Clements Finishes 19th at Darlington

The first weekend of Spring brought with it quite the forecast for the PeeDee region of South Carolina. Temps in the upper eighties with a 100% chance of speed. All three national NASCAR touring series made a stop at the “Lady in Black” – the storied mile and a half egg-shaped Darlington Raceway.

Much of the emphasis coming into the weekend was focused on the sanctioning body’s decision to run the short track package – 750 horsepower with no rear diffuser to affect the aerodynamics of the much-maligned NextGen car after being suggested by drivers, teams, and fans alike for the better part of the last 4 years.

The NextGen car has not been known to produce a lot of thrilling action, but especially at Darlington –which is vastly different from other “intermediate” ovals such as Kansas, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Chicagoland, etc. “The Track Too Tough to Tame” has a reputation for being about survival – not just avoiding getting wrecked, but also making sure you don’t make a critical mistake and take yourself out. All it requires is something as simple as overdriving into turn two or three to find yourself bouncing off the wall with an infamous “Darlington Stripe”, which with the current iteration of the Cup Series vehicle, is a sure recipe to derail your day with a broken toe link or suspension/steering damage.

In short, Darlington is a place where drivers are not so much racing against one another as they are battling against the brutally abrasive track itself. But, that need to survive has led to a stale and predictable on-track product characterized by long green flag runs, difficulty in passing without being in clean air, and very little equipment or tire wear. The few moments of excitement have come in late stage passes such as the one Chase Briscoe made on Kyle Larson in traffic to steal a win in the 2024 Southern 500 or the untimely late caution that put Denny Hamlin in position to come off pit road ahead of William Byron – who dominated the whole race up to that point, to take a win away from him a year ago.

To counter that staleness, NASCAR opted to try out the new package that was originally intended to be run on short tracks and the flat speedways that are a mile or less in length, hoping that it will bring back the feel of a classic race at Darlington – one in which the driver who not only tames the field but also best manages the wear and tear on their equipment, is the one who more often than not ends up in Victory Lane. That choice led to plenty of speculation about just what to expect in the buildup to the weekend. Some drivers believed there would be several seconds of drop off in lap time with the combination of the additional horsepower and the softer tire compounds Goodyear has been rolling out for the short and flat tracks. Others believed there would be a lot of wrecks. We would not know for sure until we saw how the cars ran in practice and qualifying. But before we could learn about any of that, there was the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday.

Our own Jeremy Clements has been off to a strong start despite the lack of eye-popping results so far after beginning a partnership with Haas Factory Team this offseason. HFT, who became a Chevrolet team this season, agreed to take over the race shop operations aspect of Jeremy Clements Racing (JCR), meaning that they would be building the cars while also fielding and training a whole new pit crew. That partnership, which gives Clements the benefit of having engines built by Hendrick Motorsports as well as parts and equipment that come from the Haas Factory Team and Haas Tooling, has resulted in Jeremy carrying a lot of speed – consistently running in the top 10-15 range before running into some bad luck, which would once again be the story in Saturday’s SportClips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200.

Jeremy easily had the fastest car in the field when it came to the race itself. In practice, he was the eighth quickest. However, that initial speed off the truck was wrecked when Crew Chief Matt Weber decided to make an adjustment ahead of qualifying that backfired. Clements would end up rolling off in the 30th position – seemingly a mountain to overcome, especially with such a short race. But, with his speed, it was not much of a challenge to blow around the cars that consistently run at the back of the field. Over the first five laps, Jeremy was able to claw his way up to the 18th position before bad luck struck towards the end of the opening stage.

Clements and his “team mate” Kyle Sieg both ran out of fuel with 2 laps to go in the stage and had to come to pit road – which by NASCAR’s rules, results in a penalty as the pits are closed with two to go in each segment. That penalty proved costly as it put Jeremy a lap down and forced him into a situation where he either had to pass the leader or get into position for the free pass (formerly known as the “lucky dog” should a caution come out.

With all the speed the 51 carried, getting into a place where he could get back onto the lead lap was not as detrimental as it sounds. But, it is what was going on at the front of the field that further complicated things.

Kyle Larson won the pole for the O’Reilly Series Race – a potential death sentence for the rest of the field. It is not atypical for the best car in the field to separate themself from the rest of the field and lead a ton of laps – especially if the race has a lot of long green flag runs. Both of those things happened. Larson singled himself out heading into turn one of the first lap and by the time he got back around to the stripe, he had already opened up over a 1-second advantage over Christopher Bell. As the stage went on, his edge ballooned to over 3 seconds as he cruised to the green and white checker.

Larson went on to sweep the stages with ease, and unfortunately for Clements, who did muscle his way back up to the lucky dog position, the classic Darlington storyline of “dominant driver laps the field” continued to play out. By the stage 2 break, Jeremy found himself three spots out of position for the free pass. Brandon Jones finally gave Kyle a challenge on the restart for the final stage – and in the chaos, Justin Allgaier was able to take the lead away. He held on for 15 laps before tire wear allowed Larson to reel it in, eventually retaking the lead and giving the appearance the win was all but secured – if the race stayed green. Meanwhile, in the 6 laps after the restart, Jeremy Clements was able to work his way back up to P25 – the free pass spot. He was rewarded for it when the narrative of the race changed in an instant.

With 25 laps to go, the first “natural” caution – aka the first that was not for a stage break, happened at the most opportune time. Kyle Sieg, who was running the top line coming into the exit of turn 2 alongside Dean Thompson, came down into him and got turned nose first back up into the outside wall and collecting Austin Hill, Alex Labbe, and Lavar Scott. That allowed Jeremy Clements to get the wave around and come to get 4 fresh tires for a 15 lap sprint to the finish. But, that incident changed the course of the night for more than just Clements. Kyle Larson ended up losing 4 spots on his final pit stop, ultimately resulting in him not being able to get back to the front. Instead, Justin Allgaier was able to pull away from Brandon Jones for JR Motorsports’ 4th straight win as well as his 30th career NOAPS Series victory. Jeremy Clements was able to salvage a top 20 out of the day, crossing the finish line in 19th position.

“I am just frustrated”, said Clements after the race. “We had the lucky dog the whole time in stage two until {Larson} got the 92 at the end and he got it instead. We finally got it with the last caution, but it was too little too late. When we restarted with 15 to go, we had to start at the back and pass all the same cars again. It makes it difficult to get up there and race where we should have been all day. We just can’t have these mistakes. Unfortunately, something keeps plaguing the Haas Factory Team cars. Sam Mayer ran out of gas last week. Today, me and Kyle Sieg did this week. We have to get this figured out. It is just frustrating.”

This race marked the third straight intermediate track that JCR has run under the new partnership, and the result has been the same. Lots of potential and speed, but finishing 11th, 24th, and now 19th. So the frustration is definitely understandable. However, Clements says that things are not all bad. In fact, he is still having a lot of fun so far in the 2026 season.

“We certainly do have speed. That is something that we have wanted for a long time”, said Jeremy. “It is fun as heck to drive these cars and they are fast. We have shown that most every track we go to. Especially the last three weeks. We will have our day. As long as we keep the speed, the results will eventually come with it.”

Next week will prove to be an even bigger test for the 51 team because it won’t be so much about speed as endurance and the ability to out brake or move your opposition out of the way. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will take on the tight and flat half concrete/half asphalt corners of the paper clip-shaped Martinsville Speedway next Saturday afternoon for the NFPA 250. The green flag is set to fly at 3:30 PM.