AVONDALE, Ariz. – Daniel Hemric was getting sick and tired of being asked when he was going to get his first NASCAR win. Now he never has to answer that question again.
Hemric overcame Austin Cindric during an overtime restart to not only earn his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, but claim the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway.
“These guys right here have asked me all year how bad do you want it?” Hemric said of his Joe Gibbs Racing team. “We gave away one here in the spring. I felt like we had to give one up last week to get here. We were not going to be denied.”
In NASCAR’s winner-take-all playoff format, it not only came down to one race, but in this case it came down to one restart. Cindric and Hemric restarted on the front row for an overtime restart following a caution for a crash involving Jade Buford and Josh Williams.
Both leaders got a great restart, with Cindric on top in the preferred lane and Hemric sticking to his inside on the bottom. They stayed side-by-side for most of the lap, with Cindric edging ahead at the line as they raced under the white flag.
Going through turns one and two Cindric seemingly got the advantage and was able to clear Hemric as they exited turn two. Down the backstretch Hemric stayed right behind Cindric and as they entered turn three, Hemric saw his opportunity and pounced.
Hemric closed in on Cindric’s back bumper and gave him a light tap, which forced Cindric’s Ford up the race track. Hemric drove to Cindric’s inside and they made contact as they roared towards the checkered flag, with Hemric narrowly getting to the finish line first to take the victory and the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
“I just knew I had to be the first one to the line,” Hemric said. “I thought I let him get too much of a run off of (turn) four. We drove into (turn) one and maintained and I knew I was just close enough to not completely use him up, but…we work our asses off for an opportunity like this. This is what it’s all about.”
As for his celebration, he kickstarted it by performing a backflip off the top of his race car.
“I’ve been waiting a long damn time to do that,” said Hemric of the backflip. “I know I’ve given up a lot. People have doubted me. I’d do it all over again for a night like this.”
Cindric, who was trying to win his second-straight NASCAR Xfinity Series championship ahead of his move to the NASCAR Cup Series, was humble in his defeat.
“If everyone in the stands enjoyed it, it’s good racing,” said Cindric, whose second-place finish was enough to secure the NASCAR Xfinity Series Owners championship for Team Penske. “I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to race on such a big stage. The opportunity to race for Roger Penske and represent Ford Performance, our companies and all of our sponsors that have helped us this season. It would have been awesome to finish this out. I felt like we had a dominant race car. I felt like we did everything right. Came up a little bit short. Sometimes it’s like that way.”
While Hemric and Cindric were fighting for the win and the championship, Noah Gragson and A.J. Allmendinger had to watch from afar. Allmendinger struggled for much of the night before spinning with 20 laps left to draw a caution. He finished 14th.
Gragson also ran into trouble late when he bounced off the wall in turn two while trying to stay within striking distance of Cindric and Hemric. The contact cost Gragson several positions and he eventually finished 12th.