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Hemric Busts Through Door to Victory Lane at Five Flags

Defending SSS Champion Scores First Series Win of 2014

Story Courtesy of Speed 51

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA) - Daniel Hemric had been knocking on the door to victory lane during the 2014 season on the Southern Super Series presented by Sunoco. Friday night, he busted down the door and earned his first series victory of the season.

After leading the most laps at Gresham in the most recent race only to come up short of victory lane, Hemric rebounded to take the lead two laps short of the lap 75 break and never looked back to pick up the victory in the Papa John's 125 at Pensacola, Florida's Five Flags Speedway Friday night.

"I was trying to run a consistent pace tonight," said Hemric. "I think a lot of people doubted us in the series this year because we couldn't finish a race off. We had led at the break a few times and the car got tight, but we got it done tonight."

Hemric is the defending Buddy's Home Furnishing Blizzard Series Champion at Five Flags and Southern Super Series Champion, but prior to Gresham he had not finished on the podium all year. With Friday's win, he has now finished second and first in his last two races.

"It's a dream come true to be able to come to races like this and win," said Hemric. "We didn't get to do a back flip when we won here last year, but we got to do it for the crowd here tonight."

Hemric became the leader when he blew by Spencer Davis, who had opened up a more than four-second lead early in the 125-lap race. From there, Hemric got out clean on the restart when Donnie Wilson spun his tires after the lap-75 competition caution. Mike Garvey had a strong surge in the final 15 laps to score a second-place finish.

"We had been trying some changes this year and it wasn't really working after 10 laps," said Garvey. "We made some wholesale changes and we got things back to where we needed in practice on Thursday. We are close and it feels good to have a solid run."

Rounding out the top five were Bubba Pollard, Donnie Wilson and Augie Grill. TJ Reaid, Hunter Robbins, Davis, Harrison Burton and Casey Roderick rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Anderson Bowen came into the race as the point leader, but his 16th-place finish gives Bubba Pollard the unofficial point lead heading to Mobile.

Hunter Robbins started the night by capturing the $500 Pole Award which is presented by Hamner Racing Engines, McGunegill Engine Performance, Progressive Racing Engines, Ford Racing and RW Racing Engines.

Spencer Davis was the Dubz Thermal Products halfway leader and pocketed $100 for leading lap 63.

The Southern Super Series presented by Sunoco will be back in action on July 26th as they head to Mobile International Speedway in Irvington, Alabama.

For more information on the Southern Super Series, visit SouthernSuperSeries.com. The Facebook page for the Southern Super Series is located at www.facebook.com/southernsuperseries. The series is also on Twitter at @SoSuperSeries. For advertising or sponsorship questions, please contact the track representatives. For media inquiries, please contact Matt Kentfield at 51 Sports via matt@51sports.net.

SOUTHERN SUPER SERIES

Papa John's 125

Five Flags Speedway

Official Results

Pos. # Name Laps
1 98 Daniel Hemric 125
2 1 Mike Garvey 125
3 26 Bubba Pollard 125
4 2 Donnie Wilson 125
5 112 Augie Grill 125
6 41 TJ Reaid 125
7 18 Hunter Robbins 125
8 129 Spencer Davis 125
9 12 Harrison Burton 125
10 7 Casey Roderick 125
11 11 David Rogers 125
12 18R Korey Ruble 124
13 21 Johanna Long 124
14 31 Kyle Grissom 124
15 79 Kyle Bryant 124
16 29 Anderson Bowen 124
17 11B Logan Boyett 123
18 47 Allen Karnes 123
19 5G Will Gallaher 108
20 5W Spencer Wauters 101

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