LEBANON – Two NASCAR drivers with Nashville ties, John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler Smith, finished first and second respectively Saturday in the Xfinity Series Tennessee Lottery 250 race at Nashville Superspeedway.
Both drivers’ first races included races at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, making the race even more special.
Nemechek, 27, a native of Mooresville, North Carolina and son of former NASCAR Cup Series driver Joe Nemechek, won the 30th annual All-American 400 at the Nashville Fairgrounds in 2015. Joe Nemechek also raced at the Nashville Fairgrounds early in his career.
Smith, from Talking Rock, Georgia, began his racing career at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway when he was just 13 years old. He raced there regularly before moving up to the NASCAR Truck Series in 2019.
“Racing Super Late Models at the Fairgrounds and being able to win there was a really big part of my career and to be able to get a win now here at the great track of Nashville Superspeedway is really special to me,” Nemechek said. “Just checking the boxes of the tracks I’ve been able to win at, I can relate that to growing up here racing.
“I started out in the heavier stock cars, or the biggest stock cars on the fairgrounds.”
Nemechek said he was happy when NASCAR returned to the Nashville area when Nashville Superspeedway reopened in 2021. He was confident it would be a success.
“When I raced at the Nashville Fairgrounds, there were a lot of times when I was there sold out, so to be able to come to the same market for a NASCAR race and be able to put on a great show was huge,” Nemechek said.
Nemechek is also on track for the Cup Series Ally 400, which takes place Sunday (2:30 p.m. CST, KeynoteUSA) at Nashville Superspeedway. He qualified 35th in the No. 42 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Nemechek took the lead on Saturday after the final restart and remained there for the rest of the race.
“They’re two different animals, two completely different cars,” Nemechek said after being asked if there was a way to carry momentum from Saturday’s race to Sunday’s. “It’s definitely given me internal confidence. It helps me to have been able to move forward and stay there, but tomorrow I have work to do to get off to a good start.”
Even after his car was damaged in a crash with Justin Allgaier and Ty Gibbs, Smith was able to finish 0.366 seconds behind Nemechek.
Smith, like Nemechek, said winning at Nashville Superspeedway was special because of his history at the Nashville Fairgrounds.
“This is where my fan base originated, this Nashville area,” Smith said. “It’s nice to finally get a good result here. The last few weeks, if you look at a graph, it looks like a damn mountain, going up and down, up and down. We’re starting to find some consistency and I’m glad we were able to do that today and hopefully we can continue that in Chicago.”
Nemechek finished sixth and Smith was 12th in the 2023 Tennessee Lottery 250.
Contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or X @MikeOrganWriter.
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