By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
A puncture the size of a ballpoint pen is what ruined the day at Richmond Raceway for Daniel Hemric and his No. 21 South Pointe Casino team.
Throughout the early portions of the first and second stage of the race, Hemric was in contention for the race win and the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus. However, things went south for the team in the latter stages of the second stage.
Hemric knew that something was abnormal when the car would stall only five to ten laps into the run. The young driver could feel that the tire was going down but wanted to nurse it to the stage end. However, Hemric needed only three more laps.
“We had a really fast car. Everyone on the No. 21 did a great job getting us prepared to come here and do battle. I thought we executed on our end the best we could. It wasn’t meant to be. We had a pinhole in the right front tire,” Hemric stated.
“I could feel it going down. About five to ten laps into the run, I kinda stalled out, which is kinda unnormal. We almost nursed it to the end to be only one lap down, but it came off the wheel with three laps to go in that stage.”
Hemric knew that his team was in a no-win situation due to the tire going down. When the tires came off the No. 21, the team swiftly began working on diagnosing the problem.
“They were able to pull the tread back to see where the end of a ballpoint pin would stick. It was dead center of the tire. I am glad we found something,” Hemric stated.
If the team did not find something, Hemric would have been kicking himself because he initially thought that the rub was with contact with Noah Gragson.
Despite the tire issue, Hemric is proud of the effort the organization is putting in to bring fast cars to the track each week.