(Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
DARLINGTON, S.C. — John Hunter Nemechek ended up on the wrong side of an intense battle with Kyle Larson in the closing laps of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway, finishing fifth after a last-lap crash.
Nemechek, who led a race-high 57 laps in pursuit of his third win of the season, led on a restart with seven laps to go. He got a strong jump from the bottom line with Larson, who did a one-off for Kaulig Racing, following behind him.
Over the next six laps, Larson continued to cut down the margin until he got up to Nemechek’s bumper in Turn 1 on the final lap. Exiting Turn 2, Larson got a run and the two went down the backstretch side-by-side. Larson tried to pull a slide job in Turn 3 but they made contact with each other and then slapped the fence. Nemechek pulled down and gained momentum on the bottom exiting Turn 4, but Larson hit the wall again and bounced into him, sending the No. 20 car sliding down the frontstretch and into the inside wall.
Nemechek slid back up the track and wrecked across the line to preserve a fifth-place finish. While speaking with reporters after the race, Nemechek attributed the crash as just hard racing but didn’t hinder his frustration.
“Just disappointed a little bit from the standpoint of how that ended up there. Overall, we gave it a shot and still had a shot to win off of Turn 4,” Nemechek said. “We had a really fast GR Supra all day. The pit crew was awesome, executed well on pit road all day. The strategy was great. Had a really fast race car and battling with one of the best in the sport in my opinion, Kyle Larson. It was a really great day. We will continue to work hard and continue to bring fast cars to the race track.”
(Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
Larson said that his car was out of control through Turns 3 and 4 and he suffered from damage because of hitting the wall. He also didn’t want to risk a penalty for riding the wall.
“I hit the wall there late exit about the same point where [Nemechek] was getting to me,” Larson said in his winner’s press conference. “My car had damage from the time I hit the wall a ton in the center [of the corner], so once I got off it, I’m just tugging on the wheel as hard as I can and trying to feed enough throttle to where I don’t hit the wall too early. My car — something was bent or broke because I was plowing on exit of [Turn] 4.”
While Nemechek didn’t get the win, he still maximized the weekend. He won the pole on Friday and kept his car up front all race long, finishing second in Stage 1 to Larson and winning Stage 2. He earned 51 points on the afternoon, taking the lead in driver’s points over Austin Hill.
Nemechek will dwell on the positives and look ahead to Charlotte Motor Speedway after a week off.
“Fast car, top-five to show for it when it probably should have been victory lane or second,” Nemechek said. “Hats off to all the guys at Toyota, TRD, Pye Barker Fire and Safety for what they do and this opportunity at Joe Gibbs Racing. We will win a lot more races, I guarantee you that.”
