John Hunter Nemechek had to fight through adversity to claim Joe Gibbs Racings’ 200 Xfinity Series win in Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway. The trouble is, it involved spinning a teammate.
On lap 11 of 125, Nemechek was running second in a tight line of JGR cars when he followed too closely behind his Cup Series-regular teammate Ty Gibbs, getting him loose and sending him spinning. When Nemechek himself checked up, his other teammate Sammy Smith got behind him and sent Nemechek spinning as well.
The damage was enough to end Smith’s day. Gibbs and Nemechek both recovered after minor repairs, but Gibbs wasn’t happy and expressed his frustration with a gesture out on track during the caution period.
“I have to apologize to Ty,” Nemechek said after stepping out of his car. “I’ve been the one who’s been very vocal about teammates here recently. I put him in a bad aero spot. I got him loose, and he couldn’t check up.”
“It’s my mistake. I hate that we both spun early, but at least we were able to rebound. I know he’s not too happy with me, and he has every right not to be,” he admitted.
Nemechek himself expressed his frustration with a teammate during the race last week at Road America, where he felt he was raced unfairly by teammate Connor Mosack in a restart before being pushed into the grass and suffering race-ending damage.
After climbing through the field and taking the lead at Michigan in a strong recovery drive, Nemechek held the lead on the final restart on lap 112 and never looked back, ultimately crossing the line with a 1.495-second lead. It’s his own fifth win of the season, and the seventh in his career, in addition to the team’s milestone.
Polesitter Josh Berry challenged Nemechek on the final restart, but felt like he just didn’t have anything for Nemechek at the end. Berry ended up second.
“We just felt really tight that last run,” Berry said.
“I was kind of inching in on him for a while, and then we kind of leveled out,” he said of the racing before the caution. “Overall, we were a little too tight to make a run at him there.”
Brandon Jones finished third, while Ty Gibbs, despite his own spin, ended up fourth. Defending Road America winner Sam Mayer rounded out the top five.
Riley Herbst, Ross Chastain, Parker Kligerman, Parker Retzlaff and Jeb Burton rounded out the top 10.
Justin Allgaier, Berry’s JR Motorsports teammate, finished fourteenth despite being the strongest driver early. He won the first stage in a tight battle before a slow pit stop pushed him down the running order.
A pit penalty in Stage 2 cost him more time and meant he had to battle through the field for the rest of the race.
With the victory, Nemechek is currently tied with Austin Hill for the series points lead. Nemechek holds a potential tiebreaker with five victories to Hill’s four thanks to this win.
There were seven cautions, five of which were for cause, throughout the race. Most involved single-car spins, and the biggest was the lap 11 incident involving the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. That early incident also ended the day of Mason Maggio and Carson Hocever.
The Xfinity Series returns for the Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday, August 12th at 5:30 pm ET.
Photos: NASCAR at Michigan International Speedway, Saturday Aug. 5, 2023
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – Cabo Wabo 250
Michigan International Speedway
Brooklyn, Michigan
Saturday, August 5, 2023
1. (10) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 125.
2. (1) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 125.
3. (14) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 125.
4. (8) Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, 125.
5. (4) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 125.
6. (5) Riley Herbst, Ford, 125.
7. (11) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 125.
8. (17) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 125.
9. (24) Parker Retzlaff #, Chevrolet, 125.
10. (23) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 125.
11. (3) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 125.
12. (15) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 125.
13. (22) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 125.
14. (2) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 125.
15. (16) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 125.
16. (13) Cole Custer, Ford, 125.
17. (12) Brett Moffitt, Ford, 125.
18. (18) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 125.
19. (21) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 125.
20. (6) Chandler Smith #, Chevrolet, 125.
21. (25) Kaz Grala, Toyota, 124.
22. (29) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 124.
23. (35) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 124.
24. (34) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 124.
25. (33) Sage Karam, Ford, 124.
26. (27) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 124.
27. (28) Joe Graf Jr., Ford, 124.
28. (32) Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, 124.
29. (37) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 123.
30. (26) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 123.
31. (30) Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, 123.
32. (7) Carson Hocevar(i), Chevrolet, 123.
33. (38) Blaine Perkins #, Chevrolet, 123.
34. (36) Patrick Emerling, Ford, 120.
35. (20) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, Electrical, 91.
36. (19) Connor Mosack, Toyota, Accident, 39.
37. (31) Mason Maggio(i), Ford, Accident, 16.
38. (9) Sammy Smith #, Toyota, Accident, 11.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 124.931 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 0 Mins, 4 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.495 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 31 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: J. Berry 0;J. Allgaier 1-32;T. Gibbs(i) 33-54;J. Nemechek 55-96;R. Herbst 97;B. Moffitt 98-101;S. Karam 102;J. Nemechek 103-125.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): John Hunter Nemechek 2 times for 65 laps; Justin Allgaier 1 time for 32 laps; Ty Gibbs(i) 1 time for 22 laps; Brett Moffitt 1 time for 4 laps; Sage Karam 1 time for 1 lap; Riley Herbst 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,8,00,16,98,9,21,39,1,78
Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,7,19,98,21,00,8,1,9,25
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