{"id":24902,"date":"2019-04-06T13:56:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=24902"},"modified":"2019-04-06T13:57:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:57:47","slug":"nascar-saturday-bristol-notebook-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/06\/nascar-saturday-bristol-notebook-3\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Bristol Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kenny Bruce, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Daniel Hemric has family ties to the hardwood<\/b><\/p>\n

BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Many NASCAR competitors can trace their racing roots to family members, those from a generation or so removed who raced on either the local or national stage.<\/p>\n

Daniel Hemric, driver of the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, has a different sports heritage. And it\u2019s a fitting one to note this weekend as the NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Final Four gets under way in Minneapolis, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Hemric, 28, will start 26th in Sunday\u2019s Food City 500 here at Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

Race fans might not recognize the name Dickie Hemric. He never won the Southern 500 or the Daytona 500 or any other legendary NASCAR event. But Dickie Hemric etched his name in the record books of both the NCAA as well as the NBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was my grandfather\u2019s first cousin,\u201d Daniel Hemric told the NASCAR Wire Service. \u201cMy grandfather, my dad\u2019s dad, I think he was six-foot three, six-four. Obviously, Dickie Hemric (at 6\u20196\u201d) was in that realm. (The height gene) definitely skipped me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickie Hemric held the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) scoring record for 50 years, totaling 2,587 points as a Wake Forest Demon Deacon. He was named player of the year during the first two seasons of the ACC\u2019s existence (1954-55). The mark stood until 2006 when it was finally broken by J.J. Reddick of Duke University.<\/p>\n

His 1,802 career rebounds still stands as a conference record.<\/p>\n

A third-team All-American as a junior and a second-team All-American selection as a senior, Hemric was a member of the Boston Celtics\u2019 first championship-winning team in 1956-57.<\/p>\n

Daniel Hemric had no idea of his relative\u2019s exploits on the court until taking in a college game with current RCR teammate Austin Dillon and younger brother Ty Dillon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found out about it, believe it or not, this goes way back,\u201d Hemric recalled. \u201cAlmost 13 years ago. I went to my first college basketball game and I went with Austin and Ty. We went to see North Carolina and Wake Forest. We get there inside the arena and I see Hemric hanging from the rafters, the jersey. I had no idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something I started doing a little research on after I got out of that situation. It was pretty cool to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racing won out over other endeavors when he suffered a knee injury as a teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that sidelined me a little bit, led me to staying on four wheels, sitting in the seat,\u201d he said. \u201cI figured that was my path and my knee showed me that. So that\u2019s what I ended up doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

GOING FOR THREE<\/b><\/p>\n

Rookie of the Year contender Ryan Preece is a former Bristol winner in both the Whelen Modified Tour and Xfinity Series. Sunday will be his first start at the 0.533-mile oval in the Cup Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all short tracks should be good tracks for me, but this is a team sport,\u201d Preece said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve got some work to do on our car to make it better and I think we\u2019ll be alright.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve won here in a Modified and I\u2019ve won here in and Xfinity car, so I expect to run good here (in Cup) for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can past success in those series translate?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s all relative; a race car is a race car,\u201d he said. \u201cThey need to be able to get into the corner, you need to be able to turn the center and you need to be able to put the gas pedal down as quick as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all the same. It\u2019s just a heavier car with a smaller tire and a radial tire.\u201d<\/p>\n

RECORD RUN FOR BLANEY<\/b><\/p>\n

Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney didn\u2019t get the pole, but the 24-year-old did establish a track qualifying record with his run in the second round Friday at BMS as the field was set for Sunday\u2019s Food City 500.<\/p>\n

Blaney\u2019s speed of 132.076 mph (14.528 sec.) in the No. 12 Ford eclipsed the previous mark of 131.407 mph set by Denny Hamlin in 2015.<\/p>\n

He becomes the 14th driver to hold a current track qualifying mark. Kurt Busch holds the record at more tracks than any active driver \u2013 Charlotte (both Roval and 1.5-mile layout), Las Vegas and Texas Motor Speedways.<\/p>\n

SHAKING OFF THE NEW<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Seven races into his first season at Roush Fenway Racing and veteran driver Ryan Newman sits 20th in points. He is coming off his best finish of the season, an 11th-place run last weekend at Texas, since taking over the driving duties of the No. 6 Ford Mustang.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent four times as much time at the shop per week (this year) than I did in the last five years,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have some really great meetings when we have our sit-downs, and layers of meetings \u2013 not just a meeting but layers of meetings that make us perform better and learn where we\u2019re at.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we have much better potential of showing what we\u2019re made of as we hit some of these race tracks the second time than we did the first time just looking at our experiences so far this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

SHORT STROKES<\/b><\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers Erik Jones and Joey Logano led Saturday\u2019s two practice sessions for the series, posting times of 14.771 and 14.894 seconds, respectively \u2026 Pole winner Chase Elliott clocked in 16th quickest in the final session while defending race winner Kyle Busch was fifth overall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kenny Bruce, NASCAR Wire Service   Daniel Hemric has family ties to the hardwood BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Many NASCAR competitors can trace their racing roots to family members, those from a generation or so removed who raced on either the local or national stage. Daniel Hemric, driver of the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":24883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[177,579,16],"class_list":["post-24902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-bristol-motor-speedway","tag-food-city-500","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/NXS_BMS_CusterBriscoe_040519.jpg?fit=4741%2C3161&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6tE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24903,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24902\/revisions\/24903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}