No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra News and Notes
HEMRIC AT PHOENIX: Daniel Hemric has posted two top-five finishes and four top-10s in six career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix Raceway. Last season, Hemric finished 30th and 25th in Phoenix after being involved in a multi-car accident in the spring and suffering a mechanical issue in the fall. Before that, he had not finished lower than seventh in four previous Phoenix races.
LAS VEGAS RECAP: Hemric led a race-high 74 laps and won stage two on the way to finishing second in last Saturday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The result was the No. 18 driver’s third consecutive top-three effort and his eighth career runner-up finish.
LOOP DATA: Hemric’s standout start to the season is evident in the Loop Data provided by NASCAR. The 30-year-old driver leads the Xfinity Series in percentage of laps run on the lead lap and ranks in the top three in numerous categories, including average running position, driver rating, fastest drivers late in a run, green flag speed, laps in the top 15, fastest laps run, closers and speed by segment.
STARTING UP FRONT: By virtue of NASCAR’s Metric Qualifying system, Hemric and the No. 18 team will start on the pole for Saturday’s race at Phoenix Raceway.
POPPY BANK: Poppy Bank will be featured as the primary sponsor of the No. 18 Supra in Saturday’s race at Phoenix Raceway. Poppy Bank is a 5-star rated organization and is recognized as one of the strongest financial institutions in the country. Since opening its first branch in 2005, Poppy Bank has grown to over $3 Billion in assets with branches across the San Francisco Bay Area, Roseville, and Southern California.
JGR AT PHOENIX: The Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series team has 13 wins at Phoenix Raceway, including Brandon Jones’ victory at the track last March. In 96 combined starts at the one-mile tri-oval, the organization has racked up 42 top-five finishes, 67 top-10s and 2,917 laps led. The team has won at least one race at Phoenix in 10 of the past 11 seasons. Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, and Joey Logano join Jones on the list of drivers who have driven JGR entries to victory lane at the Avondale, Arizona track.
TUNE IN: Coverage of this weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Phoenix Raceway is scheduled for Saturday, March 13, at 5:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Daniel Hemric, Driver of the No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra
Talk about your team’s strong start to the season…
“We feel good about the first few races, but we’re definitely not content. Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and I know we have to keep improving to get where we want to be, and that’s consistently leading laps, running up front and putting ourselves in contention to win races. We’ve been fortunate to get some good finishes so far, but this is a long season and we’re still learning each other. I’m confident that our communication and understanding of one another will continue to get better as we go.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
