NASCAR Trucks: John Hunter Nemechek wins at Chicagoland Speedway

John Hunter Nemechek played the fuel game better than his more experienced competition Saturday morning and won NASCAR’s American Ethanol e15 225 Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Nemechek, 18, passed Kyle Larson as Larson ran out of gas with two laps remaining to win the first race of his career. Nemechek, the son of former NASCAR driver Joe Nemechek, also ran out of gas on the last lap, but coasted out of Turn 4 to win.

At 18 years, three months and eight days, Nemechek is the fourth-youngest driver to win a Truck race – only Cole Custer, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott were younger. Nemechek is a graduate of Davidson Day School.

Tyler Reddick finished second and also moved into second place in the points standings, 10 behind leader Erik Jones, who was sixth Saturday. Timothy Peters was third and Daniel Suarez fourth. The race was delayed until Saturday morning after being rained out Friday night.

Turning point

Nemechek took the lead when then-leader Kyle Larson ran out of gas on Lap 148. Nemechek had been going easy on the gas pedal for several laps, trying to save fuel himself. He had just enough at the end to win.

Three who mattered

John Hunter Nemechek: Youngster from Mooresville wins for the first time in his career, trusting his crew chief that playing the gas-preservation game would be key to winning.

Kyle Larson: Had the lead with two laps left; unfortunately for him he ran out of gas.

Erik Jones: Extends points lead after sixth-place finish, but it’s still a tight one over Tyler Reddick (10 points).

Observations

▪  Nemechek’s Mooresville-based team has just nine full-time employees (not counting himself and his dad Joe). John Hunter beat Joe to his first Truck win -- Joe is still driving a limited schedule and has never won a Truck race in six seasons (and 23 starts) of trying.

▪  The race for the Trucks championship remains tight entering the final seven races of the season. With Jones’ lead over Reddick a paltry 10 points. Matt Crafton, who finished 14th, dropped from second to third place.

▪  There were a few dangerous moments along pit road, including when Mason Mingus hit a orange cone and plowed into the grass entering pit road. Several laps later, Daniel Hemric apparently lost his brakes and hit one of his pit crew members as he rolled into the stall.

They said it

“Save, save, save, save, save!” – John Hunter Nemechek, on the gas-preserving radio message he got from crew chief Gere Kennon.

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "NASCAR Trucks: John Hunter Nemechek wins at Chicagoland Speedway."