By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
The GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was a wild up and down day for John Hunter Nemechek.
The NASCAR Cup Series rookie-of-the-year contender brought out the first caution for an incident. On lap 96, Nemechek’s No. 38 Death Wish Coffee Ford Mustang suffered a flat tire. The car broke loose as the Mooresville, N.C. native fought for control.
Nemechek masterfully spun the car to the inside, away from the pack. He looped the car into the infield, and miraculously his splitter did not dig into the grass. The Front Row Motorsports driver didn’t lose a lap and limped back around before changing tires.
On the final restart, Nemechek lined up 13th. The chaotic jockeying for position saw a wreck in the back of the pack on the final lap. With no caution, Nemechek followed Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney into the tri-oval. With the checkered flag in sight, the trio were three-wide.
Blaney collided with Jones, sending the No. 20 Sports Clips Toyota Camry into Nemechek. The No. 20 and No. 38 both slammed the wall as Blaney took the victory and Aric Almirola spun to the inside. The loss of momentum dropped Jones to fifth and Nemechek from third to eighth by the time he crossed the line.
“We had a really great run in our No. 38 Death Wish Coffee Ford Mustang today,” explained Nemechek. “I really thought we had a shot at it at the end there, but I’m still proud of our entire team’s efforts. When we fired off, we were kind of tight, and then we had that tire go down in the second stage, but we managed to come back from it and battled into the top 10 by the end.
“I wish we would have won that thing, but a P8 finish at Talladega is still good for us and I want to thank everyone on the team for their support. I’m looking forward to giving Death Wish Coffee another chance at the checkered flag at Pocono.”
Despite the chaotic nature of Talladega, the race was relatively tame with few incidents. Nemechek dodged the wrecking Chase Elliott to keep his nose clean. Otherwise, he was nowhere near any incident until the checkered flag.
The eighth-place finish for Nemechek is his new career best in the Cup Series. It is also his second career top-10 finish in the Cup Series.
Despite the top-10, Nemechek is still 22nd in the points standings, 68-points behind the cutoff for the playoffs, held by Tyler Reddick. He is also 252-points behind leader Kevin Harvick.
Next for NASCAR is the doubleheader race weekend at Pocono Raceway.