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Daniel Hemric claims Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors

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Kyle Busch wins the NASCAR Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway for Joe Gibbs Racing.

On his way out the door, Daniel Hemric gave Richard Childress Racing a parting gift.

Hemric closed out the 2019 Cup Series season - and his three-year tenure with the team - by winning Cup Rookie of the Year honors.

The 28-year-old driver finished 12th Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway and ended his rookie year 25th in the point standings. That was one spot ahead of Ryan Preece, who finished 27 points behind him.

The other major rookie, Matt Tifft, ended the year 31st in the standings, but missed the last three races following a seizure at Martinsville Speedway last month.

Hemric’s finish in Sunday’s race was his best since he also placed 12th in the Bristol night race in August. He finished the season with one top five (fifth in spring race at Talladega) and one other top 10 (seventh in July race at Pocono). He also earned a pole at Kansas.

“It’s pretty special to say the least,” Hemric said. “I wish we were able to win Rookie of the Year and have a couple more solid finishes throughout the year than what we had, but about five or six weeks ago, myself and Preece somehow ended up tied with four or five races to go, so we knew we had to buckle down. And really proud of this group for doing that.”

Hemric’s Rookie of the Year honors come after Richard Childress Racing - for whom Hemric raced two years in the Xfinity Series in 2017 and 2018 seasons, as well as his first Cup campaign in 2019 - announced in September the driver wouldn’t return to its No. 8 Chevrolet in 2020. Tyler Reddick will take his place in the car.

On Wednesday, JR Motorsports announced Hemric would drive its No. 8 Chevy in 21 races next year in the Xfinity Series.

“It’s tough for (his team), obviously, with me announcing my plans over the last couple days, a lot of those guys’ future is unknown,” Hemric said. “It’s easy for them to lay down, and they didn’t. They kept continuing to put their best effort in every single week. For the last three weeks, we were able to string three decent races together, tonight being one of our best of the year.”

Hemric’s achievement comes the night after Reddick won the Xfinity Series title for RCR and at the tail end of the team’s 50th anniversary year.
“I don’t want that to get lost in things,” Hemric said. “50 years RCR has been in existence, and what Richard and (his wife) Mrs. Judy and that organization has done for countless numbers of people throughout our industry, they’ve changed lives and done it in bulk.

“To be able to see Reddick do what he did, between himself and his crew chief, Randall (Burnett), and that whole group last night, the job they did was exceptional all year, to bring RCR another Xfinity Series championship. And at the beginning of every year we all set a certain amount of boxes that we all want to check, and we were able to check off a couple of those throughout the year, and tonight was a big one we wanted to accomplish.”

Hemric, who remains winless in five full-time seasons competing in NASCAR’s three national series, described his looming move to JRM as a “kind of a breath of fresh air.”

“I’m really pumped up starting right to getting to work on that deal,” Hemric said. “Having runs like tonight make me go into the offseason knowing I can compete and race at this level.
“It’s the little things when you have a season like we’ve had that get you over that emotional hump.”

One of those moments happened Sunday.
“I passed a seven‑time champion (Jimmie Johnson) on the last lap of a 60‑lap run at Homestead,” Hemric said. “Those are little victories you find in the light at the end of the tunnel in years like this.”

As to his eventual competition in the Xfinity Series, Hemric put them on notice.

“There’s no gray area,” Hemric said. “They know why I’m coming there. They know my goal is to get back to this level, and I feel like it’ll be a full force effort to get me back.”

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