John Hunter Nemechek: “Learned a Lesson the Hard Way” as He Gets a Crash Course in Next Gen Vulnerability

The NASCAR Cup Series race at the Texas Motor Speedway saw multiple car crashes on Sunday. Starting with Christopher Bell‘s spin from the 10th position, the crash had him, Alex Bowman, and John Hunter Nemechek in line. The JGR driver lost control of his car and went on to hit the outside SAFER barrier. This led to substantial damage to the No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE. Bowman, who tried to avoid the crash, took a spin backward but ended up being hit by Nemechek’s car in the left front corner.

Post this crash, Nemechek had another setback lined up for him at lap 230. Opening up on these incidents, John Hunter Nemechek considered it to be an eye-opener.

John Hunter Nemechek’s struggle with his Next-Gen car

Although both Christopher Bell and John Hunter Nemechek continued the race following the crash with the latter’s car in lap 102, the LMC driver could only race up to a total of 226 laps as he suffered a setback for the second time during the race. His Toyota Camry snapped loose, hitting hard into the outside wall at lap 230.

Post the race on Sunday, Frontstretch caught John Hunter Nemechek for an interview. Speaking of the crashes, Stephen Stumpf asked the driver about what exactly led to his crash with Bowman as he enquired, “What happened on the first one? Bowman said he just kind of hit the brakes. And a little bit more than he wanted to, and it locked up on him. Did you have nowhere to go once he started spinning?” Replying to this, John Hunter Nemechek admitted that he had hit the brakes hard enough leading to his car spinning, and he had nowhere to go.

Continuing, he spoke about the second crash as he said, “And then the second one there I just drove in on the outside of the two and it snapped. I guess it’s part of this car. I guess I learned a lesson the hard way.” John Hunter Nemechek apparently was struggling with the features of his car as he claimed his performance was a possible outcome of that very aspect.

The driver seemingly got an idea of the toe-in and toe-out features of the Next gen car as he spoke of fixing the toe while recalling the crash with Bowman. He mentioned that after the other driver began spinning, he followed suit. Apparently, when he applied the brakes forcefully, his vehicle spun, leaving him with no escape. He considered it a normal occurrence. However, the toe was repaired, and he had a remarkably swift Toyota Camry XSE at the scene.

Having said that, it wasn’t just Nemechek who had to deal with setbacks, as even his team owner had his own demons to battle on the racetrack.

A multi-wrecked Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway

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Jimmie Johnson too had a fair share of his struggles racing at this 1.5 mile oval as he eventually finished at P29. The team owner spun on Lap 50, raising a caution. Thankfully, JJ avoided the DNF, much to the relief of fans, especially considering his part-time appearances.

Apart from Nemechek and Bowman, the other DNFs included Austin Hill, Josh Berry, and Michael McDowell. Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell was leading the race at one point. Unfortunately, he ended up hitting the side walls, ending an excellent opportunity to shine.

During the race, Josh Berry in the No. 4 Miner Ford Mustang Dark Horse faced a series of unfortunate events too. While racing against Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Lap 121, he spun up the racetrack and lightly hit the outside wall, causing minor damage. However, despite that, Berry returned to the track. But his luck took a turn for the worse during Lap 136. In the second corner, the SHR star’s car spun again, slamming into the outside wall, ultimately having him out of the race.

Following this series of happenings, the drivers re probably looking forward to the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 21. Hopefully Talladega will treat them better! What do you think?