“Early Christmas present” helps Daniel Hemric to Dover top 10

Hemric, in his first season driving the No. 31 Chevrolet full-time for Kaulig Racing, has had a rough return to the Cup series.

After finishing 16, 18th and 19th in the season’s first three races, he went five straight races ending the day 28th or worse. After a 20th place finish the following week at Texas, he dropped to 31st in the series standings.

But last week at Talladega, Hemric was able to avoid the last lap mayhem that collected a good portion of the field at the end of the race and escaped with a ninth-place finish – his best result of year.

Then Sunday at Dover (Del.) his team played a risky pit strategy, electing to stay on the track as long as possible before making his final green flag stop for fuel and caught a break.

A caution for a wreck involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. allowed Hemric to remain on the lead lap and gain a tremendous amount of track position, as several cars that had been running up front were caught far back in the field.

From there, Hemric was able to remain in the hunt and returned with a second consecutive ninth place finish.

“It was a long day,” said Hemric, who started 14th but fell back deep in the field in the first stage. “We gave up a lot of track position early.

“Just probably got us too loose, in general, in practice going into the race with not really knowing what to expect out of this car. We fell back and were kind of stuck back there. The team made a great call to just keep us in the game.

“We stayed out a little longer there on that last green-flag cycle stop – it was kind of like an early Christmas present to us. It got us back on the lead lap.”

While a strategy play got Hemric the track position he needed in Sunday’s race, just as important was his car’s ability to keep pace with those running in the top 10 as the race ended with a 62-lap green flag run.

“It was just really rewarding for all of us on the team to put us inside the top-10 and be able to run there. We know our pace was there, it’s just a matter of getting track position,” he said. “That’s the name of the game here.

“Overall, I’m proud of everyone on the team.”