John Hunter Nemechek Goes Back-To-Back With Iowa Win

by June 24, 2017 0 comments

NEWTON, Iowa – For the second weekend in a row, John Hunter Nemechek triumphed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series following a victory in Friday night’s M&M’s 200 Presented by Casey’s General Stores at Iowa Speedway.

At Gateway Motorsports Park last weekend, Nemechek captured his first win of the season and on Friday in Iowa, the driver of the NEMCO Motorsports No. 8 Fire Alarm Services Inc./Romco Equipment Co. Chevrolet went back-to-back after leading the final six laps of the 200-lap race.

“All year we felt really good about this whole stretch,” said Nemechek in Victory Lane. “Gateway, Iowa and Kentucky. Hopefully we can go to Kentucky and make it three in a row, but I can’t say enough. Thank you to all of my guys. They’re so determined. They’re dedicated. They work as many hours as needed, and this is fun getting to Victory Lane.”

The final caution of the night came out on lap 187 after ThorSport Racing teammates, Grant Enfinger and Matt Crafton got together and crashed in Turn 3. Enfinger continued for a fourth-place finish, but Crafton retired from the event in 19th. With one final opportunity for pit strategy, Nemechek’s crew chief, Gere Kennon called for four fresh tires. With six laps to go, 20-year-old Nemechek pulled off a race winning, three-wide pass on GMS Racing’s Johnny Sauter and Brad Keselowski Racing’s Chase Briscoe in Turns 1 and 2.

For the fourth time this season, Sauter finished runner-up. Throughout the event, Sauter was out in front of the field on two occasions for a total of 72 laps. Sauter leads Christopher Bell in the series standings by 42 points.

In only his third series start in 2017, Brandon Jones finished third, followed by Enfinger and Bell, who led a race high of 99 laps.

Rounding out the top-10 on Friday was Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Jesse Little and Justin Haley.

There were only a total of four cautions, and besides the accident involving Enfinger and Crafton, there was only one other multi-truck crash of the night. On lap 119, Kaz Grala and Ben Rhodes made contact while battling down the backstretch. Grala bounced off Rhodes and spun towards the inside wall. With nowhere to go, Austin Self was also involved. The accident brought out the red flag for 12 minutes and 26 seconds.

The next stop on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule is the Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway on Thursday, July 6. Live coverage of the race will broadcast on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) and the Motor Racing Network (MRN) at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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