Jeremy Clements Earns 2nd Career Win at Daytona

With weather pushing the race back to an 11:00 pm EST green flag, the wild wrecks, and playoff implications on the line, it was for sure a wild race at Daytona. The race also ended with an upset win and gave a driver a spot in the playoffs, that driver being Jeremy Clements. Clements earned his second career win in a race that ended around 1:30 am EST, making it five years to the day that Clements earned his first career win at Road America on August 27, 2017.

“I’m speechless, man. I don’t even know what to say,” said Clements after winning the race. “We survived that big wreck back there (in the first overtime). It was like a ‘Days of Thunder’ wreck. Then I was like, ‘If we can just keep up with these guys, it’ll be a good day, top five, and bring this car home in one piece.’ But, wow! This is incredible.”

Clements was able to get a huge push from Sage Karam on the final restart after the race leader Austin Hill lost power. Clements was able to hold his own against a charging AJ Allmendinger as Riley Herbst went spinning behind the leaders coming to the white flag. Herbst was unable to continue going and the caution was thrown, ending the race, and giving Jeremy Clements the win.

In a race where 18 cars ended up in the garage by the end of it, it was sent into overtime when Landon Cassill hit the outside wall and came back down on Jeb Burton with three laps to go. Not only that, but a wreck occurred upfront when Daniel Hemric got into Noah Gragson, sending eight cars into a wreck.

It was a big night for smaller teams with Timmy Hill scoring a career-best 2nd-place, driving for Carl Long’s MBM Motorsports. Brandon Brown, who won at Talladega last fall, came close, finishing third. Sage Karam, driving for Alpha Prime Racing, finished 5th, as well as Ryan Vargas (6th), Alex Labbe (8th), J.J. Yeley (9th), Kyle Seig (10th), and Jesse Iwuji (11th)

For Brandon Brown, the rest of his season, and possibly his career is now a mystery. Brown felt like he had to win in order to save his season, as he has been unable to secure sponsorship for his family race team, Brandonbilt Motorsports. Brown came two spots away from securing a spot in the playoffs.

“There’s so much riding on this race,” Brown told Frontstretch before the race. “Fingers crossed that we get in. Just try and win tonight and then focus everything on doing the best we can for this season.”

Brown was emotional after the race, having thoughts on what he could’ve done differently that would’ve put him in victory lane.

“Honestly, looking back, it was my fault,” Brown said to Frontstretch afterward. “I just made the move way too early on the No. 51. I needed to keep the No. 16 on my bumper. I was just going for it. It feels like everything was on the line today. I just wasn’t able to clutch it or pull it off.”

“You set yourself up and say, ‘Look, this kid’s a driver.’ That’s all I wanted to do” continued Brown. “That’s all I ever wanted to do is drive and race for wins. It’s been a rough year. Really disappointed.”

Clement’s win pushes Ryan Sieg back to the first driver out of the playoff cutline. Sieg now sits 12 points back from 12th place and Sheldon Creed, after being taken out in an early wreck, sits 55 points outside the cutline.

The Xfinity Series heads next to Darlington on September 3rd at 3:30 pm EST. Three races remain until the Xfinity Series playoffs.