NASCAR: Daniel Hemric avoids breaking unwanted record

Daniel Hemric’s first career NASCAR Xfinity Series championship — and win — helped him avoid breaking an unwanted series record.

In his 120th career NASCAR Xfinity Series start and his 208th career NASCAR start, Daniel Hemric finally became a race winner.

And despite starting 0 for 119 at the sport’s second highest level and 0 for 207 overall, he also became a NASCAR champion.

Following a consistent regular season that saw him comfortably qualify for the playoffs, Hemric was able to work his way through the first two rounds of the postseason and secure a spot in the Championship 4.

To become the series champion, he simply needed to finish ahead of Austin Cindric, A.J. Allmendinger and Noah Gragson in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

There was a chance that he could have been crowned champion without actually winning the race, thus making him a NASCAR champion with zero career wins not only in the Xfinity Series but at any level in NASCAR.

Needless to say, this would have been a first. The only two winless champions in NASCAR history (Austin Dillon, 2013 Xfinity Series, and Matt Crafton, 2019 Truck Series) had multiple career wins to their names when they won those titles.

This particular scenario did not unfold for Hemric.

Cindric led Hemric to the green flag in an overtime restart with two laps remaining around the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) oval in Avondale, Arizona.

Cindric led the following lap to take the white flag, but it was Hemric who moved him out of the way in the final corner with the checkered flag in sight to secure the title.

With Cindric out front, it was evident that Hemric was going to need to finally break through and earn his first victory to be crowned champion.

Despite having dealt with all kinds of doubt leading up to this moment, he came through when it mattered most, and his first ever trip to victory lane was met not only with the winner’s trophy but the champion’s trophy as well.

Hemric had never been able to seal the deal before, but he had come close many times. In fact, him winning this race by a mere 0.030 seconds ahead of Cindric helped him avoid breaking an unwanted Xfinity Series record.

Hemric entered his 120th career Xfinity Series race with 10 runner-up finishes from 2017 to 2021, including three throughout the 2021 season in his first (and, at least for now, only) year behind the wheel of the #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

His runner-up finish behind John Hunter Nemechek at Texas Motor Speedway in the round of 8 last month tied Dale Jarrett’s all-time record of runner-up finishes before winning (10).

Jarrett secured 10 runner-up finishes from 1983 to 1986 before earning his first career victory at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina back in August 1986.

Had Cindric been able to hold Hemric off on Saturday night, Hemric would have broken this record with career runner-up finish number 11 — and fallen short of a championship as well.

Fortunately for the 30-year-old Kannapolis, North Carolina, who became the oldest Xfinity Series champion since Kevin Harvick won it in 2006 (rules were different regarding Cup Series driver involvement back then), things finally went his way.

The 2022 Xfinity Series season is scheduled to begin at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, February 19 with the Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. 300, and Hemric is set to be in a new car. He is set to replace the Cup Series-bound Justin Haley behind the wheel of the #11 Chevrolet at Kaulig Racing.

But first, the 2021 Cup Series champion is set to be determined this afternoon at Phoenix Raceway. NBC is set to broadcast the season finale live beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET, so start your free trial of FuboTV today!