(Photo: Blake Ulino | The Podium Finish)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — After rain postponed the start of the race by three hours, Jeremy Clements survived a series of late restarts to win the Wawa 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
Clements won his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the morning of August 27 — five years to the date of his first win at Road America.
“We just won at Daytona. I’m dumbfounded, I’m shocked, I’m speechless,” Clements said after the race. “It’s incredible. There’s no words to describe it. I’m so happy to get these guys, my team, my dad and everybody a win.”
Clements stayed toward the rear of the field for most of the race and avoided damage. As the laps ticked down, several cautions happened consecutively and Clements gained more positions.
On Lap 112, Noah Gragson crashed and brought out a caution for a third NASCAR Overtime attempt. During the caution laps, AJ Allmendinger ran out of fuel and made an unexpected pit stop just a lap before the restart.
Then, race leader Austin Hill began suffering electrical issues inside the car, including his gauges and cool suit not functioning. On the restart, Hill couldn’t get up to speed and pulled off onto the apron.
Clements restarted from the inside and took a huge lead entering Turn 1 after a push from Sage Karam. But, the two split and Clements was ahead without help. Allmendinger came with a run down the backstretch but Clements blocked and maintained his position.
As he took the white flag, Riley Herbst spun and NASCAR called a caution, ending the race. Clements crossed the line first and Timmy Hill passed Allmendinger to finish second. Hill scored his best finish in 446 NASCAR national series events.
“We were the ones that survived for once,” Clements said. “I’ve had my fair share of wrecks and everything. Just to win is incredible. Hopefully, we get some help from Chevy and other people for the playoffs now since we’re in them again and we can really step up our program to try and even advance from the first round.
“I didn’t even think we had a shot [to win]. Everything went the way it should for us to win. I’m just shocked. I can’t believe it. We didn’t have a car to win if everybody survived. I couldn’t beat Allmendinger and [Hill]. Those guys were incredibly fast. Their Chevys were just stupid fast. I couldn’t keep up unless I had somebody pushing me.
“Daytona is an equalizer. You can get here and survive, be in the draft and have a shot, and we showed it tonight… I’ve had so bad luck here. It was just our time.”
Results:
STAGE 1: Ty Gibbs, Austin Hill, Sheldon Creed, AJ Allmendinger, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones, Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, Justin Haley, Ryan Sieg
STAGE 2: Noah Gragson, Anthony Alfredo, Riley Herbst, Sam Mayer, Josh Berry, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, Justin Allgaier, Myatt Snider, Ryan Sieg
FINAL: Jeremy Clements, Timmy Hill, AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Brown, Sage Karam, Ryan Vargas, Ty Gibbs, Alex Labbe, JJ Yeley, Kyle Sieg
Next
The NASCAR Xfinity Series travels to Darlington Raceway for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200. The race is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on USA Network. Justin Allgaier won the spring race.
