John Hunter Nemechek is a big money race winner, and he proved that once again on Independence Day at I-44 Speedway in Missouri when he took home the green jacket and the $8,000 check in the Mercy Masters of the Pros 144.
Nemechek was fast all weekend, and he backed that up with a second-place effort in qualifying. He started eighth after the invert and quickly made his way through the field.
He got to second place behind leader Sterling Marlin on lap 40 and just waited for an opportunity to take the lead.
That chance came when a caution came out on lap 73. On the ensuing restart Nemechek stalked Marlin before finally taking the lead on lap 94.
“We knew we had to be patient, but at the same time we needed to grab spots whenever we could,” said Nemechek. “We just needed to race smart. It was a bit of a small crew. We made the decision to come out and run this pretty late. So it was just three guys and myself this weekend. ”
While Nemechek can now add this race to his list of big wins along with the Snowball Derby and All American 400, there’s still a few races left he needs to cross off.
“There’s still a couple big races coming up this fall we want to win,” Nemechek said. “Winchester [400]. Snowflake [100] and the Snowball again. And grab a Truck win too.”
Nemechek will have a chance to grab that Truck win on Thursday, July 9 when the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series takes on the Kentucky Motor Speedway.