With Haley’s “help”, John Hunter Nemechek wins Atlanta Xfinity in overtime

Kaulig Racing began overtime of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a track dependent on drafting, with all three cars in the top four. None of them won.

Justin Haley restarted on the outside alongside Joe Gibbs Racing‘s John Hunter Nemechek while his Kaulig team-mates Chandler Smith and Daniel Hemric were behind them. When Smith ran out of fuel coming to the green flag, Haley committed to the inside to work with Hemric. Although the two closed in on Nemechek, Haley elected to try his own move to begin the final lap, leaving Hemric without a drafting partner before Cole Custer supplied a push that ultimately came too late.

After exiting his car as the runner-up, Hemric slammed his helmet against the roof in what he called a “super amount of frustration” before discussing the matter with Haley. He also finished second in the first Atlanta race in March.

“Hemric was pretty mad here that I didn’t push, but he started stumbling out of (turn) four so I got down to try to give him the best chance,” commented Haley. “Just short on fuel there.”

Hemric explained he “backed up to [Haley] there and thought I was going to have the run down the front to at least give myself an opportunity to get the #20 (Nemechek) back and he pulled out of line. I guess his car ran out of fuel too.”

Ironically, Nemechek had Hemric to thank for securing his third win of the year. He only led the final three laps including both in overtime despite starting second.

“I got a huge push from the #11, so thanks to Daniel for giving me that huge push,” Nemechek remarked. “Hats off to this entire #20 team. Early on in the race, if you would have said that we were going to win the race, I would have told you that wasn’t going to be the case. We didn’t have the fastest car tonight.”

Both stage winners Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed retired after being involved in the same crash on lap 87. Herbst had blown a tyre, and Brandon Jones attempted to avoid him only to clip Ryan Sieg and Creed. The exit continues a sophomore campaign marred by atrocious luck for Creed, who has not scored a top ten since Portland in June with a litany of misfortunes such as wrecks and even weather. Creed had set the fastest time in the first round of Atlanta qualifying but a drivetrain problem prevented him from competing for the pole.

Greg Van Alst was also taken out in a crash that cut short the ARCA Daytona winner’s Xfinity début.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	169	Running
2	11	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	169	Running
3	7	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	169	Running
4	13	10	Justin Haley*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	169	Running
5	5	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	169	Running
6	12	19	Ty Gibbs*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	169	Running
7	34	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	169	Running
8	17	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	169	Running
9	16	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	169	Running
10	3	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	169	Running
11	27	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	169	Running
12	10	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	169	Running
13	21	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	169	Running
14	31	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	169	Running
15	8	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	169	Running
16	20	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	169	Running
17	14	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	169	Running
18	24	91	Josh Bilicki	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	168	Running
19	4	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	168	Running
20	1	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	168	Running
21	28	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	167	Running
22	35	35	David Starr	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Ford	167	Running
23	19	45	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	167	Running
24	32	8	Mason Massey	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	167	Running
25	30	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	167	Running
26	37	4	Garrett Smithley	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	167	Running
27	25	24	Parker Chase	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	167	Running
28	29	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
29	36	53	Akinori Ogata*	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	103	Transmission
30	26	7	Mason Maggio*	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	102	Electrical
31	33	36	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	97	Accident
32	22	2	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	96	Accident
33	15	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	91	DVP
34	18	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorports	Chevrolet	90	DVP
35	9	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	88	Accident
36	6	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	88	Accident
37	23	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	87	Accident
38	38	44	Greg Van Alst	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	62	Accident

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points