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Rain forces NASCAR to postpone truck race at Chicago

The race was rescheduled for Saturday morning after a heavy storm blew over the track late in the qualifying session.

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Nemechek turned 18 in June and drives for a team fielded by his father, journeyman Joe Nemechek.

John Hunter Nemechek: Youngster from Mooresville wins for the first time in his career, trusting his crew chief that playing the gas-preservation game would be key to winning. Series rookie Daniel Suarez had the fastest speed of the day, while NASCAR veteran JJ Yeley was second quickest in the session.

Neither Peters nor Sauter had the fuel to reach the finish and both had to pit in the last 20 laps.

At 18 years, three months and eight days, Nemechek is the fourth-youngest driver to win a Truck race – only Cole Custer, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott were younger.

“This is definitely a special moment and I can’t thank these guys on this team enough”, John Hunter said in Victory Lane. For what we’ve had to work with… he’s accomplished a lot. “Didn’t get the track position I needed to win it on fuel mileage”.

Erik Jones rebounded from a pit road speeding penalty to finish sixth and holds a 10-point lead over Reddick in the series standings with seven races remaining this season. “I haven’t been able to win a Truck race yet, and it’s his first of many to come”, Joe Nemechek said.

The race, postponed from Friday night because of a severe thunderstorm at Chicagoland Speedway, quickly developed into a test to see which team had the right strategy and ability to conserve enough fuel to the finish.

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Larson, who was making his first Truck start for JR Motorsports, ended up seventh.

Rain forces NASCAR to postpone truck race at Chicago