Three OTs, Wild Crashes Lead to Jeremy Clements Daytona Win

On Friday night, Jeremy Clements surprisingly took the checkered flag under caution at the end of the third overtime attempt in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway. The race, filled with attrition, rain delays and bizarre moments, had an unexpected outcome fitting for such a unique event.

Clements’ first victory at Daytona and the second of his career came in the Wawa 250, a race that began approximately three hours late and concluded just before 1:30 a.m. on Saturday. Interestingly, both of Clements’ wins have occurred on August 27. His initial victory was at Road America on August 27, 2017.

Clements, who secured a Playoff spot and pushed Ryan Sieg into 13th place in the standings, 12 points under the cut line, was at a loss for words. “I don’t know what to say, I’m speechless,” he said. “We managed to survive that massive crash in the first overtime, it was like something out of ‘Days of Thunder’.”

“Then I thought, ‘If we can manage to stay at pace with these guys, it’ll be a great day – make it to the top five and get this car home undamaged.’ But, unbelievable! This is fantastic.”

When race leader Austin Hill’s Chevrolet lost electrical power, he was forced to steer to the apron. During this time, Clements received a boost from Sage Karam at the third overtime restart on Lap 117. Clements was leading on the final lap when the 11th caution was announced by NASCAR due to Riley Herbst’s spin on the backstretch. Timmy Hill came in second, followed by AJ Allmendinger, Brandon Brown, and Karam, who achieved his personal best finish.

When Clements took the checkered flag, eighteen out of the 38 cars that began the race were already in the garage.

The race was pushed into overtime following a substantial multicar accident on the 98th lap of a planned 100. The incident began when Landon Cassill’s Chevrolet hit the external wall and then crashed into Jeb Burton’s Camaro.

Then Daniel Hemric, who was leading the field, veered down the track and bumped into the front of Noah Gragson’s Chevrolet. This sparked a chaotic incident involving eight cars.

However, that was only the prelude to a series of crumpled chassis that ensued after the restart for the initial overtime attempt. On the 104th lap, Brown’s Chevrolet lost control on the backstretch, right in front of Riley Herbst’s Ford.

Brown made a turn, resulting in 13 cars being damaged in the subsequent chaos. However, the most severe impact of the night occurred during the second attempt at overtime.

A chain reaction collision involving the cars of Clements, Allmendinger, and Noah Gragson, sent Gragson’s car into the path of Landon Cassill’s Chevrolet. The impact from Cassill’s vehicle made Gragson’s car spin a full 360 degrees and ripped the body off the front clip.

At that point, Gragson had been leading for a race-high 54 laps.

Sheldon Creed’s Playoff aspirations took a hit when a multicar crash on Lap 83 damaged his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 26 Toyota spun off the front bumper of Brown’s Chevy after getting loose off Turn 2.

“Suddenly, I found myself staring at the inside wall,” said Nemechek. “I’m uncertain about what transpired, but it felt as though I was hooked in the left rear.”

Creed’s Camaro hit Nemechek’s car and spun to the inside and shot back across the track into traffic, demolishing Joe Graf Jr.’s Ford. The wreck kept Creed below the Playoff cut line, 55 points behind Cassill for the last spot, with three races left before the Playoff field is set.

NASCAR Xfinity Series Wawa 250
Daytona International Speedway
August 26 2022

1. (9) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 118.
2. (37) Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 118.
3. (1) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 118.
4. (25) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, 118.
5. (24) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 118.
6. (36) Ryan Vargas, Chevrolet, 118.
7. (8) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 118.
8. (21) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 118.
9. (28) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 118.
10. (32) Kyle Sieg #, Ford, 118.
11. (34) Jesse Iwuji #, Chevrolet, 118.
12. (22) Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, 118.
13. (15) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 118.
14. (14) Austin Hill #, Chevrolet, 118.
15. (6) Riley Herbst, Ford, 118.
16. (31) Joey Gase, Ford, 116.
17. (18) Blaine Perkins(i), Chevrolet, 116.
18. (5) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 115.
19. (16) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, DVP, 114.
20. (12) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 114.
21. (29) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 113.
22. (2) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, Accident, 110.
23. (10) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, Accident, 110.
24. (33) Matt Mills(i), Toyota, Accident, 110.
25. (38) Justin Haley(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 103.
26. (11) Ryan Sieg, Ford, Accident, 103.
27. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 103.
28. (30) Caesar Bacarella, Chevrolet, Accident, 103.
29. (35) Josh Williams, Ford, Accident, 103.
30. (23) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, Accident, 103.
31. (26) David Starr, Ford, Accident, 98.
32. (13) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, Accident, 98.
33. (27) Mason Massey, Chevrolet, Engine, 97.
34. (4) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, Accident, 91.
35. (19) John Hunter Nemechek(i), Toyota, Accident, 82.
36. (7) Sheldon Creed #, Chevrolet, Accident, 82.
37. (20) Joe Graf Jr, Ford, Accident, 82.
38. (3) Sammy Smith, Toyota, Accident, 14.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 113.328 mph.

Race Duration: 2 Hours, 36 Minutes, 11 Seconds. Victory Margin: Caused by Seconds.

Caution Flags: 10 for 41 laps.

Lead Changes: 19 among 12 drivers.

The leaders of each lap were as follows: A. Allmendinger led laps 1-4, N. Gragson led laps 5-16, J. Berry led laps 17-18, R. Herbst led lap 19, T. Gibbs led laps 20-24, R. Herbst led lap 25, T. Gibbs led laps 26-31, J. Berry led laps 32-35, B. Brown led lap 36, A. Alfredo led laps 37-40, J. Allgaier led laps 41-49, A. Alfredo led laps 50-51, J. Allgaier led laps 52-53, A. Alfredo led laps 54-55, N. Gragson led laps 56-62, R. Vargas led lap 63, N. Gragson led laps 64-96, D. Hemric led lap 97, A. Hill # led laps 98-115, and J. Clements led laps 116-118.

Noah Gragson led the race three times for a total of 52 laps. Austin Hill led once for 18 laps. Ty Gibbs and Justin Allgaier both led twice for 11 laps each. Anthony Alfredo led three times for 8 laps. Josh Berry led twice for 6 laps. AJ Allmendinger, Jeremy Clements, Daniel Hemric, Ryan Vargas, and Brandon Brown each led once for 4, 3, 1, 1, and 1 laps respectively. Riley Herbst led twice for a total of 2 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 54,21,2,16,8,19,7,1,14,39
Stage #2 Top Ten: 9,23,98,1,8,26,54,7,31,39