Jeremy Clements

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For the soccer player, see Jérémy Clément.
Jeremy Clements
File:Jeremy Clements Road America 2015.jpg
Clements at Road America in 2015
Born (1984-01-16) January 16, 1984 (age 41)
Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S.
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
200 races run over 10 years
Car no., team No. 51 (Jeremy Clements Racing)
2015 position 14th
Best finish 14th (2012, 2015)
First race 2003 Trim Spa Dream Body 250 (Pikes Peak)
Last race 2016 Hisense 4K TV 300 (Charlotte)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 8 0
Statistics current as of November 21, 2015.

Jeremy Clements (born January 16, 1984)[1] is an American professional stock car racing driver. He was the son of Tony Clements, owner of Clements Racing Engines. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 51 Chevrolet Camaro for Jeremy Clements Racing.

Early career

A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Clements began his racing career at the age of 8 by driving go-karts.[2] In 1999, he moved on to race four-cylinder cars in both the Modified and Stock Series at Thunder Valley Speedway and Cherokee Speedway. Over the next three seasons, he won 55 feature events and two track championships.

Late Model and ARCA

In 2002, Clements moved up to the Late Model division where he won 9 overall races as well as the championship at Cherokee. He also made his ARCA Series debut at Talladega Superspeedway, starting 6th and finishing 17th in the No. 3 Chevrolet. He started five ARCA races in 2003, earning three top 10s. Clements was seriously injured on July 24, 2004 at age 19, while racing at 311 Speedway in North Carolina. While driving his late model, the driveshaft broke and pierced through the vehicle, injuring his right hand. He was immediately taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he underwent a nine-hour orthopedic surgery.[3] In the following year, Clements went through ten surgeries; including sewing his hand to his right side hip for a skin graft, using bone grafts from his hip and taking tendons from his right foot.[4] He did not race again until the following year.

On July 10, 2005, Clements got back behind the wheel of a racecar for the first time since the accident, testing his late model at Thunder Valley. He made his ARCA return at Chicagoland Speedway in September. In 2006, he ran 10 races in the ARCA series in Ken Appling's No. 3 Chevrolet. He earned four top-10s, including three consecutive top-5s. He was also selected by General Motors to participate in a three track test with Richard Childress Racing. Clements had a career season in 2007, earning eight top-10s in 12 races. On August 11, 2007 at Nashville Superspeedway, he earned his only ARCA win to-date after starting 2nd and leading 48 laps. In 2008, Clements ran seven races. He earned 5 top-10s and narrowly missed repeating his win at Nashville, finishing 2nd.

Xfinity Series

File:Nationwide 51 Jeremy Clements 2011 Road America Bucyrus 200.jpg
Clements racing in 2011

Clements made his debut in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (then NASCAR Busch Series) in 2003 at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Driving the No. 71 Chevrolet for Young Racing, he started 35th and finished 31st after an early crash. He did not return to the series again until 2007. Clements signed with McGill Motorsports to run the last five races of the season in their No. 36 Chevrolet. He only finished two races and had a best finish of 23rd at Lowe's Motor Speedway. In 2008, he attempted four races for his family-owned No. 50 team. He qualified for two of them, earning finishes of 22nd and 30th. During these two years, he also spent time practicing and qualifying cars for Joe Gibbs Racing in races which conflicted with the Sprint Cup Series schedule.

For 2009, Clements increased his focus on the Nationwide Series, attempting 13 races and making 12. He ran six races in his family-owned No. 50 with a best finish of 16th. Shortly before the October race at Kansas Speedway, Clements and sponsor Saxon Group joined forced with JD Motorsports to finish out the season in the No. 0 Chevrolet. In his 2nd race with JD, he finished a then-career best 12th at Auto Club Speedway.

In the offseason, it was announced that Clements would drive at least the first three races of the 2010 season in the No. 0 for JD Motorsports with sponsorship from Boudreaux's Butt Paste. After missing the field at Daytona due to qualifying being rained out, his plans for the rest of the reason were up in the air.[5] The No. 0 team was shut down and JD moved Clements to the #04. He attempted the next two races as planned, but failed to qualify for both of them. Clements made his first race of the season in April at Nashville Superspeedway, finishing 22nd. He attempted 19 more races, qualifying for 15 of them. Clements earned his first career top-10 at Gateway International Raceway in October, finishing 10th and also leading six laps (the first laps led of his career). In 2011, Clements competed in all 34 races, finishing 15th in points.[6] He had no top-ten finishes, but had three 14th-place finishes and ten top-twenty finishes during the season.[7]

The following year, Clements continued in the Nationwide Series with his own team. He drove two races for JD Motorsports at Richmond and Indianapolis when Ty Dillon was using his 51. Clements had two top-10 finishes.

After finishing 33rd in the first race of the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series, Clements was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR on February 27, 2013. The sanctioning body stated that the suspension was due to violations of the NASCAR Code of Conduct, as defined in Section 7-5 of the sanctioning body's rulebook, as well as Section 12-1, actions detrimental to stock car racing.[8] Clements, in an interview with ESPN was later quoted as saying, "When you say 'racial' remark, it wasn't used to describe anybody or anything. So that's all I'm going to say to that. And it really wasn't. I was describing racing, and the word I used was incorrect and I shouldn't have said it. It shouldn't be used at all." The MTV editor who had the conversation with Clements, Marty Beckerman, confirmed that Clements said a phrase which included the "n-word".[9] Clements sat out two races and returned for the rest of the season.[10] His season was highlighted by top ten finishes at the huge Talladega Superspeedway tri-oval and the series' inaugural race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.[10]

File:51 Jeremy Clements in rain NASCAR Nationwide 2014 Gardner Denver 200 at Road America.jpg
Clements' career-best 6th place car in the rain at Road America in 2014

After a number of equipment setbacks in the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series, Clements had a brief moment in the top 5 in the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway on May 3, 2014, before a crash forced him out with four laps to go. Ryan Blaney, who was in second at the time, ricocheted off the wall into Clements, and sent his car hard into the wall.[11] At the Gardner Denver 200 at Road America, Clements recorded a career-best sixth place finish. 2015 was a decent season for Clements despite a best finish of 10th at Dover and a handful of poor finishes.[12]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series

ARCA Re/Max Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points

References

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External links

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