Daniel Hemric has long been a competitive driver throughout NASCAR’s top ranks. But only has one singular win to his name. An Xfinity Series win at Phoenix in 2021 that just so happened to clinch the Championship for Hemric. Love it or hate it, that’s what happened and that is what the record books will say until the sun burns out. Many have noted that Hemric was an undeserving champion and has seemed to be the butt of many jokes in the three and a half years since after ending a 3 year run with Kaulig Racing winless. But no longer, I say. A breakout season finally seems to be in the cards for the Kannapolis native.
In Defense of Daniel Hemric
Hemric has seemed to always land in the right place at the wrong time. He landed at Brad Keselowski Racing for two seasons. 2015 was a developmental year, while in 2016, Hemric’s true colors shone bright. He had 11 Top-5s and 17 Top-10s but never found victory lane and ended the year 6th in the standings. Hemric got the call-up to the Xfinity Series while BKR closed its doors the following year.
Like in the Truck Series, Hemric’s rookie year was a developmental year and then turned up the wick in Year 2. Driving for Richard Childress Racing, Hemric ended his second full season in Xfinity with 16 Top-5s, 23 Top-10s, 4 Poles, and a Championship 4 appearance ultimately finishing 3rd in the standings, but still not finding victory lane.
In 2019, RCR moved Hemric to the Cup Series (likely before he was truly ready for that move) and he took over #31 (which was renumbered to the #8) for an underperforming Cup program. A trend that has continued long since Hemric was dropped after performing poorly.
In 2020, Hemric just needed to rebound. So he returned to the Xfinity Series on a part time basis with JR Motorsports and was solid with 7 Top-5s and 12 Top-10s. he even earned a 17th place finish in the standings despite only running 21 of the 33 races that year.
Hemric performed well enough to sign a one-year contract with Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the #18 in the Xfinity Series. He finished that year just behind pace with his 2018 Season with RCR, except in one major category. He actually won a race, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With a Bump and Run in the Final turn of the Final lap at Phoenix, Hemric moved defending Champ, and the favorite entering this race, Austin Cindric, out of the way and bumped and banged and beat him to the line by a nose. He had done it. At long last, he finally won a race in NASCAR. And it won him the title to boot.
A title wasn’t enough for JGR to resign Hemric. They let him go that offseason, and he signed with Kaulig Racing to replace the Cup Series-bound Justin Haley in the #11. He was okay, but the team started to decline a bit once Hemric got there. After two years with the Xfinity program, Hemric was moved back up to the Cup Series to again replace Justin Haley, who had now left the team entirely to go drive for Rick Ware Racing.
Hemric performed even worse than he had in 2019, though Kaulig was very much in the early years of playing the long game with their Cup Series team. Kaulig let Hemric go that offseason.
I say all this to show you that Daniel Hemric is an enigma. He has always been a very good driver, but has never truly been given a fair shake. He was moved up to the Cup Series twice, with underperforming teams both times, and predictably struggled because of it. Daniel Hemric is not Kyle Larson; he can’t take a 15th-place car and run 4th. But he can take a 4th-place car and run 4th. The two best seasons of his career, 2018 and 2021, were in cars that were arguably the best in the Series at that time, and he performed like it.
So Now What?
Daniel Hemric is 34 Years Old and has replaced Christian Eckes in the #19 for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series. That #19 has been the second-best truck in the Series the last two years behind only Corey Heim and the #11. So Hemric is inheriting a great situation and seems to be in prime position for his long-awaited breakout season.
Time will tell, maybe quite literally as well, at the time of writing this, Hemric just snatched his first win of the season at Martinsville a little over an hour ago. But nonetheless, after many years of highs and lows, Hemric seems poised to finally break out and be a true title contender and grab a few more checkered flags along the way.
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