Hemric pulls major NASCAR upset; Gragson 12th in Arizona

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Daniel Hemric made the archetypal triumph of his vocation 1 of the biggest NASCAR upsets — a championship-winning overtime stunner against the reigning champ.

Hemric bushed Austin Cindric successful a door-to-door sprint crossed the decorativeness enactment Saturday nighttime astatine Phoenix Raceway to springiness Joe Gibbs Racing its archetypal title of the weekend.

JGR races Sunday for the Cup rubric with some Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., and Toyota, which won the Truck Series title Friday night, could expanse each 3 of NASCAR’s nationalist bid with different upset.

“DH!!! Let’s goooo!!!” tweeted Hamlin, who answers to “DH.” “So good deserved. Kid has worked his butt disconnected and yet gets the biggest triumph connected the biggest stage. Proud of you.”

Las Vegan Noah Gragson, who won past week astatine Martinsville Speedway to marque the finale, finished 12th. He banged hard against the partition successful a hopeless effort for the triumph aft driving his mode done the tract to third.

Hemric, winless successful 119 starts successful the Xfinity Series and racing for the last clip for Gibbs earlier moving to Kaulig Racing adjacent season, was the 4th effect successful the playoffs and the overlooked operator successful the title four. Noah Gragson is simply a showman, and Cindric and AJ Allemendinger were the 2 superior teams.

And it was going to beryllium Cindric’s nighttime arsenic helium led six times for a race-high 119 laps. The reigning champion was trying to adjacent retired his Xfinity vocation with a 2nd consecutive rubric earlier his promotion adjacent play to regenerate Brad Keselowski astatine Team Penske.

But a slew of precocious cautions stalled Cindric and granted Hemric 2 career-defining chances. Hemric was conscionable astir to drawback Cindric erstwhile a caution froze the tract and sent the contention into overtime. In the two-lap sprint to the finish, the 2 raced side-by-side with everything connected the enactment and Hemric won the contention to the decorativeness by little than a half-second.

“I blacked out, conscionable knew I had to beryllium the archetypal 1 to the line,” Hemric said astir the last 2 laps. “We were not going to beryllium denied.”

Cindric finished second, but Team Penske won the owners championship. The driver’s rubric is awarded to the archetypal of the title 4 to transverse the decorativeness line.

Cindric, victor of 5 races this twelvemonth and 11 the past 2 seasons, was annoyed to person the payoff stripped distant due to the fact that of 3 cautions successful the last scheduled 20 laps and past a sprint to the finish.

“If everyone successful the stands enjoyed it, it’s bully racing,” Cindric said from pit road. “I’m precise appreciative of the accidental to contention connected specified a large stage. It would person been awesome to decorativeness this out.

“I felt similar we had a ascendant contention car. I felt similar we did everything right. Come up a small spot short, sometimes it’s similar that way.”