John Hunter Nemechek’s car goes up in flames after Martinsville win in NASCAR Xfinity Series

John Hunter Nemechek celebrated his second NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season and his first win in his first series start at Martinsville Speedway by setting fire to his race car – perhaps a fitting end to his hot night behind the wheel.

On Saturday, the 25-year-old took his No. 20 JGR Toyota to the front to celebrate a traditional burnout for fans in Virginia when the left rear wheel of his vehicle went up in flames before all body parts and part of the job finally did.

“I can’t say enough about this whole team, if you had asked me yesterday if we would have won I would have thought we had 10th in practice,” said Nemechek, whose car was ironically sponsored by a fire extinguisher company. (Pye Barker Fire & Safety). “Just thankful the guys made the right adjustments.”

“Let’s celebrate.”

Not only did the son of NASCAR legend Joe Nemechek win the race, he also won the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash incentive prize, awarded by series sponsor Xfinity, which was presented to him in the form of a giant check after this weekend’s event.

John Hunter Nemechek, 25, celebrated his victory at Martinsville Speedway by setting fire to his race car in traditional fashion for NASCAR fans on Saturday night

Saturday night’s win was Nemechek’s second of the season after winning at Fontana

All body parts of Nemechek’s Toyota and part of the track also eventually caught fire

Overall, Nemechek led a dominant 198 of the 250 laps to win it all on Saturday, beating his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sammy Smith by 1.518 seconds.

The sixth-year NASCAR driver, whose first race was at the 2018 Rinnai 250 (Atlanta), took the lead for good on a race restart with 32 laps to go after winning the first two stages of the race. He, Smith and third-place finisher Cole Custer were easily the class of the field all night, running a version of 1-2-3 for most of the race.

Smith was able to push past Custer on the last lap for that second place finish.

And even though Nemechek’s car was the best of the pack that night, there was still plenty of riveting wheel-to-wheel competition behind him.

For example, fourth-place finisher Josh Berry led the second-most number of laps (27) – his No. 8 JR Motorsport Chevrolet looked particularly strong until a mid-race tire problem forced a lengthy pit stop. However, he recovered through the field to earn his seventh consecutive top-10 finish of the year, tying for most of his career.

A detail view of fire damage to a tire on Nemechek’s car after the burnout celebration

Nemechek poses with the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash Check after winning Saturday’s race

Berry’s JR Motorsports teammate Brandon Jones finished fifth – his first top 10 finish of the season in the No. 9 JRM Chevrolet. He was followed by another teammate, Justin Allgaier, who managed to keep his No. 7 JRM Chevy in the lead despite not feeling well. He finished on much older tires than the rest of the leading group.

Nemechek – who took both stage wins – Smith, Custer and Berry are now eligible for the next installment of the Xfinity Dash 4 Cash $100,000 prize – next week at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The driver with the best finish of those four gets the big check.

“Congratulations, they were the best car all night,” said Smith.

Kaulig Racing teammates Daniel Hemric and Derek Kraus, AM Racing’s Brett Moffitt and Kaulig’s Chandler Smith rounded out the top 10.

Austin Hill – who leads all drivers with three wins this season – finished 16th and with Nemechek’s win the second-generation driver takes the points lead over Hill by 21 points.