NASCAR
John Hunter Nemechek Takes Second-Straight Victory at New Hampshire
LOUDON, N.H. – After only leading three laps a week ago in Atlanta, John Hunter Nemechek put the field on notice in New Hampshire. The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota led a race-high 137 laps, being unbeaten on several late restarts. Now with a series leading four wins, Nemechek is the apparent title favorite as the Playoffs near.
Despite Nemechek’s domination he was shut out of both Stage wins. The opening Stage would go to Justin Allgaier, who battled back and forth against the 20. Allgaier’s run for back-to-back Loudon victories hit a speed bump after Stage 1 though. The 7 slid too far through his pit box, having to back up and fight forward for the rest of the day.
Stage 2 would see the biggest incident of the day, with a restart gone awry from the front row. After John Hunter Nemechek chose to fire off late in the restart zone, an accordion-effect stack up ensued behind him. This incident ended the days for Parker Kligerman, Ryan Sieg and Anthony Alfredo.
Split strategies for the sprint to close out Stage 2 after the carnage saw Sammy Smith pick up this win over Parker Retzlaff.
By staying out, John Hunter Nemechek retook command and left the field in the dust. When the 20 came in for a final green flag pit stop, he gave up a nearly five second lead.
The first of three late race cautions would give the top spot back to Nemechek. Even with three subsequent restarts, the 20 was perfect on each launch. This remained true for an overtime restart as well. The race ended prematurely as two front runners wrecked at the white flag, only securing an already lights-out win for Nemechek. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver now has four wins across the 2023 season, including the last two races.
“Man I am so proud of this whole 20 team and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Nemechek said. “Just thankful for the opportunity. Thank you Jack Irving, Tyler Gibbs, David Wilson and so many people at Toyota. The whole Gibbs family, Joe Gibbs especially. Wish Coy (Gibbs) was here to celebrate with us, he was a huge advocate for this to happen this year. Can’t thank him enough.”
“Man Persil Proclean looked clean on the racetrack today. I think I had our first clean race all year, so that’s really good. But hats off to all of our guys, everyone at JGR. Out Toyota was fast, that’s for sure. Taylor and Aspen aren’t here, they’re home. We’ll celebrate when we get home. A huge shoutout to all of the fans for being here. This is an amazing crowd, I love coming up here.”
“One more huge shoutout to another driver, he knows who he is. We’ve been texting quite a bit this weekend. He’s one of the masters here who may be on the pole tomorrow so good luck.”
“Just blessed to have this opportunity, I’m the lucky guy that gets to sit behind the wheel of this 20 car every weekend.”
Nemechek’s New Hampshire triumph is also the 199th Xfinity Series checkered flag for Joe Gibbs Racing. The all-time winningest team will try and chase their 200th victory next weekend.
Behind Nemechek, the New Hampshire Xfinity top-10 finishers were: Chandler Smith, Austin Hill, Daniel Hemric, Sammy Smith, Justin Allgaier, Jeb Burton, Josh Williams, Brett Moffitt and Mason Massey.
The Xfinity Series Playoff bubble battle is still incredibly close with eight regular season races left. Four drivers are separated by a race’s worth of points on either side of the cut line. Nemechek meanwhile only extends his point lead and his bonus points total with this win.
The unofficial Xfinity Playoff standings after @NHMS.#Ambetter200 #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/4I3kNsvJxR
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) July 15, 2023
The regular season continues onward next weekend from Pocono Raceway. The Explore The Pocono Mountains 225 will go green Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. John Hunter Nemechek will be going for a Tricky Triangle hat trick.
Written by Peter Stratta
Be sure to follow us on Twitter
Be sure to follow the writer on Twitter
Photo Credit to Joe Gibbs Racing via Twitter
