By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Things are slowly clicking together for John Hunter Nemechek entering the summer portion of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
The driver of the No. 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota Camry XSE backed up his sixth-place result at Mexico City with another sixth in Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway.
Following a strong fourth-place qualifying effort Saturday, Nemechek got off to a fairly slow start as he dropped several positions. Things would improve, but by pitting towards the end stages, Nemechek wasn’t able to score stage points, but signs showed that his Toyota had genuine pace for a top-10 run.
Pit strategies came a plenty with calls from crew chief Travis Mack that on the surface put Nemechek down the order, but it didn’t sway the No. 42 team when it mattered most.
As the 160-lap race came down to the wire, Nemechek saw himself in fifth at one point before dropping spot to settle for his sixth top-10 finish of the year.
With his teammate Erik Jones finishing 13th, it was an overall solid weekend for the two-car organization that’s slowly making strides.
More so with Nemechek, who already is having a career season in terms of top-10s in addition to his fifth-place Daytona 500 finish four months ago.
Nemechek commented that team effort has played a key role into the momentum shift stems. It goes from Mack’s pit calls, his lead race engineer Sydney Prince finding more pace in its motors, and the rest of his No. 42 team putting in the valuable work.
With a pair of top-10s in succession, the 28-year-old couldn’t be prouder.
“Both cars had speed this weekend right off the truck and qualified really well. It was my best qualifying effort in the Cup series and we raced well also,” Nemechek commented.
“I’m proud of everything they’ve put in at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB – all the men and women with all the effort they’ve been putting in. Looking forward to continuing to come to the racetrack when you have the speed. Just a testament to this 42 team.
“Travis Mack and I have been working really hard and we’ve been communicating well. Sydney, our primary engineer, Dex, Carl, Josh, and everyone who works on this thing. I’m just proud of the effort.”
From the 2.5-mile oval to the 1.5-mile superspeedway in Atlanta is where the series heads next where it kicks off NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge (Saturday 7 p.m. ET on TNT). Nemechek will be the 12th seed as he’ll compete against 21st seed Josh Berry in the opening round which will unfold in the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway.
Be the first to comment