of Roderick and Wilson. Casey Smith and Garrett Jones completed the top-5.
- Daniel Hemric
- Casey Roderick
- Donnie Wilson
- Casey Smith
- Garrett Jones
- Hunter Robbins
- Bret Holmes
- Will Gallaher
- Jeremy Pate
- Johnny Brazier
- Harrison Burton
- Cory Roper
- Bubba Pollard
- Daniel Keene, Jr.
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Kyle Grissom
- Brandon Johnson
- Allen Karnes
- Cecil Chunn
- Anderson Bowen
- Spencer Wauters
- Augie Grill
- Chuck Barnes, Jr.
- Gus Dean
- Chuck Tuck
- Joseph Meyer
