MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Two weeks ago at Talladega Superspeedway, John Hunter Nemechek rallied from a wreck he was caught up in to finish sixth and advance to the Round of 6. Today in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Texas Roadhouse 200 at Martinsville Speedway, there was no such rally.
Entering Turn 1 on Lap 37, Nemechek got loose and spun out. His truck spun up track before the right-rear corner made contact with the outside wall in the middle of Turns 1 and 2. The force of impact brought the right-front towards and into the wall. The rear of the truck jutted outward, while the right-front clung to the wall for a few seconds.
This single-truck incident brought out the first caution of the race.
“Soft brake pedal. I don’t know. Didn’t give any warning. It never got squishy. We were just kind of riding around, biding our time there. I dove into (Turn) 1 normal, hit the brake pedal and it went straight to the floor. Sucks for our guys. Sucks for Fire Alarm Services. We had a fast truck in race trim. I felt like we had a contending-winning truck if we could’ve got some track position. It’s early on. It definitely sucks to be out of the race this early, but we dug ourself out of one hole in the first round. Hopefully, they won’t know what hit them in Texas.”
Nemechek leaves sixth in points, 62 out of the points lead and 28 out of the Round of 6 drop zone.