Jeremy Clements survives wild Wawa 250

It is often said that superspeedway racing is like a lottery as its propensity for crashes and drafting strategy lead to a mixed bag of nuts for the final results. In the case of Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway, only two of the top-ten finishers were locked into the playoffs prior to the green flag, with Jeremy Clements winning in triple overtime to become a third.

Clements assumed the lead as the third overtime, which occurred after the first two ended with multi-car wrecks, began. Despite pressure from A.J. Allmendinger, Brandon Brown, and Timmy Hill, Clements held the position as he took the white flag. Riley Herbst spun prior to the leaders starting the final lap, but NASCAR elected to wait until Clements crossed the start/finish line to wave the yellow flag and end the race under caution, mercifully ending an event that had been rain delayed, plagued by multiple crashes, and ended at 1 AM local time.

Due to the rain delay pushing the race’s conclusion into 27 August, the win comes exactly five years after Clements’ only other career win at Road America in 2017.

“We survived that big wreck back there, it was like a Days of Thunder wreck,” Clements recalled of the crash in the first overtime. “Then I was like, ‘If we can just keep up with these guys, it’ll be a good day, top five and bring this car home in one piece.’ But this is incredible.”

Hill had momentum on Clements until the caution ended a chance at a last-lap run, but he still scored his best career finish of second. With J.J. Yeley scoring a ninth, perennial underdog MBM Motorsports was the only team with multiple cars in the top ten.

The attrition also led to strong days for many fellow small operations. Sage Karam of Alpha Prime Racing and JD Motorsports‘ Ryan Vargas respectively placed fifth and sixth for their highest finishes to date, while part-timer Kyle Sieg notched his maiden top ten. Alex Labbé‘s eighth marked his second top ten of 2022, while Jesse Iwuji‘s strategy of dropping to the rear for late restarts to avoid damaging his car paid off as he still came home a strong eleventh for the first top-twenty finish of his Xfinity career.

While the above were in celebratory moods, heartbreak was evident for fourth-placed Brown, whose 2022 season has been derailed by a lack of funding and told on-site media that he needed to win to ensure sponsorship. Brown lost his full-time ride with family team Brandonbilt Motorsports but was able to return with longtime sponsor Larry’s Hard Lemonade, who had severed ties with him following a preseason sponsorship fiasco.

Chevrolets swept the top five for the first time at Daytona since 2011 when they held the first six spots.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	9	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	118	Running
2	37	13	Timmy Hill*	MBM Motorsports	Chevrolet	118	Running
3	1	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	118	Running
4	25	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	118	Running
5	24	44	Sage Karam	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	118	Running
6	36	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	118	Running
7	8	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	118	Running
8	21	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	118	Running
9	28	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Chevrolet	118	Running
10	32	38	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	118	Running
11	34	34	Jesse Iwuji	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	118	Running
12	22	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	118	Running
13	15	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	118	Running
14	14	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	118	Running
15	6	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racng	Ford	118	Running
16	31	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Ford	116	Running
17	18	02	Blaine Perkins*	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	116	Running
18	5	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	115	Running
19	16	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	114	DVP
20	12	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	114	Running
21	29	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	113	Running
22	2	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	110	Accident
23	10	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	110	Accident
24	33	78	Matt Mills*	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	110	Accident
25	38	14	Justin Haley*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	103	Accident
26	11	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	103	Accident
27	17	48	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.*	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	103	Accident
28	30	45	Caesar Bacarella	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	103	Accident
29	35	5	Josh Williams†	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Ford	103	Accident
30	23	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	103	Accident
31	26	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	98	Accident
32	13	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	98	Accident
33	27	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	97	Engine
34	4	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	91	Accident
35	19	26	John Hunter Nemechek*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	82	Accident
36	7	2	Sheldon Creed #	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	82	Accident
37	20	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	82	Accident
38	3	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	14	Accident
DNQ		92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		47	Tim Viens	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		28	C.J. McLaughlin	RSS Racing	Ford
DNQ		24	Joe Nemechek	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota
DNQ		77	Ronnie Bassett Jr.	Bassett Racing	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points
† – Replaced Patrick Emerling