No. 20 Yahoo Toyota GR Supra News and Notes
- NEMECHEK AT SONOMA: John Hunter Nemechek started seventh and finished eighth in last season’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Sonoma Raceway, marking his only experience on the 1.99-mile road course.
- NEMECHECK ON ROAD COURSES: Nemechek’s best finish in seven career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts on road courses is a seventh-place result at the Charlotte ROVAL in 2019. So far this season, Nemechek finished 27th at Circuit of the Americas due to late trouble and 10th last weekend at Portland International Raceway after several setbacks in the final stage of the race. In 11 road course races in the Truck Series, Nemechek has one win (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2016), five top-five finishes, seven top-10s, and 37 laps led.
- PORTLAND RECAP: The No. 20 team finished 10th in last weekend’s race at Portland International Raceway. To start the day, Nemechek qualified second and finished in the runner-up position in both stages. Early in the final segment, he was bumped from behind and spun. The trouble dropped him outside the top 15. During his climb back to the front, he was spun around a second time. He ultimately capitalized on several late-race restarts to rally back to a 10th-place finish.
- FRONT RUNNER: According to loop data provided by NASCAR, Nemechek leads the Xfinity Series in laps led, average running position, driver rating, fastest laps run, fastest on restarts, and laps in the top 15. He also leads all full-time Xfinity Series drivers in average starting position (5.5) and average finishing position (8.2).
- YAHOO: Nemechek’s No. 20 Toyota GR Supra will feature a new look this weekend as Yahoo joins the team at Sonoma Raceway. Yahoo is also scheduled to be the primary sponsor for Nemechek and the No. 20 team at the Chicago Street Race (July 1) and Daytona International Speedway (August 25).
- JGR ON ROAD COURSES: While Saturday’s race will be the Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series team’s first experience at Sonoma Raceway, the organization has proven to be successful on other road courses in the past. JGR owns nine Xfinity Series wins on road courses, including victories at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez (Mexico City), Circuit of the Americas, the Daytona Road Course, Road America, and Watkins Glen International. In 181 combined starts on road courses, JGR owns 53 top-five finishes, 88 top-10s, seven pole awards, and 725 laps led. Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, and Denny Hamlin have all driven JGR entries to victory lane on road courses.
- TUNE IN: Coverage of this weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Sonoma Raceway is scheduled for Saturday, June 10, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
John Hunter Nemechek, Driver of the No. 20 Yahoo Toyota GR Supra
Talk about going to Sonoma for the first time with the Xfinity Series…
“It’s definitely fun to go to a new place for the Xfinity Series. I was fortunate to run the truck race there last year, so I do have some laps and won’t have quite as much of a learning curve as I had last week at Portland. Sonoma has a lot of very different corners and elevation changes. That makes it very technical, which makes it a lot of fun for us as drivers. We feel like we let an opportunity slip away last weekend at Portland, so just need to minimize mistakes and put ourselves in position to hopefully have a solid finish at the end of the day.”
JGR PR
Follow us on Twitter @SpeedwayDigest
Latest posts by Speedway Digest Staff (see all)