Underdog Clements Spins & Wins At Road America
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Jeremy Clements represented underdog racers everywhere with a stunning victory in Sunday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series Johnsonville 180 at Road America.
Clements, driving a family-owned Chevrolet that was built in 2008, used brilliant pit strategy to put himself in position to win the third and final road course race on the NASCAR XFINITY Series schedule this year.
During the final cycle of pit stops in the 45-lap race Clements opted to stay out longer than most of his competitors, inheriting the lead for several laps during the cycle. He built a large gap to his closest rivals before eventually pitting coming to nine laps left.
After Michael Annett pitted on the next lap, that gave the lead to Matt Tifft, who had pitted much earlier than the rest of the field and thus was able to make to the checkered flag without stopping again.
Clements, with fresher tires than all of the cars around him, quickly began to make up time on Tifft. He drove by Cole Custer to take over third on lap 39 and was by Brendan Gaughan for second one lap later.
Now up to second, Clements was still a daunting six seconds behind Tifft with only five laps left in the race.
Clements accepted the challenge in front of him and went to work, taking full advantage of his fresh tires to cut Tifft’s lead down to just 3.2 seconds with four laps left. He chopped the lead down even more on the next lap, leaving just 1.6 seconds between himself and Tifft with three laps left.
As Tifft and Clements crossed the start-finish line with two laps left, Tifft’s gap was now down to just 1.2 seconds. Coming to turn four Tifft caught the slower car of David Starr, costing Tifft a lot of speed as he drove by him at turn four. That allowed Clements to close up right on the bumper of Tifft and the battle for the lead began.
Clements hounded Tifft through the next few corners, making an attempt to pass Tifft at turn eight before backing down and falling back in line behind him. Coming out of turn 13 and heading towards turn 14 Clements got a huge run, diving to the inside of Tifft entering turn 14.
Jeremy Clements (51) bypasses Cole Custer on his way to winning Sunday’s race at Road America. (Dave Moulthrop Photo)
The move nearly proved disastrous for Clements and Tifft. Clements carried too much speed into the corner and Clements got sideways and clipped Tifft, sending both cars into 360 spins at the exit of the corner. Clements quickly recovered and grabbed a gear in his Chevrolet, pulling back on track as Tifft collected his car and gave chase.
With third-place Michael Annett several seconds behind, Clements still had a comfortable lead and was able to complete a trouble-free final lap to score his first NASCAR XFINITY Series victory. By doing so, Clements earned an unexpected playoff berth with only three races left before the playoffs begin.
“I don’t even know what to say. I’m just shocked,” said Clements, who scored his first series victory in his 256th start. “Everything we’ve got is old and used. I just can’t believe it. It’s like…is this real?
“It’s crazy. Our budget a year is a fraction of a big team. This is just a dream come true.”
After watching a replay of the incident with Tifft coming to the white flag, Clements took full responsibility for the accident.
“That’s my fault. That was definitely not his fault,” Clements said. “I got in there and got loose up under him trying to keep off of him. I’m very sorry to Matt. I definitely didn’t mean to wreck him, but I definitely had the better car in my opinion.”
Tifft gave up second to Annett on the final lap and had to settle for third after watching a shot at his first NASCAR XFINITY Series victory disappear right before his eyes.
“Obviously no matter what it’s tough,” Tifft said. “I wish we could have raced it out on the last lap. We were really struggling on old tires. I don’t know if he had newer tires or just had a lot of speed at the end. We were struggling. In some of the braking zones we had wheel hopping and stuff.
“It’s tough to come that close, but we’ll keep knocking on the door. It’s all we can do.”
Justin Marks and Gaughan completed the top-five.
Australian James Davison won the opening stage of the race, but was collected in a crash on the final lap of the second stage and was forced to retire with a cracked radiator.
Daniel Hemric won the second stage and could have been in contention to win his first XFINITY Series race, but he was busted for speeding on pit road during his final pit stop and had to make another pass down pit road. He finished 15th.
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Source :speedsport.com
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