John Hunter Nemechek Dominates, Survives NASCAR Overtime for Second Consecutive Win

(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

LOUDON, N.H. — John Hunter Nemechek led 137 laps and outdueled Chandler Smith in NASCAR Overtime to win Saturday’s Ambetter Health 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Nemechek’s second win in a row leads the series with four in the 2023 season and is the sixth of his Xfinity career.

“This is one of the first weekends where we’ve had no issues, no mistakes, not had to overcome anything,” Nemechek said after the race. “I knew that we had a good enough Toyota GR Supra to hold them off, but at the same time, when it comes down to restarts, anything can happen.”

Nemechek qualified his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing machine second on Friday but later admitted the team struggled in the pre-race sessions. He led for the first on Lap 19 while racing Justin Allgaier, but despite leading 67% of the laps, Nemechek didn’t win either stage.

Allgaier ended up winning Stage 1, but during the pit cycle under yellow, he slid through his pit stall and the team picked up a penalty for servicing the car outside of the box. The team originally contested the penalty, but upon review, the tire changers began hitting lugnuts while the car was not in the box.

On a Lap 72 restart, the field got stacked up and several cars, including Allgaier, crashed on the frontstretch. He suffered rear-end damage but maintained minimum speed and finished sixth, despite some discrepancies with late-race scoring.

(Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)

“Just really aggravated with how the race ended,” Allgaier said. “The calls on some of the timing lines and all that — you work your guts out all day to get back up there, just all to have it taken away for no reason. Pretty frustrated, pretty aggravated.

“This is like the fourth time that they just keep giving spots away, and it always seems to fall on us.”

Meanwhile, Nemechek controlled the entire second half of the race. He led from Lap 107 to Lap 150 when he pitted for the final time and got it back on Lap 164 and kept it.

Parker Retzlaff spun out with 10 laps to go, creating a high-intensity restart with just four circuits remaining. Sam Mayer went around in Turn 1 and collected Joe Graf Jr. and Austin Dillon on the restart, creating NASCAR Overtime for the second consecutive week.

Nemechek lined up on the top lane and got a great launch, propelling himself ahead by multiple car lengths. He kept the mindset simple: don’t mess up.

“I just got good launches,” Nemechek said of the late restarts. “I tried to prep everything that I knew how to do and tried to get out of the restart zone as best as I could. The bottom line was playing games for sure. Trying to roll speed as the bottom doesn’t take off quite as good here compared to the top, so just had to overcome all of that.”

After Allgaier suffered his penalty, Nemechek raced Chandler Smith, who wound up second, for most of the afternoon. Smith got transported to the infield care center after the race for heat exhaustion and was checked and released.

Stage 1 Results:

1. Justin Allgaier
2. John Hunter Nemechek
3. Cole Custer
4. Chandler Smith
5. Josh Berry
6. Brandon Jones
7. Austin Dillon
8. Sam Mayer
9. Daniel Hemric
10. Austin Hill

Stage 2 Results:

1. Sammy Smith
2. Parker Retzlaff
3. Sheldon Creed
4. Josh Williams
5. Brandon Jones
6. Justin Allgaier
7. Joe Graf Jr.
8. John Hunter Nemechek
9. Austin Dillon
10. Chandler Smith

Ambetter Health 200 Results