Daniel Hemric continues to impress early in the 2025 Truck Series season, cashing in his third top 5 finish in Friday’s Blacks Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway. (Photo Credit: Declan Wayman | The Podium Finish)
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – The McAnally-Hilgemann racing squadron fired off to perfection yesterday, as Daniel Hemric wound up with a third-place run in Friday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Blacks Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway.
All four McAnally-Hilgemann Racing trucks finished inside the top 10 in the 200-lap contest, with Tyler Ankrum scoring his second career victory dating back to 2019, Jack Wood collecting his best Truck Series result in seventh, and Connor Mosack wrapping things up in ninth for his first top 10 of 2025.
Hemric began his Friday afternoon with a 17th-place qualifying effort, starting alongside Corey Day for the event.
The 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion remained quiet throughout the opening 45-lap stage, hovering inside the top 15, picking battles between Rajah Caruth and Grant Enfinger.
Hemric crossed the stripe to conclude Stage 1 in the 15th position and began to gear up for his rise to the front of the 35-truck field.
The No. 19 Chevrolet pit crew executed perfectly on pit road, allowing Hemric to leapfrog several positions on the restart to begin Stage 2.
Hemric was unable again to score any stage points, but stayed right in the wings inside the top 10, finishing 14th after 90 laps of combined stage racing.
Hemric’s pit crew yet again made a huge jump towards the front, allowing the No. 19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet Silverado to take the green flag for the final 110 laps of the race in fourth place, leading the MHR charge for the first time of the afternoon.
Daniel Hemric (No. 19) fighting for position on the track with Kaden Honeycutt (No. 45). (Photo Credit: Declan Wayman | The Podium Finish)
The Kannapolis, North Carolina driver led his first and only lap of the afternoon on Lap 116, after leading the field back to green from Ty Majeski’s spin in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 that brought out the fourth yellow of the race.
After the fifth and final caution of the day, Hemric and Ankrum played the strategy game of saving just enough fuel for the end, as both TRICON Garage teammates of Corey Heim and Gio Ruggiero were forced to service their Toyota Tundra’s in the closing 30 laps of the race, allowing for Hemric to drive up to fourth.
Hemric gained an additional spot as the field took the white flag, as Chandler Smith, while running third, ran out of gas entering Turn 1, allowing Hemric to shoot past to score the third-place effort.
“We overexecuted today without a doubt as an organization.” Said Hemric in a post-race interview with Declan Wayman of The Podium Finish.
“Some days, that’s what you have to do, we saved enough fuel in the last quarter, and we had enough, and that’s what you have to get.”
“Today, the track position was even more crucial than any of us could have predicted. All in all, there were times we were 20th, and if you put us up front, battling for the lead, we would fight for a top 2 and top 3, that’s where we have a good run. I still need to digest the race as a whole but the No. 19 team today executed as a whole.”
Hemric also commented about how the team morale at McAnally-Hilgemann Racing has expanded so far early in the 2025 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series campaign, highlighting the solid finish for Wood and Mosack, who have been on the bad luck side of things to begin the year.
“We want to get locked in (playoffs) as early as possible, we saw that with winning at Martinsville and Tyler (Ankrum) today and our teammates of Jack (Wood) and Connor (Mosack) have unloaded with just as much and more speed as we’ve had this year so today things went their way. They haven’t had a lot of things go their way this season, so it was finally cool to see it go their way. As a company, our goal is to get those other two locked into the playoffs, but just a big day for all four of our trucks inside the top 10.”
Hemric advances his place in the points standings to fourth as the Truck Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for their next race of the year on May 2nd.
