HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — John Hunter Nemechek passed Justin Haley early in overtime and held off Daniel Hemric to win NASCAR’s Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday night for his third win of the season.
Haley, who led 80 laps, was able to lead a parade of Kaulig Racing drivers into extra time but had no help on the restart as Nemechek made his move on the outside to take his first lead of the race.
“At the start of the race, if you had told me that we were going to win the race, I would have certainly told you that we were not,” Nemechek said after a long burnoo t to celebrate.
Nemechek started second but didn’t seem to have the best car until the very end.
“We just had to keep improving our car all night long,” Nemechek said. “…We were able to execute the reboot.”
Hemric was second and his Kaulig Racing teammate Haley was fourth. Another Kaulig rider, pole sitter Chandler Smith, started extra time in second but finished 20th, apparently out of gas.
Haley said he was also hampered by fuel issues.
“Leading all those laps and running wide open, we were just running out of fuel,” Haley said, adding “I probably couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted the last 20 laps. … I obviously thought that we had won it but sometimes things don’t work out.
Cole Custer, who won last week in Chicago, finished third and called overtime “just chaos.”
“We’re all wondering if we’re close to fuel or not,” Custer said. “We just hope nobody runs out of gas, but half the pitch did.”
Austin Hill, seeking his fourth win of the season and his third straight win at Atlanta, was fourth when his hopes of a late push ended with his spin with three laps to go. Hill was untouched but lost control of his Chevy trying to make a move on Daniel Hemric.
The resulting warning triggered extra time and Haley couldn’t hold on to the lead.
Hill started at the rear following a transmission change.
Hill didn’t stay near last place for very long. On the 38th lap of the first stage, Hill had already passed fifth. He finished second in Stage 2.
Hill won the Atlanta Xfinity race in March and also last summer’s race at the track. He finished second in Atlanta’s first race in 2022.
There were eight warnings. At the Atlanta race in March, 12 cars were eliminated by 11 warnings, a record for an Xfinity race.
Riley Herbst passed Josh Berry with a late win on stage one, his first career stage win.
At the start of stage three, Creed and Ryan Sieg, who led part of stage two in his quest for his first career victory, were involved in an accident which eliminated both cars from the race. Herbst also had to go to his garage for the night following the sinking.
The Xfinity Series moves to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon next Saturday. ___
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