NASCAR Xfinity race winner John Hunter Nemechek, runner-up Chandler Smith have Nashville ties
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' early careers included races at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, which made the race extra special.
Nemechek, 27, a Mooresville, North Carolina native and the son of former NASCAR Cup driver Joe Nemechek , won the 30th annual All-American 400 at Nashville Fairgrounds in 2015. Joe Nemechek also raced at Nashville Fairgrounds early in his career.
Smith, from Talking Rock, Georgia, began his racing career at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway when he was only 13. 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 important part of my career and being able to get a win now here at the big track at Nashville Superspeedway is really special for me," Nemechek said. "Just checking boxes of racetracks I've been able to win at, I get to tie that to growing up here racing.
"I got my start in the heavier stock cars, or bigger stock cars at the Fairgrounds."
Nemechek said he was happy when NASCAR returned to the Nashville area when the Nashville Superspeedway reopened in 2021. He was confident it would be a success.
"When I was racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds, there were sold-out crowds many a times when I was there so being able to come to the same market for a NASCAR race and being able to put on a great show was huge," Nemechek said.
Nemechek is also in the field for the Cup Series Ally 400, which is Sunday (2:30 p.m. CT, NBC) at Nashville Superspeedway. He qualified 35th in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 42 Toyota.
Nemechek took the lead Saturday after the final restart and remained there for the remainder of the race.
"It's two different animals, two completely different cars," Nemechek said after being asked if there was any way to carry the momentum from Saturday's race into Sunday's. "It definitely is a confidence booster internally for me. It helps that I was able to get out front and stay there. But I've got some work to do starting deep tomorrow."
Even after his car was damaged in a scrum 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 Nashville Fairgrounds.
"This is kind of where my fan base really originated, this Nashville area," Smith said. "It's good to finally get a decent finish here. The past few weeks, if you look at a graph it looks like a dang mountain, just 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'll build on it in Chicago."
Nemechek finished sixth and Smith was 12th in the 2023 Tennessee Lottery 250.
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