HAMPTON, Ga. - Eighteen-year-old John Hunter Nemechek became the youngest winner in the history of Atlanta Motor Speedway with a thrilling victory in Saturday night’s Great Clips 200 to score his second-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win and earn a spot in the truck series chase for the championship.
Nemechek took advantage of a late race crash that took out race leader Christopher Bell, and then beat out John Wes Townley and Cameron Hayley on the final restart with two laps to go to secure the victory.
Hayley came home second, followed by Timothy Peters, Daniel Hemric and Grant Enfinger.
Nemechek, the son of longtime Sprint Cup veteran Joe Nemechek, credited his pit crew for the win.
“The pit crew won us this race. I can’t thank all those guys enough. They gave me, I want to say, 13 spots today on pit road, so I can’t thank them enough,” said Nemechek. “It’s an unsponsored truck for us again. Two times in a row in the winner’s circle. Can’t thank (crew chief) Gere Kennon, my dad, (engineer) Lonnie Rush, everyone that works on this thing, I can’t thank enough. We put a lot of hard work in with just a little bit of funding, and we can come out and win like this and contend for wins, so I can’t thank everyone enough.”
Nemechek started on the inside for the final restart and was able to pull John Wes Townley, who started on the outside line, spun his tires coming to the line.
“I was debating on the radio whether I wanted the outside or the inside line. I had restarted on the outside twice there,” said Nemechek. “Gere (Kennon, crew chief) came on the radio, he said ‘Bottom, bottom, bottom. Do not start on the outside.’ I don’t know what it is about this place, but it’s really slick on the top.”
Matt Crafton started on the pole and dominated the race early, leading 76 laps, including 72 of the first 100 laps.
Bell would work himself back to the from almost two seconds behind in fifth to the lead just as the “caution clock” expired on lap 80, but ended up sliding through his pit box on his final pit stop, falling back to fifth behind Crafton, Nemechek, Daniel Suarez and Spencer Gallagher.
On the ensuing restart with 19 laps to go, Bell fought his way inside of Suarez and was looking to take second when he hooked the right rear of Suarez, turning Suarez down into Crafton, who spun and pounded the outside wall.
Crafton ended up spinning in front of the entire field, but somehow they all managed to miss him as he slowly slid to the inside of the racetrack.
“They said the 4 (Bell) just lost it and hooked the – got the 51 (Suarez) in the right rear and just turned him dead sideways into me,” said Crafton. “It’s a long ride down the back straightaway when you didn’t know if you were going to get hit in the driver’s door. It was a pretty solid shot, but like I said hands down to NASCAR for having all these SAFER barriers and everything around this race track.”
Both Crafton and Suarez were done for the night as the red flag was brought out.
Hayley inherited the lead, but it was short lived as Nemechek fought his way past with Bell running in second. Bell continued to put the pressure on Nemechek before taking over the top spot when the leader moved up to block with 14 laps to go.
Just seven laps later, Bell’s right-front tire let go coming through turn four, sending Bell hard into the outside wall. Bell ended his race on the hook for the second straight week.
Up front, Nemechek took over the top spot with Townley taking the outside line.
On the restart with two laps to go, Townley spun the tires and plummeted through the field as Nemechek and Hayley got away clean. Hayley briefly had a shot at Nemechek as they came around to take the white flag but Nemechek pulled away to cross the stripe by more than 0.3 seconds.
Hayley ended up with his just his fifth top-five finish of his career, but gained 12 spots in the points standings to move up to 11th.
“I’m beating myself up a little bit,” said Hayley of the final restart. “It was a great run….I can’t complain about that, but I just know in the back of my head if Matt Crafton was in my truck, he could have won that. I just – I needed a run a little bit harder, but great run to start up this year.”
Peters also had a solid points night, jumping eight spots to fourth with his third-place finish despite falling back in the field after an unscheduled pit stop for a bad vibration with 35 laps to go.
“We were able to catch the vibration with our right front cording on us,” said Peters. “The pit crew did awesome not only getting me back out to where we were only one lap down, but all race long they gained us spots, gained us spots, gained us spots. For the laps on our tires and to fight back through adversity, I’ll take it.”
Parker Kligerman takes over the points lead thanks to an eighth-place finish, now leading Hemric by one point. Nemechek now sits third, followed by Peters and Tyler Young.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Atlanta Motor Speedway – Hampton, GA
Great Clips 200 – February 27, 2016
1. (18) John Hunter Nemechek, Chevrolet, 130.
2. (5) Cameron Hayley, Toyota, 130.
3. (12) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 130.
4. (9) Daniel Hemric, Ford, 130.
5. (4) Grant Enfinger #, Chevrolet, 130.
6. (7) Ben Rhodes #, Toyota, 130.
7. (2) John Wes Townley, Chevrolet, 130.
8. (17) Parker Kligerman, Ford, 130.
9. (25) Caleb Holman, Toyota, 130.
10. (11) Spencer Gallagher, Chevrolet, 130.
11. (27) Rico Abreu #, Toyota, 130.
12. (23) Austin Hill, Ford, 130.
13. (22) Tyler Young, Chevrolet, 130.
14. (21) Tyler Reddick, Ford, 130.
15. (10) Ben Kennedy, Toyota, 130.
16. (20) Austin Wayne Self, Toyota, 130.
17. (6) Cole Custer #, Chevrolet, 130.
18. (19) Garrett Smithley(i), Chevrolet, 129.
19. (24) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, 128.
20. (8) Ryan Truex, Toyota, 127.
21. (30) Timmy Hill, Chevrolet, 127.
22. (14) Justin Marks(i), Toyota, 127.
23. (29) Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, 127.
24. (26) J.J. Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 125.
25. (28) Tommy Joe Martins, Chevrolet, 125.
26. (3) Christopher Bell #, Toyota, Accident, 122.
27. (31) Carlos Contreras, Chevrolet, 122.
28. (16) Johnny Sauter, Chevrolet, 121.
29. (32) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 120.
30. (1) Matt Crafton, Toyota, Accident, 111.
31. (13) Daniel Suarez(i), Toyota, Accident, 111.
32. (15) William Byron #, Toyota, Engine, 59.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 121.15 mph.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 39 Mins, 09 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.305 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 25 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Crafton 1-6; C. Bell # 7-25; M. Crafton 26-91; C. Bell # 92-107; M. Crafton 108-111; C. Hayley 112-115; C. Bell # 116-122; J. Nemechek 123-130.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Crafton 3 times for 76 laps; C. Bell # 3 times for 42 laps; J. Nemechek 1 time for 8 laps; C. Hayley 1 time for 4 laps.
Top 10 in Points: P. Kligerman – 55; D. Hemric – 54; J. Nemechek – 52; T. Peters – 49; T. Young – 47; R. Truex – 45; B. Brown – 43; B. Rhodes # – 43; G. Enfinger # – 42; J. Sauter – 41.
