Jeremy Clements survives post-midnight melee at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Jeremy Clements was in disbelief when he realized he won at “Day-freakin-tona” just before 1:30 on Saturday morning.
After a six-caution final stage and the third attempt at overtime, the No. 51 Chevrolet survived the mayhem and moved out to the lead as the wrecking continued on the backstretch.
With a push from Sage Karam--and then Timmy Hill--Clements extended his lead and held on for this first win at Daytona International Speedway.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Clements said after scoring his second career Xfinity Series win. “What the hell? We won?”
Clements didn’t have the fastest car. That would be Noah Gragson, who led 52 laps before he was wrecked in a chain reaction incident on Lap 111 when Clements gave AJ Allmendinger a push that sent Gragson spinning into the field. Eight cars were collected in the incident which sent the race into overtime.
Austin Hill had the lead but experienced electrical issues under caution. When the race returned to green, Hill dropped below the apron and a battle ensued with Clements ending up victorious.
The 37-year-old Spartanburg, South Carolinian’s second victory came five years to the day of his first series win at Road America. But this victory elevated Clements from 16th to eighth in the standings.
“Oh my god, I tried to be aggressively cautious and it worked for once,” Clements said.
Timmy Hill finished second, 0.242-seconds behind Clements. Allmendinger finished third followed by Brandon Brown and Karam, who scored a career-best fifth. Only 15 cars remained on the lead lap at the finish.
After a nearly three-hour rain delay, the Xfinity competitors drove their cars to pit road and rolled off to start the Wawa 250. The first stage was slowed by two cautions. Sammy Smith lost control of his car off of Turn 4 on Lap 15. The race restarted on Lap 20 but the yellow waved again two laps later for debris. Ty Gibbs won the first stage on Lap 61.
Stage 2 went caution-free despite Sheldon Creed being knocked out of the pack just before the green-white-checkered. Gragson grabbed the stage win on Lap 61. The race returned to green on Lap 65. And after midnight, the Xfinity field let it all hang out. Caution 5 occurred when Riley Herbst blew a tire on the backstretch and the mayhem escalated from there. On Lap 83, Creed was turned by John Hunter Nemechek. Joe Graf Jr., and Brandon Brown were also involved.
Midnight indeed proved to be the bewitching hour as the cautions kept coming. On Lap 99, an eight-car wreck ensued on the front stretch after Gragson turned Daniel Hemric to send the race into the first overtime.
Before the field completed a lap, Brown got squirrelly and Herbst plowed into the No. 68 Chevy to trigger a 13-car wreck. After the smoke cleared from the 10th and final caution on the backstretch, Clements executed a solid restart and held off Hill for the win.
“We survived that big wreck back there,” Clements said of the first overtime melee. “It was like a ‘Days of Thunder’ wreck.
“Then I was like, ‘If we can just keep up with these guys, it’ll be a good day—top five and bring this car home in one piece.’ But, wow! This is incredible.”
Ryan Vargas finished a career-high sixth with Ty Gibbs, Alex Labbe, JJ Yeley and Kyle Sieg completing the top 10.
Allmendinger retains the points lead by 58 over Gibbs.
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