Hemric pulls major NASCAR upset; Gragson 12th in Arizona

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Daniel Hemric made the first victory of his career one of the biggest NASCAR upsets — a championship-winning overtime stunner against the reigning champ.

Hemric beat Austin Cindric in a door-to-door sprint across the finish line Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway to give Joe Gibbs Racing its first championship of the weekend.

JGR races Sunday for the Cup title with both Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., and Toyota, which won the Truck Series championship Friday night, could sweep all three of NASCAR’s national series with another upset.

“DH!!! Let’s goooo!!!” tweeted Hamlin, who answers to “DH.” “So well deserved. Kid has worked his butt off and finally gets the biggest win on the biggest stage. Proud of you.”

Las Vegan Noah Gragson, who won last week at Martinsville Speedway to make the finale, finished 12th. He banged hard against the wall in a desperate attempt for the win after driving his way through the field to third.

Hemric, winless in 119 starts in the Xfinity Series and racing for the final time for Gibbs before moving to Kaulig Racing next season, was the fourth seed in the playoffs and the overlooked driver in the championship four. Noah Gragson is a showman, and Cindric and AJ Allemendinger were the two superior teams.

And it was going to be Cindric’s night as he led six times for a race-high 119 laps. The reigning champion was trying to close out his Xfinity career with a second consecutive title before his promotion next season to replace Brad Keselowski at Team Penske.

But a slew of late cautions stalled Cindric and granted Hemric two career-defining chances. Hemric was just about to catch Cindric when a caution froze the field and sent the race into overtime. In the two-lap sprint to the finish, the two raced side-by-side with everything on the line and Hemric won the race to the finish by less than a half-second.

“I blacked out, just knew I had to be the first one to the line,” Hemric said about the final two laps. “We were not going to be denied.”

Cindric finished second, but Team Penske won the owners championship. The driver’s title is awarded to the first of the championship four to cross the finish line.

Cindric, winner of five races this year and 11 the last two seasons, was annoyed to have the payoff stripped away because of three cautions in the final scheduled 20 laps and then a sprint to the finish.

“If everyone in the stands enjoyed it, it’s good racing,” Cindric said from pit road. “I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to race on such a big stage. It would have been awesome to finish this out.

“I felt like we had a dominant race car. I felt like we did everything right. Come up a little bit short, sometimes it’s like that way.”