John Hunter Nemechek scores 3rd Truck win in 2021 with NCEL 200 victory

After a long winless dry spell that lasted a whopping three races, John Hunter Nemechek is back in Victory Lane. Although GMS Racing‘s Sheldon Creed and Zane Smith won the first two stages, the points leader dominated the final stage en route to his third win of the season in Friday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Although practice was held earlier in the day (led by fellow Toyota driver Austin Hill with Nemechek in second), qualifying was cancelled due to rain and the grid was set by formula. Consequently, last week’s winner Todd Gilliland started on the pole ahead of Creed.

Creed led the entire, caution-free first stage en route to the segment win. Gilliland, Nemechek, Hill, Smith, Tyler Ankrum, Derek Kraus, Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, and Hailie Deegan rounded out the top ten.

Nemechek took the lead early in the second stage and led until Tanner Gray spun and was impacted by Bret Holmes for the caution. Creed fell victim to his own incident when he collided with a loose Gilliland, sending him into the wall and a spin before being hit by GMS team-mate Chase Purdy. The Creed wreck set up a one-lap dash to the finish that Smith won ahead of Hill, Ty Majeski, Kraus, Ryan Truex, Crafton, Carson Hocevar, Stewart Friesen, and Nemechek.

The final stage began with Nemechek once again in front. On lap 116, during green-flag pit stops, Crafton sped down pit road due to smoke; on the track, Trey Hutchens cut a tyre and hit the wall. Johnny Sauter and Drew Dollar attempted to race by him but there was insufficient room to squeeze by, resulting in the two slamming into Hutchens and shearing Sauter’s right side off.

The ensuing caution raised great concern from fans and media as safety crews had a prolonged response to Sauter while NASCAR elected to keep the race under yellow instead of switching to red-flag conditions.

“At the exact time the 14 (Hutchens) had its incident, the 88 (Crafton) was smoking and speeding down pit road,” explained NASCAR. “The focus was on that and whether there was any oil on the track that needed cleaning to avoid any further incidents. Once the collision occurred with the 13 (Sauter), we threw the caution.”

The race resumed on lap 125 as Nemechek continued to lead. Despite a concerted effort by Hocevar, he could not catch Nemechek as he stormed off to his series-leading third win of the year. It marks Toyota’s eighth victory in ten races in 2021.

“I completed two laps and wrecked on lap three (in practice),” Nemechek commented. “Huge shoutout to all my guys, Eric Phillips (crew chief) and all our guys here and back at the shop. The pit crew pretty much won the race tonight I feel like on pit road. We were able to jump some guys there after the first stage. It was so hard to pass. It was amazing. Eric did a great job making adjustments all night and I was telling him what we needed. This was our baby truck, this one has won three races for me this year and sadly, it’s going to have to get fixed with that crazy crash. […]

“(The practice wreck) might be a speed secret, I don’t know.”

Hocevar’s runner-up finish marks the rookie’s best career run to date. Majeski finished seventh in his first Truck start of the year.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	4	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
2	9	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
3	5	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	134	Running
4	11	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	134	Running
5	1	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	134	Running
6	23	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	134	Running
7	31	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	134	Running
8	15	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Toyota	134	Running
9	3	16	Austin Hill	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	134	Running
10	6	21	Zane Smith	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	134	Running
11	22	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	134	Running
12	16	40	Ryan Truex	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	134	Running
13	12	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	133	Running
14	8	9	Grant Enfinger	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	133	Running
15	20	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	133	Running
16	7	26	Tyler Ankrum	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	133	Running
17	13	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	133	Running
18	18	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Chevrolet	133	Running
19	19	45	Bayley Currey	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	133	Running
20	17	51	Drew Dollar	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	133	Running
21	36	41	Dawson Cram	Cram Racing Enterprises	Chevrolet	133	Running
22	25	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	133	Running
23	21	02	Kris Wright	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	132	Running
24	32	30	Danny Bohn	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	131	Running
25	27	04	Cory Roper	Roper Racing	Ford	129	Running
26	35	20	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	128	Running
27	30	34	C.J. McLaughlin	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	127	Running
28	34	33	Akinori Ogata	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet	125	Running
29	33	3	Keith McGee	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	123	Running
30	10	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	114	Engine
31	14	13	Johnny Sauter	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	111	Accident
32	38	14	Trey Hutchens	Trey Hutchens Racing	Chevrolet	108	Accident
33	37	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing	Ford	71	Suspension
34	26	23	Chase Purdy	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	59	DVP
35	2	2	Sheldon Creed	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	55	Accident
36	28	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	49	Accident
37	24	12	Tate Fogleman	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	38	Rear Gear
38	29	25	Timothy Peters	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	13	Steering