John Hunter Nemechek spoils Kligerman’s first win hopes in Texas

Parker Kligerman was hoping to secure his maiden NASCAR Xfinity Series victory when he took the lead with less than ten laps remaining in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. John Hunter Nemechek ended up with his seventh trip to Victory Lane instead.

Despite fumbling the final restart with ten laps remaining, set up by Kaz Grala and J.J. Yeley‘s wreck, Nemechek chased down on Kligerman before passing him three laps into the run.

“I messed up that final restart. It bounced out of third gear. That one was on me,” said Nemechek. “I knew that I had to push hard and try to recover right there, but hats off to the #20 team, Joe Gibbs Racing. It is absolutely amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish so far this year and I don’t think we are done yet. We set a lot of goals with this #20 team coming into this year and still yet to accomplish all of those, but win number seven.”

Pole winner Justin Allgaier was the race’s top driver but lost out to Kligerman after the two made contact and had to settle for fifth. Kligerman explained he did not “know how much we got squeezed or didn’t. I thought I could clear him easily but I got super loose. Feels like I got choked, he says he gave a lot of room. I’ll gave to look at it.

“I’m really disappointed right now. I could see that one, I could feel it. That was the best restart I’ve ever had in my life, put us in perfect position and had the tyre advantage, just choked. This one will hurt, but we’ll go make up for it next weekend.”

Allgaier commented the caution “kind of hurt us because we didn’t have tyres, but still thought we’d do a good job. Parker, when I went and I talked to him, said I squeezed him. I felt like I left him plenty of room there knowing he’d go to the bottom and he drove it in super, super deep into (turn) three. He’s been around the sport long enough to know what’s going to happen. Just disappointed. Not only did it mess up battling for second it put us way up in the marbles.”

Twelve cautions occurred, the most of the season and second most for an Xfinity race at Texas behind thirteen at the 2018 O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. While eight playoff drivers comprised the top eight, the remaining quartet of Josh Berry, Jeb Burton, Daniel Hemric, and Sam Mayer were taken out in wrecks that dropped all but Hemric below the cut line. Hemric still has a one-point edge over Kligerman for the eighth and final spot in the Round of 8 entering the Round of 12 finale at Charlotte.

Daniel Dye finished seventeenth in his first career Xfinity race.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	11	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
2	7	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
3	15	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
4	9	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	1	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
6	3	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
7	5	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	24	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	8	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
10	22	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	200	Running
11	17	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
12	19	29	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
13	30	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
14	33	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
15	12	91	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
16	36	24	Parker Chase	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	199	Running
17	26	44	Daniel Dye*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
18	14	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
19	38	11	Layne Riggs	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
20	23	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
21	25	74	Dawson Cram	CHK Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
22	32	07	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
23	20	66	Sage Karam	MBM Motorsports	Ford	197	Running
24	13	10	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	195	Accident
25	37	28	C.J. McLaughlin	RSS Racing	Ford	195	Running
26	27	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	194	Running
27	4	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	193	Running
28	31	08	J.J. Yeley	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	183	Accident
29	16	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	183	Accident
30	18	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan AndersonRacing	Chevrolet	108	Accident
31	28	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan AndersonRacing	Chevrolet	108	Suspension
32	34	45	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	106	Accident
33	2	19	Trevor Bayne^	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	97	Accident
34	21	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	55	Accident
35	29	53	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	24	Suspension
36	35	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	11	DVP
37	10	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	2	Accident
38	6	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	0	Accident
DNQ		4	Garrett Smithley	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points