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John Hunter Nemechek Prevails In NASCAR Overtime To Tame Darlington Raceway

by Hunter Thomas May 6, 2022 1 comment

DARLINGTON, S.C. – John Hunter Nemechek survived NASCAR Overtime at Darlington Raceway to win the Dead On Tools 200 on Friday night.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the track, Too Tough To Tame was certainly filled with action, but it was defending series champion, Ben Rhodes crashing in Turn 2 with only four laps to go that sent the field into NASCAR Overtime.

On the final restart of the night, Nemechek and Carson Hocevar took off on the front row; however, Ross Chastain who started on the outside of the second row didn’t. The field stacked up, and by the time the leaders reached Turn 2, Nemechek had made his way around Hocevar to complete the race-winning pass. The win marked Nemechek’s his first at Darlington and the first of the season.

“Huge shout out to all the guys that work on this No. 4 KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra TRD PRO, just Mobil 1 and everyone that puts their heart and soul into what’s going on — this is huge. Just thank you to everyone,” Nemechek said. “Thank you to the fans. This place is packed. Awesome crowd. I thought we gave it away early honestly and we’re able to rebound and battle back so it’s cool.”

While Nemechek was dominate throughout the race, he did have to rebound from a loose wheel. On Lap 59, Nemechek hit pit road from the fifth position to fix the issue. The No. 4 Mobile 1 Toyota team then meticulously made their way back to the front of the field.

Hocevar held on for his second consecutive runner-up finish on Friday night in the No. 42 Premier Security Solutions Chevrolet.

Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski and Parker Kligerman completed the top-five. Ryan Preece finished sixth, followed by Zane Smith, Tyler Ankrum, Todd Bodine and Matt DiBenedetto.

Kligerman won Stage 1, and Hocevar won Stage 2.

There were 16 lead changes among nine drivers. Nemechek and Chastain were dominate all night long. Nemechek led a race high of 69 laps, and Chastain led 46 laps.

Throughout the 149-lap race, there were 10 cautions for 54 laps.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will visit Kansas Speedway on Saturday, May 14. The Heart of America 200 will broadcast live on FS1 and MRN at 8 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com