“Cousin Carl would be proud”: NASCAR fans gripped by emotion after Daniel Hemric’s ‘victory backflip’ at Martinsville

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Daniel Hemric drove into the victory lane at the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the Martinsville Speedway. The #19 Chevrolet driver celebrated his first win of the season by performing the iconic victory backflip which took the fans by surprise.

Hemric, who had never won a race in the truck series in the past, didn't take long to change that record. In only his fifth race after returning to the series, Daniel won the race at Martinsville. As the #19 driver crossed the chequered flag in P1, he parked up on the finishing line, got out of the car, and stood on the roof of the truck.

The fans anticipated what was coming as Daniel Hemric celebrated his victory by perfectly executing a backflip from the roof of the truck. Former NASCAR driver Carl Edwards was infamous for celebrating victories with his iconic backflip and Hemric decided to copy the same.

The NASCAR fans took notice of the celebration and took to social media platform X to react to the same. NASCAR on FOX’s official account uploaded the clip of Hemric’s celebration, as fans flooded the comments section.

“Cousin Carl would be proud of that flip! 😎”, wrote a fan

Another mentioned, “I hope he wins when cousin Carl is calling races so he can be around to see it.”

“Welcome back Carl Edwards”, commented a user

Carl Edwards is the first cousin of Ken Schrader and was nicknamed Cousin Carl for the same reason. Edwards now works as an analyst for FOX’s NASCAR broadcast, and hence fans wished the former stock car racing driver was there to witness his iconic celebration being performed by someone else.

“We need more flips! wait,” wrote a user on X

Another fan commented, “Daniel “Flipping” Hemric 🤩🏆”

“Amazing Victory Backflip for @DanielHemric congratulations winning in @MartinsvilleSwy and team @BMR_NASCAR,” wrote another user

Daniel Hemric made his Truck Series debut in 2013 as a part-timer and joined the Xfinity Series in 2017. After back-and-forth full-time stints in the Xfinity and Cup Series, the 34-year-old retired to the Craftsman Truck Series for the 2025 season.

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Daniel Hemric on racing teammate Tyler Ankrum for the lead of the race

Tyler Ankrum took the lead of the Truck Series race at Martinsville after the leaders, Kaden Honeycutt and Ty Majeski made contact in the final laps of the race. Daniel Hemric, who was P6 with 35 laps to go was promoted to P2 as a result of cautions and crashes.

Speaking about racing with his teammate for the win, the 34-year-old said, (via Motorsport)

“I wanted to race Tyler [Ankrum, teammate] -- obviously we got a long season ahead, so I wanted to race him as clean as I could. I've walked out of here twice thinking there's a missing spot in my dining room for a clock so it's really cool to finally get one here.”

Daniel Hemric took the race lead with 5 laps to go and maintained the gap to Ankrum to cross the chequered flag in P1.