Jeremy Clements had made an incredible charge in the opening laps of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. 300 at Daytona International Speedway as he had climbed from 35th-place to sixth by lap 13.
Unfortunately, the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff contender didn’t get a chance to race to the finish as his race came to an end when Drew Dollar lost control of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra and spun up the track directly into Clements.
Click here to view the crash that ended Clements’ day.
Video: Drew Dollar Loses Control Exiting Turn Two, Slams into Jeremy Clements at Daytona
There was nowhere Clements could go to avoid the lap 13 crash.
Following being checked and released from the infield care center, Clements, 37, who has built his own race team from scratch and has scratched and clawed for everything he has, was left seething after his race ended due to an inexperienced driver, who Clements doesn’t feel is worthy of a top-tier ride, losing control of their car.
Caught up with Jeremy Clements after he was released from the care center.
“You got guys in fast cars that probably shouldn’t be in them.”#NASCAR #Beef300 pic.twitter.com/Ls0BzlguGP
— Dalton Hopkins (@PitLaneLT) February 19, 2022
“I got ran over by a guy that just has no experience,” Clements fumed. “He got out of shape a few times and just wrecked us. I mean, you have a lot of these inexperienced drivers out here that buy these good teams with fast cars and that’s what happens. And it sucks because we are small team and we can’t afford to destroy cars. So, it’s really frustrating.”
Clements was impressed with the speed of his No. 51 One Stop / ASE Chevrolet Camaro in his time on the track, but is disappointed to not get a chance to finish the race.
“We were pretty fast. Got up there really quick. I was just pushing the 31 up there working well with Myatt. Kind of riding and seeing what we had. We were pretty fast,” Clements explained. “I was proud of what we had. I was looking forward to finishing and trying to stay up there. It was encouraging.
“It just sucks to be out this early. This is the worst feeling in the world being out so early from something that could have been avoided.”
Clements, who has elevated from running scuffed tires each and every week over the last few years, feels that some drivers don’t deserve to be in a position to ruin things for those who have paid their dues.
“That’s the way these series are,” Clements said. “The money buys these good fast cars and some of these guys don’t deserve to be in them and that’s the way it is.”
Despite having a very fast car on Saturday, Clements’ 2022 campaign got started off with a next to last 37th-place finish at Daytona.
