Daniel Hemric just edges Austin Cindric at the finish(Photo: Getty Images)
Daniel Hemric stood atop his car and did a successful backflip off in celebration of the last lap pass that not only earned him his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win but also the season championship for that tour. And if they were capable of doing so, it’s likely that some high ranking NASCAR officials would have been doing the same thing from atop their desks, sofas, or luxury suite seats at the end of the Xfinity Series Championship Race on Saturday night at the Phoenix Raceway.
The leaders of the sport got everything they hoped for when they devised the NASCAR Playoffs out of that race. There was drama throughout the event involving the Championship 4, but most notably, that drama reached its peak on the 204th and final lap. The system is designed to create situations in which drivers have to give it their all in order to ultimately be crowned as the series champion and that’s exactly what Hemric had just done.
When Hemric dealt just enough of a last lap nudge to move leader and fellow championship contender Austin Cindric up the track so that he could grind his way alongside and ultimately by his rival conformation came that no driver can count on fifth-placing his way to a title.
Hemric’s post-race description of the physical and mental exhaustion he was feeling is exactly what NASCAR wants a driver to feel at the end of a championship-deciding race.
“I blacked out,” the newly crowned champ declared. “Blacked out. Just knew I had to be the first one to the line. I thought I let him get too much of a run off of four. Drove into one, knew I was close not to completely use them up, but we work our asses off for an opportunity like this. Excuse my language. This is what it’s all about, winning at the second highest level in all of motorsports. What an honor.”
NASCAR partners such as its tracks, its media content providers and its corporate sponsors want excitement. They want reasons for people to tune in week after week. They want them to have to keep watching right up to the last lap for a champion to be determined and this Playoff system does exactly that. And what made the Hemric-Cindric battle even better was the fact that they were racing for the win as well as the championship. Unlike Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series finale, the eventual champion was not competing for air time with the race winner because Hemric was both.
And more, the ending of that race showed that Phoenix was in fact a suitable choice for NASCAR’s championship weekend as the track showed it can stage a race with an exciting ending. The leaders of the sport have been criticized in some circles for moving the finale away from popular Homestead-Miami Speedway but this race showed that the one-mile track can deliver.
Following the thrilling finish, runner-up Cindric summed it up best as far as NASCAR and its partners are concerned.
“If everyone in the stands enjoyed it, it’s good racing,” the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion stated as fans cheered in the background … or maybe those cheers were coming from the NASCAR hierarchy.
Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association
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