NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: CHAMPIONSHIP

November 6, 2021

Daniel Hemric

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric.

We'll get right to questions.

Q. Tell us about this dream you had a couple months ago. Last night you said you'd been waiting your whole life for this moment.

DANIEL HEMRIC: You never know it's going to be that moment, right? I don't know. Throughout my entire career I've had situations where the competitiveness is at the top, you're putting your entire life into trying to figure out that particular week at the racetrack. I'm talking more so short-track racing. Particularly big weekends, championship weekends, crown jewel events.

For whatever reason I'd have certain dreams around those events. It was so calming to the point to where I didn't worry about what was ahead, I didn't worry about what if. It also took me to a spot where it didn't let me think about what it would be like. It was just go in and put the work in.

Honestly I haven't had one of those in a really, really long time until about two months ago. I had that. I thought, Okay, pretty calming. Show up, continue to show up, put the work in, it will all work out.

Obviously you can only dream it will work out the way it did. Unbelievable that it turned out the way it did. I could have only asked for an opportunity to line up on the front row with five to go, a green-white-checkered situation, then be able to have it end like it did. Pretty mind-boggling, but something that was good to rekindle those feelings, have those dreams if you want to call them, to be able to live them out, pretty life changing, for sure something I won't forget for the rest of my life.

Q. Among all the people in your throng was Tim Ladyga, the guy who when you were 14 sold his own car to keep your racing career alive. What was your interaction with him?

DANIEL HEMRIC: Thank you for bringing that up. It was so special to see him, Mr. L, as I call him, Tim Ladyga. For those that don't know, he sold one of his personal muscle cars that he built, spent a ton of money on to put me in a Legend car. At 13, 14 years old I was to a point there was no way any of my parents and stepparents in 9:00 to 5:00 jobs could keep me going racing. We're talking go-karts and Bandoleros. Next step was a Legend car. That was never in the cards.

Tim sold his car, bought a Legend car. First car owner of mine at 14, 15 years old. That was the first time I realized the work that really had to go in. It was all on my shoulders to figure this out. It took guys like Tim Ladyga, to be able to share that moment with him out there on the start/finish line, heck, he was part of my championship runs in 2017 and 2018 and falling short.

A bit of validation for him. He stuck his neck out so many times for me. When I drove for him at that young age, heck, you work for Hendrick, pitting Jimmie Johnson's cars. He would tell, Jimmie, you got to see this guy. He was kind of that dad, if you will. Everybody loves that dad who is always bragging about their kid. He was that guy for me at that age. It was cool to feel all that come full circle, to see him down on the start/finish line. It's validation that he was telling people what he believed in me, for me to go show people what he saw in me, that's validation for myself and I think for him.

Through those years, thanks for him and his friendship with him and his wife, Cheryl, who is an employee of mine, believe it or not, to this day. It took a lot of folks like Tim Ladyga and past him to give me the opportunity to get here. It was cool to get an opportunity to share that with him.

Q. Three cautions in the last 20 laps. When the first of those came out, what were the emotions like for you? It seemed like you had a better car on the long run than the short run.

DANIEL HEMRIC: That's very accurate. I was very, very happy with our car after lap 20 to 25 all night long. Whenever we went green, looked like we were going to go possibly, what, 60 to the end, I thought that was going to play in our hands.

That run in particular, I actually had more front grip, less rear grip than I had all night which was not going to help me keep the Supra living for as long as I was hoping for. Still think I maybe could have got the 22, but I was going to need some help.

When the caution came out, I thought, Okay, not being our strong suit, Dave Rogers asked me very directly what do I need. Pretty simple, Dave, I need important grip, front grip, rear grip, I need to be able to attack harder.

Dave has been an incredible advocate of mine to not get too far into the moment, just live directly, tell him what I need, not necessarily how to do it. I think if I've ever done that, it was that particular pit stop. I don't care what you do, whatever it is, just give me this. When he did that, whatever it was, I still haven't asked him what's adjustment was, it let me take off and be able to have a chance to run with the 22.

His short run speed was incredible all night. I knew we were going to have an uphill battle. I also knew that the decisions I had to make at Martinsville, choosing to play it safe, if you will, to give our race team an opportunity to race for tonight, I was not going to lose this championship from the second row. If I was going to lose, it was going to be heads up to the 22.

I knew I could race Austin hard, aggressively, respectfully. That's the way we've raced each other all year. He's a hell of a race car driver. Obviously he's got an incredible opportunity next year to keep his run with Penske going. I know he'll make the most of I.

Obviously I know I'm going to Kaulig, that's all fine and good. JGR, Dave Rogers, they believed in me so much. When I got the chance to line up on the front row, I knew we moved the needle enough to at least give us that shot that we worked 33 weeks for, just knew I had to keep him in sight. If I kept him in sight, I knew we would have a shot, it worked out.

Q. The move coming off of four to win the championship, how long had you planned that move? I assume it was probably on the restart you put together. Did you execute it how you wanted to?

DANIEL HEMRIC: I'm sitting up here, so I'd say yes. The short answer is there was no plan. Earlier somebody asked me what was I thinking, what was the process of all those moves. One of the first times in my life, probably since I've been in a NASCAR vehicle, there was no thinking. It was just reacting.

Dave Rogers, I've said it many, many times since doing the celebration out there on the frontstretch, he's been a huge critic of mine this year, pushing me to be a better race car driver only, not the Daniel Hemric who had to work on his cars, had to drive his truck and trailers to the racetrack, who had to worry about every part and piece of the car, all that. Reacting strictly off instinct.

There was no plan. Go where he's not. Position myself to wherever that run is going to be, do whatever you can to keep that forward progress moving.

Honestly I got loose in underneath him. I had a big run to him before the next to last caution came out. That gave me confidence to know I could at least get there. When I had the next shot, coming to the wide, I got really loose into three underneath him. Found myself in a really bad spot. I thought that was it.

For whatever reason, I had enough lateral grip to kind of feed the throttle back to it, it stayed underneath me enough to give me a chance. That's all I wanted. I wanted a chance.

He drove in hard to keep me from getting to him. I had way more balance than I'd had all night getting into three. It was close enough to get him upset, to gives ourselves a shot, and that's how it worked out.

Q. The backflip was planned. How good did that feel to finally be able to do that, and how did you think you stuck the landing?

DANIEL HEMRIC: How do you think I stuck the landing?

Q. Pretty damn good.

DANIEL HEMRIC: Somebody said, man, surprised you went off the roof instead of door. As long as it took me to win, I should have did it off the top of the flag stand.

I'll stick with the roof now. It was fun.

Q. How long did you do it since after a win?

DANIEL HEMRIC: That's funny you ask that. Legitimately I think the last time I won a race was All-American 400 2014, 2015 maybe. That was the only time I've ever driven my own race car for myself, by myself, the whole deal.

Without a doubt that was the biggest win of my life because I didn't know what was next in life. I had some limited truck opportunities. At the time I was building late models, people renting my cars, doing that kind of thing. That was huge to build my own car, go win in it. Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. I've gotten that question a lot leading into the championship weekend. Man, can you do it still? Whatnot.

I said to everybody, Toyota has whipped me into shape this year. They have an incredible training program. I've busted many out in their gym throughout the years. I was more than prepared for that moment. It was cool to be able to live that out.

Q. You said it's good and dandy moving to Kaulig Racing next year. Now that you have the championship with JGR, is there any regret of leaving JGR?

DANIEL HEMRIC: Yeah, none. No regret. My goal coming here to Joe Gibbs Racing first off, having the opportunity provided to me by Joe, from Coy, obviously everyone at TRD and Toyota, most importantly Poppy Bank, right? They made an investment in me this year.

It's funny. I don't know how far is too far to go with this. I took a ride this year, people thought, betting on themselves. I took a ride this year to not take a dime, to not get paid, to have to perform to be able to put food on the table. When I say that, you don't run with what you can see in one hand, you do not make a dime that weekend. I knew that was the only chance for me to rebuild my career, right? Poppy Bank said they would support that if that's the decision I made.

They've had my back through thick and thin, through building to the Cup Series, to them not really having to be too involved, to helping me rebuild my career when it's unraveling before me come midway through 2019, losing my ride. I feel like the whole world is crumbling around me. This sport you live in from the time you're five years old, you reached the peak, now you're on the decline. That was an experience I never wanted to experience, hope nobody else ever has to experience. At the end of the day it's business.

They stuck with me, gave me the shot to go to JGR. I promised them I would do everything in my power to show them success. Did it take longer than I wanted to? Absolutely. Mr. Bill and Miss Cindy and Will, the folks I'm talking to at Poppy Bank, changed my life, changed my family's life, the course of our lives. Put me in a situation to better myself to go to JGR.

It's obviously bittersweet, right? When you win one, you want to win the next one. It's all fine and good. I'm just thankful to be able to drive for Coach, be around him, his group, his people. He teaches and preaches about people. That's all he talks about. I've had incredible people before JGR, I've had incredible people at JGR, I'm looking forward to having incredible people to support me moving forward.

Betting on yourself, it's hard to beat that. Tonight proved that.

Q. Coming close on several different occasions, what does it do for you to not have to answer that question of when are you going to win?

DANIEL HEMRIC: That's a damn good feeling, I can promise you that (smiling).

It's funny, I saw Dale Jarrett up on the stage. I can promise you I was very aware that him and I were tied for 10 second-place finishes. I told him I did not want to break his record (laughter).

No, I mean, listen, when you do that as many times as I have, you're keeping yourself in the game, right? That means you've continued to show up, you've continued to be there. Everybody said, Man, you're so close. Then the next thing you know, another year goes by, another year goes by. The self-doubt creeps in, right? We talked about that process of coming through 2017, '18, '19, the rebuild process it's taken to get here.

Through that deal I've had so many people just continue to push me, let me know that's not who I was. Not the guy that is always going to run second, not the guy who is going to quit at this. They're right.

I feel like when it's been the toughest, a lot of people don't continue to show up, they just continue to remind me to keep showing up. I can promise you as I sit here I'm thankful that I did.

Q. If you had finishes that were in the top five, from what you indicated, are those good paydays? You don't seem to be a guy who is hugely motivated by money. Did that impact you, the way you drove?

DANIEL HEMRIC: No, it definitely didn't impact. The hunger to feel this is what impacted me tonight. It's impacted me my whole life. It's the matter of getting an opportunity and seizing it.

I will tell you from a perspective, any parent will tell you that when it's you and your wife, it's one thing, you think you'll figure it out. When you bring another person in this world, like our little girl Rhen, that's a different perspective. To bet on yourself, the livelihood of your family, your daughter eating, putting food on the table, that changes it.

Knowing the decisions I had to make last week to give our family the shot we did tonight, there's no more motivation needed than that.

Q. You said after the race that you'd take all the heartbreaks again to live this night. You never lived this night, would all those heartbreaks not have been worth it? Would you rather not have finished second 10 times?

DANIEL HEMRIC: If it leads to moments like this, I don't know what you do.

Q. (No microphone.)

DANIEL HEMRIC: I mean, I think about appreciation, right? I appreciate every one of those moments, I think I said this during media week, after Martinsville, every one of those moments there was something to be learned internally myself. Right? I didn't pull it off. There was a reason why. You can call it circumstances, call it events, you can call it luck, whatever it is. Whatever that was, something to learn from.

I'd like to think I used every one of those to make happen what I had to make happen on that green-white-checkered.

Q. You've had such a turbulent, roller coaster few years. I can't keep track. What was the one moment that you came closest that you wouldn't be here at all tonight, overcome a low point?

DANIEL HEMRIC: I mean, there's been many, many turning points throughout my career, right? You say career lightly, but starting this at five years old, we're talking through the short track ranks. Talk about not having that next opportunity from the time I was 14, it was trying to figure it out on your own.

When you do that, you have many of those moments. But getting to the NASCAR level was something that really happened very fast for me, to be honest with you. I have been fortunate to build a Supra late model program and be with an incredible family that would support me and let me drive their cars and work on their cars, build their cars. That would be my path I thought. Obviously my wife was there with me along that entire ride.

Through that process, then you do get here. You're like, Man, this is incredible, right? This is what you dream of. You start looking at the hundreds of thousands of kids who start out wanting to drive race cars for a living. You realize the top three series, you take those numbers, it's incredible to overcome to get there.

I think I never once took it for granted. In the grand scheme of things, having a chance to run for a championship quickly in the Xfinity Series in '17 and '18, it's hard to appreciate that until you go through tougher days.

Near the middle to end of 2019 when I learned I would not be returning to what is the pinnacle of our sport, having a chance to continue to build something, that was, Now what happens? You get there, you never think about how you're going to have to rebuild.

Then 2020 hit, can we all agree that sucked for everybody? Man, it was rough. I mean, couldn't finish races. I felt like everything that I built my entire career around, people giving me chance, people giving me opportunity, was not tearing race cars up, being there at the end, getting more or as much as the car was there to let you without overstepping it. I feel like I did the exact opposite of that all last year with JR M. Not ashamed to admit that. Compounding one mistake after another. Misfortune, whatever you want to call it, just wasn't working out. That was incredibly tough.

I'll never forget, we talk about getting an opportunity, support from Poppy Bank. A golf outing in Bandon Dunes, Oregon. I'm sitting there with the guy behind the scenes of Poppy Bank, we're on a driving range, and him and Coach Gibbs are on the phone. He walks away. I knew in that moment the entire course of my life was in the hands of whatever that conversation was.

I'm sitting here having to hit golf balls, I'm in this incredible golf resort. I'm hitting golf balls thinking, He just expects me to stand here, act like there's nothing big happening. He walks away for five minutes, comes back, walks right by me, goes to the putting green. Didn't say a word him.

I know he's had a conversation, my fate has been sealed, and I don't know what's going on. And him and his son pulled me aside right before we teed off there for a two-day event with their higher-ups of their company, and he tells me, Do you want to bet on yourself? You're going to drive for JGR next year.

Prior to that day, I literally knew my life was at the fortune of the sponsorship, the funding, the entire outlook of how did he see me. Does he see me as a guy who struggled to the end of -- is this the tipping point of 2020, or does he see me as a guy who is going to continue to show up if he gives me an opportunity. That was the moment tonight, really brought it full circle.

Q. Couple things. Your hauler.

DANIEL HEMRIC: Completely forgot to mention any of that. What a mess.

Q. You're racing for a championship. Your car is not here. What are you thinking?

DANIEL HEMRIC: Probably a good thing. We didn't have all the parts and pieces to screw it up too bad in practice (smiling).

No, I don't know, man. I told everybody, you control what you can control, right? The furthest thing out of my control is if my race hauler gets here with the race car. This day and age, at one point in my life that was important, I had to get it there. Yet here we are just about as far away from my race shop as I can get. Truck broke down in Texas. I had an incredible group of folks, more than I can name, rallied together, made phone calls. Got picked up at 3 a.m. on the side of the road, just a car and a tire dolly and a little itty-bitty like carry toolbox. Not even the toolbox. That's what we had to work with. Luckily our ARCA team had an extra set of scales. If the car shows up, it rolled through the tunnel -- what was it, 20 minutes before practice, 30 minutes before practice. NASCAR worked with us.

Yeah, I don't know, it was funny because in that moment I've heard Coach talk about people. Everybody had their own team. You have the 20, 19, 54. Yet when our hauler rolled through the garage, everyone was all in, all those folks were all in to get our car unloaded, do what it took, however many it took to get it through tech. Every one of them helped that process flow to make sure we got on the racetrack.

That's what Coach talks about, right? People. Seeing those guys come together and bond, it meant to me like these guys are all in. I'm answering your question in a really long way.

In the grand scheme of things, it makes for a better story. It made it here. That means we had as good of a shot as anybody. It's cool we capitalized on it.

Q. This whole story, are you in disbelief over everything?

DANIEL HEMRIC: Right now, yeah, a little bit. A little bit. I don't know why, but for some reason I think back to winning the Legends Million, I think 2010. I cruise into that racetrack that night, that race win put me is what I feel like, my name on the map for a little bit.

Pulled in there in a '95 Honda Civic. Literally ran out of fuel. Win the race. Pump fuel out of my race car into my Honda civic to get me home because I don't have enough money to buy gas to get home. All this stuff, right?

That was in disbelief that entire night. I'll never forget laying out at a Steak 'n Shake, head on the table, all of our group of supporters are eating. I'm just tired. We prepared 12 cars. We take home this $250,000 check to win a Legend car race. I was in disbelief. I haven't felt that again until tonight. The things that have to go the way they have to go for stories to be wrote like the one we wrote tonight, what else can you ask out of life, right? Memories.

Have a huge supporter of mine, he was like a father figure. He said when I got my first NASCAR opportunity, This is incredible. Getting ready to make my Truck start, he says, This is the destination. He said, I just want you to remember the destination is all fine and good, but the journey is everything.

The journey it took us to get here today, it's something you can't make up.

Q. One person not here tonight was your mom.

DANIEL HEMRIC: How about that?

Q. Why did she miss?

DANIEL HEMRIC: What did you hear?

Q. I heard something about a horse.

DANIEL HEMRIC: That's pretty funny.

Yeah, she's taken on this love of horses lately over the last couple years. She works in the nursing field. Works crazy hours. Something that she actually took up as I was already kind of off trying to figure out racing. Yeah, her horse got injured. It cost her a lot of money to get it worked on this week. Leg had to get sewn up.

In the middle of that she called, This is going to cost so much money, you're going to be so busy. I offered obviously to fly them out here, take care of it. She's like, You know what, you're going to be so busy, we're going to hang out here, we'll watch it and see you when we get back. We're going to hate if we miss it.

I said, We can party there or back at home. Looks like we'll be partying back at home when we get there. It's a cool thing to do.

Q. What was the conversation when you finally talked to her?

DANIEL HEMRIC: I couldn't hear. Anybody have that parent when they talk to you, it's always on speaker phone. He hands me a phone with thousands of people cheering on speaker phone. What am I going to do with this?

I later got to talk to her once we were up on stage. It was a special moment. I could hear they had a little viewing party. People screaming in the background. Her, my stepfather. It's pretty funny. Her, my stepfather and my father, they all collectively got me into this sport that I love. Whether they were here or not, I know they've all poured everything into this. It was cool to be able to experience that, share it with the ones that were here. I promise you we'll share it together when we get home.

Q. You mentioned the importance of Coach as guidance, the people at JGR and TRD. Do you feel that was the difference maker in you winning the race and championship?

DANIEL HEMRIC: I mean, yeah. People bonding together, that's what overcomes all. I'll tell you that all the folks you named, they've just been an incredible, incredible support system for me to lean on, right? From the fitness side, making myself the best version of myself, to the mental side, to the race prep, making myself the best race car driver I can be.

Yeah, I mean, that's not something that comes to fruition tonight. That's a build process, right? That started from the time I took my gig at JGR, from the season finale end last year at Phoenix, to having everybody put the work in, be willing to work with me. If they don't agree to be all in, none of this works.

Heck, I know that many people on my race team in particular have no idea what they're doing next year. The funny part is, nobody has talked about it. I say nobody, internally. All they've worried about was this one moment, building a race car over the last month and a half, not knowing their futures.

They also know my path, they know where I'm going next year, yet they chose to be all in, be selfless to make sure they gave me everything they had for a couple more weeks to make sure we could try to accomplish something. When you all check that box, it's what you check the box for, is to show up and give it all you have.

They've done that. Just incredibly grateful. Will always be grateful, in their debt for what they provided me from the top to the bottom at JGR, to Toyota, everyone that's had my back, man. It's fun to be able to validate here is why you do it.

Q. I simply want to know who or what is your why? After the struggles in Cup Series two years ago, bad luck last year, what kept you going to get to this night?

DANIEL HEMRIC: That's a great question.

I mean, for me, what else was there, right? I guess that's the why. What else was I going to do? Not make a living doing anything else. I'm not going to be happy doing anything else. What I've done since I was five years old. I don't know how to do anything else. I don't have a high school degree. What else am I going to go do? Racing is what I know, racing is what I love.

Like I said, you throw in the family element, got to provide for them. This is what I know to do. I got people willing to have my back, push me to be a better person today than I was yesterday.

Yeah, I'm going to keep this going. It's because of those people that were standing here tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Daniel, congratulations. Well deserved. Enjoy the off-season with the championship.

DANIEL HEMRIC: Appreciate it, man. Thank you. Have a good off-season.