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Defending Blizzard Series Champion Daniel Hemric Ready for Gulf Coast Return

Hemric Ready to Turn his SSS Season Around with Blizzard Race #1

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Daniel Hemric was crowned both the Five Flags Speedway (FL) Super Late Model Blizzard Series and Southern Super Series champion in 2013 but his 2014 season has not gotten off to the start he would like. After falling out of the season-opening Rattler 250 with a mechanical failure and finishing sixth in the Southern Super Series 125 at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville (TN), Hemric is hoping to return to victory lane with the series to kick off his defense of the Blizzard Series title.

“We had a rough start to the season at the Rattler there,� said Hemric. “The first step is putting a finish together and that’s what we did at Nashville. Whether it’s what we wanted, maybe not, but we did finish. So we’ll take that, we’ll build on it and we’ll go down to Pensacola where we love to go, to Pensacola and Mobile and see if we can put together a couple good finishes to get ourselves back on track.�

In his return to Gulf Coast racing in 2014, Hemric is ready to return to competition with a championship trophy already on his shelf.

“It is different now just because you go down there, not with a chip on your shoulder, but knowing that you can run with those guys and you do belong. So it gives you goose bumps every time you think about rolling into Five Flags with all the prestige of the racetrack. So I’m excited to get back there and really, like I said, I’m just hoping for good runs to start putting something together here.�

With a new pit procedure in place for the Southern Super Series in 2014 where teams are allowed to take their two tires at any point in the race, instead of being limited to the lap-75 competition caution, Hemric is ready for the challenge.

“It’s going to mix things up and, if nothing else, it’s going to make it better for the fans,� said Hemric. “So we’re going to have to stay on our toes. Everybody was a little worried about going caution free, which it did at Nashville just from the lack of cars, but I think whenever we roll down to Pensacola there will be a good car count and definitely make for cautions, good racing and pretty interesting pit strategy for everybody.�

Following their two championships in 2013, Hemric and the Carswell Motorsports team have continued their relationship into 2014 where they hope for the same results, if not better.

“Really every time we work together we get better,� said Hemric. “Like I said, our finishes the last two races haven’t really shown that but I promise you as a team we’re on the same page. It’s a matter of, like I said, just having lady luck on your side and right now she’s giving us a hard time. But with that being said, everything happens for a reason so we’ll take sixth-place from Nashville and roll on to Pensacola.�

After bringing home two titles in 2013, Hemric and team haven’t had the results they hoped for to kick off 2014 but that isn’t getting them down.

“That’s why it’s called racing and not winning,� said Hemric. “I’m just excited to be here. It’s cool to be able to strap into a racecar every week and it could be a lot worse so we’ll take the good with the good and the bad with the bad and move on to make the best out of it.�

Hemric and the Carswell Motorsports No. 98 team will head to Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida to kick off the Blizzard Series season on Friday, April 25 followed by the Mobile International Speedway (AL) Miller Lite Series season-opener on Saturday, April 26.

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.

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