WATCH: “Introducing the fail melon”- John Hunter Nemechek accidently recreates Ross Chastain’s “hail melon” move and his tier catches on fire at Martinsville, fans react

John Hunter Nemechek DNFed at Martinsville after a later puncture.

WATCH: “Introducing the fail melon”- John Hunter Nemechek accidently recreates Ross Chastain’s “hail melon” move and his tier catches on fire at Martinsville, fans react

John Hunter Nemechek and Ross Chastain (Via IMAGO)

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville went in a similar pace as the race the previous week at Richmond as the lack of passing made it less entertaining till a late incident sent the race to overtime. At Richmond it was Bubba Wallace spinning Kyle Larson. This week it was his Toyota teammate John Hunter Nemechek that brought in the caution.

On the penultimate lap, coming to the corner the Legacy Motorsports No:42 Camry’s right front tier blew up. He was running very close to the wall and it made him ride the wall on a hight speed before coming to a stop at the end of turn. His right rear tier was spotted engulfing in flame as the car moved away from the wall.

The move was very similar to the infamous hail melon of Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain. In the 2022 Playoff R-8 cutoff race, Chastain rode the wall to finish higher than his rival Denny Hamlin to secure championship-4 spot. NASCAR later banned this video game inspired move siting safety concerns.

JHM DNFed from the race and was credited with P36 finish. The finish completed a weird pattern for the Toyota driver. He started the 2024 season with a top-10 finish at Daytona, before having three back-to-back finishes outside the top-20 with each being worse than the previous. But, he bounced back at Bristol with top-10 finish and the next three race including Martinsville has been poor finishes. Fans have to wait Texas race next-week to see if the pattern continue.

Here is how fans on X reacted to John Hunter Nemechek incident

The NASCAR social media was filled with the viral hail melon references and even Trackhosue Racing team responded to the video. There were some fans who sympathized with the TRD driver for his bad luck that ruined the day.

John Hunter Nemechek (Via IMAGO)
John Hunter Nemechek (Via IMAGO)

At the same time there were also few fans who came with some crazy conspiracy that involved Denny Hamlin. They claimed that NASCAR or the Nemechek deliberately caused the incident and caution to help Toyota’s win.

It was hilarious incident that unfortunately ended the Nemechek’s day and de railed his effort to bounce back. He would be now going to Texas Motor Speedway next week hoping to make LMC cars more competitive.

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