Daniel Hemric began a new chapter in his NASCAR career at the start of the 2025 season, experiencing a series of firsts. Entering his first full-time campaign in the Craftsman Truck Series since 2016, Hemric is now driving the No. 19 Chevrolet for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing.
With any change to a new team comes the preseason pleasantries of learning a new shop, personnel and crew chief who will be atop the pit box calling the shots.
Previously, the No. 19 Chevrolet was piloted by Christian Eckes with crew chief Charles Denike. But with one of the more extensive Silly Seasons in the NASCAR garage in recent memory, Eckes left for the Xfinity Series and Kaulig Racing, and Denike was called up to the Cup Series, leading the charge for Bubba Wallace at 23XI Racing.
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With these new changes in the race shop, Hemric had the opportunity to mold and shape the new guard in a way that made the team feel like his own — a task that the 34-year-old approached head-on.
“Through all of our hiring process, we tried to push it like, ‘Hey, like, this is not the 19 group of past,’ right?” Hemric told NASCAR.com. “With the opportunity of hiring people comes an opportunity to create our own culture and our own identity during our time together here as a 19 group and with that, you know, comes a lot of freedom and stuff that you want to explore and do new things together and experience new things together.”
As Hemric navigates his own adjustments to a new team and schedule, the 2021 Xfinity Series champion finds himself accompanied by three young, ambitious drivers eager to gain insight and knowledge that comes from a career at NASCAR’s highest levels.
Tyler Ankrum, who drives the No. 18 Chevrolet, is entering his sixth full-time season in the Truck Series and his second season with MHR. Jack Wood will continue his part-time role in the No. 91 truck from last year. Joining the MHR lineup in 2025 was Connor Mosack, who drives the No. 81 Chevrolet. Mosack shares part-time experience in both the Truck and the Xfinity Series.
“Connor and I have trained together through the Chevrolet training program with Josh Wise and Scott Speed,” Hemric said. “We’ve been together in it for a couple of years now. So there is already a relationship built there. But it’s been fun to get to know Jack. I’ve been really impressed with Jack Wood at the test at Rockingham, and kind of the way he’s applied himself has been fun to watch, and same with Tyler. Tyler is now kind of the veteran of the Tuck Series now, as many years as he’s ran in it, but he asked, he asked a lot of really detailed questions.”
Hemric quickly acknowledged that, although he is happy to share the knowledge he gained from racing in the Cup Series and his six years in the Xfinity Series, the Truck Series environment has changed significantly since he last competed full-time nearly a decade ago.
“I’ve had some of them, like, you know, talk about my prior experiences at different levels and kind of what that looks like,” Hemric said. “And, you know, things to be aware of, and things that you think are a big deal that kind of find out down the road weren’t such a big deal. So been fun having this conversation with these guys. And I’m sure we have plenty more of them here in the weeks ahead. But definitely, yeah, for me, just coming into a race team back kind of reacclimating to the Truck Series, I’ve asked almost as many questions as they have, right? I mean, they’ve been doing this for at least, you know, specifically, Tyler and Jack, they ran a lot of Truck races over the last couple of years. And Connor, not quite as much, but he has made some starts last year and the year before. So, yeah, it’s been fun to all of us, kind of grow and learn.”
As the Truck Series moves past the two drafting-style race tracks and into the meat of the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series schedule, the Kannapolis, North Carolina native is mostly excited to approach perhaps the most diverse event schedule since the series’ inception some 30 years ago in 1995, with a “healthy” mix of racing in all disciplines.
Such a hefty dose of that mix will begin at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday in the Ecosave 200 (9 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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“I think the diversity within the Truck Series now is getting closer to what we see in the other two forms of NASCAR, which I think is healthy,” Hemric said. “As well as doing it with some standalone events like your Lime Rock, I believe, truly, that that’s a that’s a really good thing, not only being that part of the country, but just for our sport and our series to go and have its own weekend, its own identity up there. And that’s a really, really cool.
“I’ve been obviously a part of that with the standalone stuff on the Xfinity Series side. Years past, and I don’t know, when you had those, those couple events a year like that, it kind of makes you feel, at least from experiencing all three levels, right? It makes you feel like you’re in the Cup Series in the sense of the big show there that weekend. And anytime that’s the case, there’s more eyes and and more people tuned in, and it’s just a little different vibe, which is good.”
