| Jeremy Clements | |||||||
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| Born | January 16, 1984 Spartanburg, South Carolina |
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| Awards | 2001 Thunder Valley Speedway Modified champion 2001 Cherokee Speedway Modified champion 2002 Cherokee Speedway Late Model champion |
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| NASCAR Nationwide Series career | |||||||
| Car no., team | #51 - Jeremy Clements Racing | ||||||
| 2011 position | 15th | ||||||
| Best finish | 15th - 2011 | ||||||
| First race | 2003 Trim Spa Dream Body 250 presented by Dodge (Pikes Peak) | ||||||
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| Statistics current as of November 24, 2011. | |||||||
Jeremy Clements (born January 16, 1984 in Spartanburg, South Carolina)[1] is a North America stock car driver. He drives the #51 RaceDaySponsor.com Chevrolet Impala for Jeremy Clements Racing.
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Clements began his racing career at the age of 8 by driving go-karts.[2] In 1999, he would then move 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 would win 55 feature events and two track championships.
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 #3 Chevrolet. He started five ARCA races in 2003, earning three top 10s. Jeremy was seriously injured on July 24, 2004 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 would not race again for nearly a 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 would make his ARCA return at Chicagoland Speedway in September. In 2006, he would run 10 races in the ARCA series in Ken Appling's #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, Jeremy ran seven races. He earned 5 top-10s and narrowly missed repeating his win at Nashville, finishing 2nd.
Clements made his debut in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (then NASCAR Busch Series) in 2003 at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Driving the #71 Chevrolet for Young Racing, he would start 35th and finish 31st after an early crash. He would not return to the series again until 2007. Clements signed with McGill Motorsports to run the last five races of the season in their #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 #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 #50 with a best finish of 16th. Shortly before the October race at Kansas Speedway, Jeremy and sponsor Saxon Group joined forced with JD Motorsports to finish out the season in the #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 #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.[3] The #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 would attempt 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.[4] He had no top-ten finishes, but had three 14th-place finishes and ten top-twenty finishes in the season.[5]