NASCAR Xfinity Series: John Hunter Nemechek wins 2018 Kansas Lottery 300

John Hunter Nemechek earned his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in the 30th race of the 2018 season, the Kansas Lottery 300.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s John Hunter Nemechek is not a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series driver. In fact, he is a part-time Xfinity Series driver as well as a part-time Truck Series driver.

Nemechek entered the 30th race of the 33-race 2018 Xfinity Series and the fourth race of the three-round, seven-race playoffs, the Kansas Lottery 300, at Kansas Speedway having driven in 14 of the season’s 29 races. He had never earned an Xfinity Series victory in his career.

However, the 21-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina native changed that by winning the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Kansas Speedway oval in Kansas City, Kansas.

Nemechek, who started the race in 13th place, won the race by 5.200 seconds in his #42 Chevrolet over Richard Childress Racing’s Daniel Hemric, who started the race from the pole position and finished in second. Nemechek led a top six Chevrolet sweep of the finishing order.

JR Motorsports teammates Elliott Sadler and Tyler Reddick finished the race in third and fifth place in their #1 Chevrolet and #9 Chevrolet, respectively, while Richard Childress Racing teammates Shane Lee and Matt Tifft finished in fourth and sixth in their #3 Chevrolet and #2 Chevrolet, respectively.

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Roush Fenway Racing teammates Ryan Reed and Ty Majeski were the highest finishing Ford drivers of the race. They finished in seventh and eighth place in their #16 Ford and #60 Ford, respectively.

Chevrolet drivers took the next seven positions in the finishing order. RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg, Jeremey Clements Racing’s Jeremy Clements, Kaulig Racing’s Ryan Truex and DGM Racing’s Alex Labbe rounded out the top 12 by finishing in ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th place in their #39 Chevrolet, #51 Chevrolet, #11 Chevrolet and #36 Chevrolet, respectively.

JD Motorsports teammates Garrett Smithley and Quin Houff and Go Green Racing’s Joey Gase rounded out the top 15 by finishing in 13th, 14th and 15th place in their #0 Chevrolet, #15 Chevrolet and #35 Chevrolet, respectively. MBM Motorsports’ Chad Finchum was the highest finishing Toyota driver of the race. He finished in 16th place in his #40 Toyota.

The race featured a total of 10 lead changes among six drivers. Aside of Nemechek, who led 64 laps, five other drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Hemric, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 128 laps led, Sadler, Reddick, Tifft and B.J. McLeod. Hemric won stage one and Nemechek won stage two.

The race also featured a total of seven caution flag periods for 41 laps. Of those seven caution flag periods, six took place as a result of on-track incidents. One took place as a result of the usual ending of stage one, but the caution flag that took place at the end of stage two took place as a result of an on-track incident as opposed to stage two simply coming to an end like it was scheduled to.

By far, the most notable caution flag period of the race took place on the first lap. This caution flag period took place as a result of a multi-car crash that took four of the round of 8 playoff drivers out of contention. These drivers were Christopher Bell, Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer and Austin Cindric. The wreck began when Allgaier ran into into the side of Bell’s car.

Of the 40 drivers who started the race, only 27 finished it. Of the 27 drivers who finished it, only 20 finished it less than 11 laps off the lead, and of those 20 drivers, only eight finished it on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2018 Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway.

Race Results
1st – John Hunter Nemechek
2nd – Daniel Hemric
3rd – Elliott Sadler
4th – Shane Lee
5th – Tyler Reddick
6th – Matt Tifft
7th – Ryan Reed
8th – Ty Majeski
9th – Ryan Sieg
10th – Jeremy Clements
11th – Ryan Truex
12th – Alex Labbe
13th – Garrett Smithley
14th – Quin Houff
15th – Joey Gase
16th – Chad Finchum
17th – David Starr
18th – JA Junior Avila
19th – Spencer Boyd
20th – Josh Bilicki
21st – Ryan Preece
22nd – Vinnie Miller
23rd – B.J. McLeod
24th – Josh Williams
25th – Ross Chastain
26th – Cole Custer
27th – Bobby Earnhardt
28th – Mike Harmon
29th – Angela Ruch
30th – Chase Briscoe
31st – Timmy Hill
32nd – Stephen Leicht
33rd – Spencer Gallagher
34th – Jeff Green
35th – J.J. Yeley
36th – Brandon Jones
37th – Christopher Bell
38th – Justin Allgaier
39th – Austin Cindric
40th – Michael Annett

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The next NASCAR Xfinity Series race is the second of three race in the second of three rounds of the playoffs, the round of 8. This race is the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, which is scheduled to take place at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday, November 3. It is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.

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