John Hunter Nemechek dominated Texas Motor Speedway on a hot Saturday afternoon in the Lone Star state to take home the victory in Saturday’s Speedycash.com 220. It was his fourth win of the 2021 Truck Series season and his first at Texas Motor Speedway.
Nemechek leads the driver standings with four races remaining in the regular season.
Nemechek started on the pole based on the qualifying metric system, won Stage 1, and cycled out as the leader once again in the final stage with 21 laps remaining to score the victory.
Stages 35-35-77 laps made up the 147-lap event at Texas.
Stage 1: Lap 1 – Lap 35
Three cautions slowed the first stage and two of those cautions came out for the 2020 Truck Series champion Sheldon Creed. Creed brought out the first yellow on Lap 6 when the California native spun in Turn 2 and brushed the wall causing damage to the back end of the No. 2 machine. Then, on Lap 21, he caused the yellow again after spinning the same area.
The final yellow for the stage was caused by the No. 49 of Ray Ciccarelli, who came to a stop off of Turn 2 at Lap 33. With the yellow coming out so late in the stage, Stage 1 would end under yellow and Nemechek grabbed the stage victory. Austin Hill, Ben Rhodes, Chandler Smith, Stewart Friesen, Brennan Poole, Austin Wayne Self, Derek Kraus, Todd Gilliland and Josh Berry rounded out the Top 10 finishers.
Stage 2: Lap 40 – Lap 70
Stage 2 was similar in terms of the number of cautions. On Lap 52, the No. 52 of Friesen was sent spinning sideways into Turn 2 after a bump from the No. 42 of Carson Hocevar. Then, on Lap 59, the No. 10 of Jennifer Jo Cobb came to a stop, and finally, with two to go in the stage (Lap 69), the No. 51 of Drew Dollar crashed in Turn 2 seeing an early end to his day.
Zane Smith took the stage victory as Tanner Gray, Kraus, Poole, Ross Chastain, Berry, Chase Elliott, Chandler Smith, Nemechek and Grant Enfinger completed the Top 10.
Stage 3: Lap 77 – Lap 147
The final stage saw teams using various strategies. On Lap 78, Elliott took the lead from Chastain and led through Lap 108 (39 to go) when Elliott made his final pit stop. Nemechek stayed out longer than others hoping to build a large gap between Elliott and himself.
Nemechek made his final stop 10 laps later than Elliott. He lost the lead briefly during his stop to Zane Smith but Nemechek recycled back to the lead with 21 to go. From there, he held on to a sizable lead over Elliott and won in his sixth track start at Texas Motor Speedway. Elliott, Chastain, and Austin Hill were the top five finishers.
Nemechek led five times for 64 laps en route to victory. There were seven leaders among 15 different lead changes and six cautions for 38 laps.
*Note: Niece Motorsports’ driver, Ross Chastain, who was originally scored with a third-place finish, was disqualified by NASCAR following post-race inspection. It was determined that the No. 45 entry had violated Section 20.6.2.13.a in the NASCAR Rule Book: “The throttle body must be used as supplied by the NT1 engine supplier without modification.”
As a result of the infraction, Chastain was scored with a last-place finish of 36th.
Official Results following the SpeedyCash.com 220 at Texas Motor Speedway:
- John Hunter Nemechek, won Stage 1, led 64 laps
- Chase Elliott, led 45 laps
- Grant Enfinger
- Austin Hill
- Chandler Smith
- Zane Smith, won Stage 2, led 12 laps
- Todd Gilliland, led eight laps
- Tyler Ankrum
- Tanner Gray, led seven laps
- Josh Berry
- Carson Hocevar
- Johnny Sauter
- Derek Kraus, 1 lap down
- Brennan Poole, 1 lap down
- Austin Wayne Self, 1 lap down
- Ryan Truex, 1 lap down
- Chase Purdy, 2 laps down
- Cory Roper, 2 laps down
- Tyler Hill, 2 laps down
- Matt Crafton, 3 laps down
- Dawson Cram, 3 laps down
- Kris Wright, 3 laps down
- Howie DiSavino III, 4 laps down
- Hailie Deegan, 5 laps down
- Tate Fogleman, 5 laps down
- Ben Rhodes, 6 laps down
- Spencer Boyd, 6 laps down
- Jesse Iwuji, 6 laps down
- Keith McGee, 7 laps down
- Norm Benning, 13 laps down
- Jennifer Jo Cobb, 16 laps down
- Ray Ciccarelli, OUT, Brakes
- Drew Dollar, OUT, Crash
- Stewart Friesen, OUT, Crash
- Sheldon Creed, OUT, Crash
- *Ross Chastain, led five laps – Disqualified, relegated to a last-place finish
Up Next: The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to Nashville Superspeedway for the first time since 2011 on Friday, June 18, live on Fox Sports 1 and MRN Radio at 8 p.m. ET.
