Race report

NASCAR O'Reilly Nashville

NASCAR Xfinity Nashville: Nemechek wins in race defined by brutal heat

John Hunter Nemechek reclaimed a lead he had lost in the final stage and cruised to his second NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the 2024 season.

Jim Utter

Edited: Jun 30, 2024, 5:12 AM

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Nemechek had asked for an adjustment during pit stops prior to the start of Stage 3 and within 10 laps he’d lost the lead to Cole Custer.

Nemechek, however, redeemed himself by reclaiming the lead from Custer on a restart with 46 of 188 laps to go and held off Chandler Smith at the finish by 0.366 seconds for the win at Nashville Superspeedway.

It’s Nemechek’s second win in just nine series starts this year and 11th of his career.

Watch: John Hunter Nemechek: ‘Speechless’ after Nashville win

“Man, I thought we gave the race away there at the start of Stage 3. I asked for an adjustment and I probably shouldn’t have,” Nemechek said. “We’ve been close to winning a lot this year in this thing and it looks like we’ve started to capitalize on it, it appears.

“It’s great to get it done here in Nashville.”

Jesse Love, who started from the rear of the field, ended up third, Austin Hill – who also started in the rear – was fourth and Noah Gragson rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were Riley Herbst – who battled the hot temperatures with a malfunctioning cool suit, A.J. Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Custer and Sam Mayer.

Several drivers were treated for heat exhaustion on pit road after the race.

Stage 1

Ty Gibbs led every lap on his way to a 1.180-second Stage 1 win over Allmendinger. Brandon Jones was third, Custer fourth and Allgaier rounded out the top five.

Stage 2

Nemechek easily held off Allmendinger by 2.137 seconds to take the Stage 2 win. Custer ended up third, Gibbs fourth and Chandler Smith was fifth.

On lap 71, Nemechek finally ran down Custer and passed him to the inside to claim the lead for the first time in the race.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, all the lead lap cars elected to pit with Nemechek first off pit road. He led Custer and Allmendinger when the race resumed with 91 laps remaining.

On Lap 101, Custer got around Nemechek to return to the lead. With 75 laps to go, Custer remained out front as Allmendinger moved into the runner-up position and Nemechek dropped to third.

Allgaier appeared to get into the left-rear of Gibbs on lap 136 which sent Gibbs’ No. 19 Toyota spinning in Turn 4 to bring out a caution. Chandler Smith also suffered some damage trying to avoid the incident.

Watch: Denny Hamlin claims second pole of 2024 at Nashville

All the lead lap cars pit for tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race and Custer was first off pit road. Allmendinger lost seven spots during his stop. Custer led Nemechek and Chandler Smith on the restart with 46 laps to go.

Nemechek quickly powered to the lead on the restart as Custer faded to fifth.

With 30 laps remaining, Nemechek maintained a small lead over Chandler Smith but had also picked up some debris on his front grille that could present an engine temperature problem.

Nemechek was able to expand his lead over Smith to more than a second with 10 laps to go.

CLA DRIVER # MANUFACTURER LAPS TIME INTERVAL PITS POINTS 1 J. NemechekJOE GIBBS RACING 20 Toyota 188

1:57'36.545

5 2

C. SmithJOE GIBBS RACING

81 Toyota 188

+0.366

1:57'36.911

0.366 6 43 3

J. LoveRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING

2 Chevrolet 188

+8.579

1:57'45.124

8.213 6 38 4 A. HillRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 21 Chevrolet 188

+9.244

1:57'45.789

0.665 6 33 5 N. GragsonRETTE JONES RACING 30 Ford 188

+10.092

1:57'46.637

0.848 6 6 R. HerbstSTEWART-HAAS RACING 98 Ford 188

+12.747

1:57'49.292

2.655 7 36 7 A. AllmendingerKAULIG RACING 16 Chevrolet 188

+14.591

1:57'51.136

1.844 6 48 8 J. AllgaierJR MOTORSPORTS 7 Chevrolet 188

+14.876

1:57'51.421

0.285 7 37 9 C. CusterSTEWART-HAAS RACING 00 Ford 188

+16.430

1:57'52.975

1.554 6 43 10

S. MayerJR MOTORSPORTS

1 Chevrolet 188

+16.479

1:57'53.024

0.049 6 27 11 R. SiegRSS RACING 39 Ford 188

+17.767

1:57'54.312

1.288 6 27 12

C. KvapilJR MOTORSPORTS

88 Chevrolet 188

+18.749

1:57'55.294

0.982 6 25 13 B. JonesJR MOTORSPORTS 9 Chevrolet 188

+20.841

1:57'57.386

2.092 6 35 14 T. ReddickSAM HUNT RACING 26 Toyota 188

+23.521

1:58'00.066

2.680 6 15 S. van GisbergenKAULIG RACING 97 Chevrolet 188

+23.799

1:58'00.344

0.278 6 22 16 P. KligermanBIG MACHINE RACING TEAM 48 Chevrolet 188

+25.600

1:58'02.145

1.801 6 21 17

P. RetzlaffJORDAN ANDERSON RACING

31 Chevrolet 188

+26.254

1:58'02.799

0.654 6 20 18

A. AlfredoOUR MOTORSPORTS

5 Chevrolet 188

+26.588

1:58'03.133

0.334 6 19 19 J. BurtonJORDAN ANDERSON RACING 27 Chevrolet 188

+27.663

1:58'04.208

1.075 6 18 20

T. GibbsJOE GIBBS RACING

19 Toyota 188

+29.948

1:58'06.493

2.285 7 21 B. PooleALPHA PRIME RACING 44 Chevrolet 188

+33.408

1:58'09.953

3.460 6 16 22 J. ClementsJEREMY CLEMENTS RACING 51 Chevrolet 188

+33.806

1:58'10.351

0.398 6 15 23 R. EllisALPHA PRIME RACING 43 Chevrolet 188

+33.977

1:58'10.522

0.171 6 14 24 J. WilliamsKAULIG RACING 11 Chevrolet 187

+1 Lap

1:57'36.731

1 Lap 6 13 25

L. HoneymanYOUNG'S MOTORSPORTS

42 Chevrolet 187

+1 Lap

1:57'38.108

1.377 6 12 26

K. SiegRSS RACING

28 Ford 187

+1 Lap

1:57'39.490

1.382 7 11 27 R. ChastainDGM RACING 92 Chevrolet 187

+1 Lap

1:57'40.064

0.574 6 28 H. DeeganAM RACING 15 Ford 187

+1 Lap

1:57'43.929

3.865 6 9 29 M. DiBenedettoRSS RACING 38 Ford 187

+1 Lap

1:57'52.400

8.471 7 8 30

S. SmithJR MOTORSPORTS

8 Chevrolet 187

+1 Lap

1:58'09.986

17.586 7 7 31 K. WeathermanDGM RACING 91 Chevrolet 186

+2 Laps

1:57'51.915

1 Lap 6 6 32

L. BeardenJOEY GASE MOTORSPORTS

35 Chevrolet 185

+3 Laps

1:58'02.159

1 Lap 5 5 33 S. CreedJOE GIBBS RACING 18 Toyota 185

+3 Laps

1:58'05.130

2.971 7 4 34 C. FinchumSS-GREEN LIGHT RACING 14 Ford 184

+4 Laps

1:57'55.670

1 Lap 6 3 35

B. PerkinsRSS RACING

29 Ford 184

+4 Laps

1:57'56.737

1.067 6 2 36 G. SmithleyJD MOTORSPORTS 6 Chevrolet 183

+5 Laps

1:57'39.321

1 Lap 6 1 37

D. CramJD MOTORSPORTS

4 Chevrolet 183

+5 Laps

1:57'53.740

14.419 7 38

E. PatrickSS-GREEN LIGHT RACING

07 Chevrolet 183

+5 Laps

1:58'01.900

8.160 6 1

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