Daniel Hemric, driving the No. 31 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing, had a tough time in his first full-time season in the Cup series.
In the first three races, he finished 16th, 18th, and 19th. Then, for five races in a row, he didn’t do well, ending up 28th or worse. After finishing 20th at Texas, he fell to 31st in the standings.
But at Talladega last week, Hemric did well. He avoided the last-lap chaos and finished ninth, his best result of the year.
At Dover on Sunday, his team made a risky pit stop strategy. They stayed on the track as long as possible before their last stop for fuel. Then, a crash involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. helped Hemric stay on the lead lap and gain a lot of track position.
Because of this strategy, Hemric finished ninth again.
“It was a long day,” Hemric said. “We gave up a lot of track position early. We fell back and were kind of stuck back there. The team made a great call to just keep us in the game. We stayed out a little longer there on that last green-flag cycle stop – it was kind of like an early Christmas present to us. It got us back on the lead lap.”
While the strategy helped, Hemric’s car was also able to keep up with the top 10 as the race ended with a long 62-lap green flag run.
“It was just really rewarding for all of us on the team to put us inside the top-10 and be able to run there. We know our pace was there, it’s just a matter of getting track position,” he said. “That’s the name of the game here. I’m proud of everyone on the team.”
