John Hunter Nemechek dominated the day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and won his second straight race on Saturday afternoon. It is the fourth win of the season for the North Carolina-native, who expands his points lead. For Toyota, Nemechek’s victory helps the manufacturer close in on major milestones as it was the 598th NASCAR national series win and 196th NASCAR Xfinity Series triumph. Sammy Smith (fifth) battled from the back after an unapproved adjustment to win the second stage and finish inside the top-five, while Kaz Grala (13th) started last in a backup Toyota GR Supra after a practice accident and drove through the field to earn his third straight top-15 finish.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Race 18 of 33 – 211.6 miles, 200 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
2nd, Chandler Smith*
3rd, Austin Hill*
4th, Daniel Hemric*
5th, SAMMY SMITH
13th, KAZ GRALA
26th, CONNOR MOSACK
29th, JOE GRAF JR.
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 20 Persil Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How nerve-wracking is final restarts like that?
“It’s nerve-wracking for sure. Just hats off to this whole 20 team, and everyone that works on this Joe Gibbs Racing Persil Toyota GR Supra. It was as fast as Xfinity 10G today. Hats off to them. I appreciate it. They’ve had dominate Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supras up here the last few years. I had to hold up my end of the bargain.”
Do you feel like this team is clicking?
“For sure. We’ve clicked from almost day one. We’ve been consistent all year. Just time to keep clicking off all of these victories.”
SAMMY SMITH, No. 18 TMC Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
You had to drive through the field twice today and scored a top-five finish. Do you look at this as an accomplishment or a missed opportunity?
“A missed opportunity. We had an up-and-down day. We came from the back twice and worked our way back up there. Stage two kind of fell our way a little bit. We got some track position, just kind of fell off there compared to the 20 (John Hunter Nemechek). Good day overall. Thanks to TMC, Pilot Flying J, Allstate Peterbuilt Group, Golden Harvest, Renda Group, Toyota – everyone that helps us get here. Frustrating day, but a good day and glad we could capitalize on getting good stage points that we did. Just things to keep working on.”
KAZ GRALA, No. 26 Island Coastal Lager Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 13th
Can you talk about battling through the adversity to earn another strong finish?
“I’m really proud of everyone at SHR (Sam Hunt Racing) for the hustle. That was a massive task for them to get the backup Island Coastal Lager Supra ready. I hate it for them, because they brought such a good primary car, and it was certainly none of our doing – nothing of anyone’s doing that put us in the box that we were put in. Really cool to see everyone pitch in and pull together and put together as good of a race car as we had there. I was really pleased with it. We were able to drive through the field and get to the top-15, which is this year a really good place to run in this series. The field is super deep, so a top-15 day in a backup car no less I think is major accomplishment. I think we got a really good finish there. Happy to be able to end it on a good note. I know it was a tough weekend for everybody, but I feel like we are coming out of it pretty strong. It was cool to see. Excited for Pocono next weekend, hopefully, we will race our primary car there.”
Toyota Racing PR
