Daniel Hemric will lose his ride in the #8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the season, RCR announced Tuesday.
“Richard Childress Racing has exercised its option and will release Daniel Hemric as driver of the #8 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Camaro ZL1, effective at the conclusion of the 2019 NASCAR race season,” a statement from RCR read. “Daniel is a very talented driver and an outstanding person. We’d like to thank him for his commitment and dedication to RCR the past three years and wish him continued success in his future endeavors. Additional information on RCR’s Cup program will be announced at a later date.”
Hemric is in his first year of Cup Series competition. Richard Childress Racing promoted him to NASCAR's top series after racing two years for the organization in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In his first year at NASCAR's top level, Hemric is 25th in the driver standings, 27 races into the 36-race season, with one top-five and two top-10 finishes.
In his two years in the Xfinity Series, Hemric posted 23 top-fives and 39 top-10 finishes in 66 races.
"Forever grateful to Richard & everyone at @RCRracing for the opportunity,” Hemric [@DanielHemric] tweeted. "I’m disappointed it ended like this, but we’ve got nine more races together & some team goals that are still within reach. I’m going to do all I can to make sure we get those & finish the season strong."
Speculation has team owner Richard Childress firing Hemric to make room for Tyler Reddick, an RCR driver in the Xfinity Series. Reddick won the Xfinity Series championship in 2018 and left JR Motorsport at season's end to join RCR ahead of the 2019 season. He has five wins, so far, this season as driver of the #2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series and was this season's regular-season champion.
