NASCAR
John Hunter Nemechek Plays Cards Right, Earns 10th Xfinity Victory in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – On a nearly perfect afternoon for Joe Gibbs Racing, an Xfinity moonlighter ends up in Las Vegas victory lane. After commanding Stage 3 and leading 99 laps, John Hunter Nemechek took the checkered flag. Only running a part time Xfinity schedule this year, the Cup Series driver hopes these added laps will help him on Sunday.
Chandler Smith was the class of the field early on. The No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led every lap in Stage 1, and took Stage 2 with a last-lap pass. Being passed for the win late in this race a year ago, Smith was on a max-points run. Just behind Smith in both Stages was Nemechek, including the late Stage 2 highlight reel moment.
Despite starting the final Stage out front, Smith soon lost the top spot to JHN. Nemechek fought hard on the stage-opening restart, clearing Smith for good with 100 laps left. Smith began to slowly lose touch with his teammate over this run. This led the No. 81 team to call Smith down pit road first with 35 laps left, but his crew over-adjusted their Toyota. The wrong call by the 81 allowed the 20 to cruise out front.
After regaining the lead with 10 laps left, Nemechek built up an almost five second gap by the checkered flag. Las Vegas marks career win number 10 for the third generation star now racing on Sundays.
“Hats off to all the guys on this 20 team from Joe Gibbs Racing,” Nemechek said. “Man it’s awesome to come back out here and win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with limited starts. Our goal is to win as many as we possibly could, nothing else mattered. Congrats to Tyler (Allen), who is crew chief this year on the No. 20 car, it’s his first win as a crew chief. This is our spotter Ryan’s first win as well.”
“Have to say hello to (daughters) Aspen and Penelope back home. Sadly they’re not here to celebrate, but Taylor (wife) is. We’ll go celebrate in victory lane. Man it feels so good to win here in Las Vegas. Got some reps for tomorrow so I’m excited.”
Cole Custer just got by Chandler Smith for second in the closing laps, with both drivers narrowly beating out Austin Hill and Riley Herbst. The rest of the top-10 finishers were: AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones, and Justin Allgaier.
Xfinity cars will be back in action next Saturday from Phoenix Raceway. The Call 811 Every Time 200 will go green Saturday, March 9 at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Another track that’s been dominated by JGR, the Toyota powerhouse will aim for two straight triumphs.
Written by Peter Stratta
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