"I’m really proud of how far we’ve come with this No. 31 Cirkul Chevrolet from Daytona, as far as speed goes. It's hard to make gains there with everyone being so close. We qualified right at about 30th in Daytona, and then we came here and qualified inside the top 20, which is a big deal as we saw today with fuel saving. You have to have a faster racecar that lets you save more fuel. I’m proud of this team and to have had a clean race. " - Daniel
Daniel Hemric qualified 19th for the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
By lap seven, Hemric had made his way to the front of the pack, leading a total of six laps, before being told to conserve fuel. He stayed in the top 10 for a majority of the stage, before pitting on lap 41 for fuel only. He went on to finish 19th in a caution-free opening stage.
Hemric radioed that the No. 31 Cirkul Camaro ZL1 was a little tight throughout the bottom and middle on exit the last 15 laps of the opening stage. He pitted during the first stage break for four tires and fuel and started the second stage from 18th. Hemric stayed just outside the top 10 before dropping back to play it safe. The race remained caution-free, and Hemric pitted on lap 104 with teammate, van Gisbergen, for two seconds of fuel. He went on to finish stage two in 20th.
Hemric started the final stage in 20th and made it to 11th, before the first caution of the day came out on lap 134. The No. 31 Cirkul Chevy pitted to top off with fuel and restarted third on lap 139. Hemric led another lap before being told to save fuel. As some cars pitted, Hemric was running fifth when a caution came out on lap 156. Hemric pitted under caution for fuel only before restating 12th with 28 laps to go. As cars in front of him wrecked at the checkered, Hemric made it through unscathed and finished the race in ninth, earning his first top-10 finish of the season.
