While chaos ensued behind him, John Hunter Nemechek used the final restart at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to his advantage and claimed his fourth win of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season during overtime on Saturday afternoon.
The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished .424 seconds ahead of polesitter Chandler Smith.
“Just hats off to this whole 20 team, and everyone that works on this Joe Gibbs Racing Persil Toyota GR Supra,” said Nemechek, who led 137 total laps at the 1.058-mile track. “We’ve clicked from almost day one. We’ve been consistent all year. Just time to keep clicking off all of these victories.”
Behind the duo, on lap 205 of 206, Sheldon Creed and Cole Custer tangled on the frontstretch, also collecting Riley Herbst and Josh Williams. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sammy Smith capitalized on their competitors’ misfortune and finished inside the top five.
“We definitely have some work to do with this package,” said Hill, who trails points leader Nemechek by 33 points in the Xfinity Series standings. “For us to salvage a third-place finish, with us not having that great of a car, we’ll take it and move on.”
Nemechek, who also won last weekend’s Alsco Uniforms 250 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, is the first Xfinity Series driver to win back-to-back races this season.
The 26-year-old North Carolina native was up front much of the way during the Ambetter Health 200, allowing him to miss several big wrecks throughout the race, including nine-car crash following a restart at lap 70, a three-car spin in turn one on lap 196 that led to the green-white-checkered finish and the two-car collision between Creed and Custer just after he took the white flag, leading to his victory under caution.
JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier won the first stage, while Smith won the second stage.
At the checkered flag, Allgaier, Jeb Burton, Williams, Brett Moffitt and Brandon Jones completed the top 10.