Why did Daniel Hemric do a backflip after winning the NASCAR XFinity title?

Moments after he clinched the NASCAR XFinity title at Phoenix, Daniel Hemric launched himself into a backflip off his car. Why did he do so and which NASCAR legend did he take inspiration from?

The XFinity championship boiled down to an overtime shootout between Hemric and defending champion Austin Cindric.

Joe Gibbs Racing man Hemric kept close to Team Penske’s Cindric and was in position to make a move on the final corner, of the final lap in the final race of the season.

Hemric made the move and clinched the title, finally putting an end to questions about when he would get his first ever race win in NASCAR.

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Why did Daniel Hemric do a backflip?

As he was coming up through the ranks of stock car racing, in celebration at a victory, Daniel Hemric would backflip off his car.

He began the tradition around the time he moved into Legends cars in 2008/2009.

Despite his obvious talent, and stints in all three NASCAR series, Hemric had never taken a win on the tour.

Indeed, across Cup, XFinity, and Trucks, he had eight second-place finishes before Phoenix.

By bumping and running on Cindric, Hemric ended his 0-207 winless run on the NASCAR tour, meaning he could bring the backflip out.

After his celebratory burnout and embrace from his JGR crew, Hemric proceeded to backflip off his Camry machine.

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Who did Hemric get the idea off?

Daniel Hemric’s backflip celebration in NASCAR is not new.

Indeed, it became most closely associated with Carl Edwards as a mark of victory.

Hemric took the idea from Edward when he first started using it, and was able to bring it back to Cup.

Edwards retired suddenly from racing ahead of the 2017 season, saying he believed it was time to stop and that he did not want to get injured in a race car.

Edwards, who lost the 2011 on a tie-breaker to Tony Stewart won 28 times in the Cup Series.

Interestingly, Edwards final win – and backflip – came at Texas on November 6th, 2016.

Daniel Hemric’s win, and subsequent backflip, came on November 6th, 2021 – exactly five years to the day.

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Jake Nichol

Jake can usually be found writing about or watching anything to do with motorsport – from Formula 1 to NASCAR to British Truck Racing. His work as a motorsport journalist has been published by the likes of Autosport, Motorsport.com and Motorsport News – all highly respected names. Away from racing he is a keen amateur astronomer, podcast listener and enjoys long walks in the park with his three dogs.