Daniel Hemric Apologizes for Late Race Incident with Brandon Jones at Iowa

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Photo – Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

In an intense NASCAR Xfinity Series overtime restart in the US Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway the lead drivers of Justin Allgaier in the No. 7 and Christopher Bell in the No. 20 racing side-by-side in pursuit of a victory. Behind them was Brandon Jones in the No. 19 running third, the No. 21 of Daniel Hemric running fourth and Kyle Benjamin in the No. 18 running in the fifth position. Hemric raced around Jones but then his car slid up the track and that’s when Brandon Jones found his No. 19 in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Afterward, on pit road, Hemric took responsibility for the incident and described what happened from his perspective.

“Obviously the leaders were going at it,” says Hemric. “You never know how it’s going to turn out if the 7 and the 20 were going use up each other up or how it was going to turn out. So I tried to position myself on the bottom and the 18 had a run and I had a really bad corner entry and just got on the brakes; had a ton of rear brake and I wheel hopped it. That was it, I went up the race track. I was hoping the 19 saw me coming because I was trying to do all I could to not get into him and when he hit me, it cleaned both of us out. I apologize to those guys for ruining good finishes for both of us. But it’s short track racing and that’s fine; just not enough race track.”

Benjamin was the benefactor as he was able to race under the incident and went on to finish third, while Hemric placed 11th and Brandon Jones came in with a 12th-place finish.

After a side-by-side battle with Justin Allgaier in the closing laps, Christopher Bell won the race becoming the first Xfinity Series regular to win three races in a row since Dale Earnhardt Jr did so in 1999.

*Expect updates to this article with Brandon Jones comments added when/if available.