Good. Busy. Different.
That’s life these days for Daniel Hemric. At 25, Hemric drives for one of the most recognizable names in NASCAR, Brad Keselowski, full-time in the Camping World Truck Series. It’s his sophomore year. Things couldn’t be better personally, either, as Hemric and fellow racer Kenzie Ruston plan their wedding.
For Hemric, it was the first time he’s had an offseason of excitement and enjoyment instead of the stress of uncertainty. Never before between the months of October to February, had the Kannapolis, North Carolina native known for sure if he had a job.
His deal with Brad Keselowski was signed, sealed and locked in late last fall.
“To know that this deal is done, there’s no way around it, my name is on it – I was joking with people that I was nervous signing the paper. I thought my pen was going to break,” Hemric laughed. “I was like, as long as I can get through this, it’ll be good.
“To get through the offseason and know that it was really going to happen and to be able to focus on the end of last year making myself better in order to come into this year as 100 percent as I can be, it’s been awesome to experience that.”
As Hemric looks to be one of NASCAR’s next big stars, Ruston is close by his side. And she, too, is still racing. In fact, Ruston signed a deal early this year with Carswell Motorsports to run the full Southern Super Series schedule; the team Hemric won the championship with in 2013.
It’s not only their shared loved of racing but how involved the two are in each other’s career that makes them unique. How much they’ve been through together is also a bit emotional to talk about.
“You want the real story or what we tell everybody?” Hemric cracks.
It was 2009 in Monroe, Louisiana when the two met while racing Legend cars. Although they were in different divisions, Ruston’s crew chief would occasionally ask Hemric to run her cars. At the time, they had never really spoken to each other and weren’t particularly close.
When Ruston showed up in North Carolina though, she ended up competing out of the same shop where Hemric was based.
“We started spending a lot more time together, and I think it was later that year we were like, all right, let’s pursue this a little bit and there’s been no turning back ever since,” he said. “It’s been – I don’t want to say interesting – but we’ve shared so many different dynamics of a relationship that a lot of people never experience and we’re very fortunate for that.”
With each being a racer, there comes a certain understanding of the job and what one might have been experiencing when discussing their respective weekends. Hemric and Ruston can lean on each other or be the other’s sounding board. They hold each other accountable for their performances – good and bad.
“We can complain to each other about what we’ve done right or wrong that weekend. I think he likes to hear that, and I like to hear what I did wrong,” Ruston said. “I don’t like people saying, ‘oh, it’s OK.’ He’s that person that tells me what I did wrong, and he’s my biggest supporter, too.”
Everyone needs that supportive role in their life, someone to talk to when things get tough.
“To have a response from the other side with her being through most of the stuff I go through as well, it just adds another element to our relationship that most people never get to experience,” Hemric said.
“I’m very thankful for that. She knows the schedule; she knows how tough and trying it can be on you throughout the year. She understands it and gets it, and it helps us be better together.”
Having spent much of their careers together, each has even played the role of crewmember for the other when needed. Hemric jokes he even swept the floor for Ruston’s team back in the day.
Last year, Hemric owned and served as the crew chief on a Super Late Model she drove Lucas Oil Raceway. He was quick to point out they didn’t run half bad, which not only made the drive home easier but he didn’t have to sleep on the couch.
Ruston chuckles at this and offers up a playful, “whatever.”
While doing this interview together, Ruston supportively listens as Hemric talks about the potential for 2016 to be his big break. Things have skyrocketed for him over the last six years: back-to-back Legend Pro Car championship in 2008 and 2009; winner of the 2009 and 2013 Summer Shootout Series; winner of the 2010 Legends Million at Charlotte Motor Speedway; 2012 JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour champion; 2013 Southern Super Series champion and by 2014 he was in the Truck Series.
But even as Hemric has made it as far as he has, he’s still there for Ruston. Doing, saying and providing everything he can in hopes she succeeds as well. While the Truck Series has sat idle for the last month, Hemric has been helping the No. 98 team and Ruston at places like South Alabama Speedway and Pensacola.
She gets a kick out saying he works his butt off and has bruises and burns to show for it.
“I can remember when she came onto the scene she was kind of on the fast track. It was Legend cars, ARCA, this and that, and the whole time I was just trying to be as supportive as I could to her,” Hemric said. “I don’t want to say the roles reversed, but our lives went different ways as far as career-wise, but no matter what we’ve stuck together, and we’ve had some really unique opportunities to work one-on-one together.”
Last year was rough for Ruston, and she can’t help but choke up when admitting it was a confidence downer. She ran the full K&N Pro Series East schedule for Rev Racing but finished 11th in points with four top-10 finishes.
It was a step back from being the highest finishing female in K&N points (sixth) in 2013. Or the highest finishing female in history with a second place finish in Iowa in 2014. So this year, she’s excited to be back racing Super Late Models, where she has some of her best memories.
Being in competitive equipment will also help put her back in the spotlight, and she knows she can contend for wins.
Don’t consider it going backward, though. Ruston is realistic enough to know that to move forward you have to have money. As her voice breaks and Hemric gets up to offer some tissues, Ruston admits she hasn’t talked about her journey much lately or where she wants to end up because at a certain point it becomes almost disheartening.
“I’m starting to get old I feel like; we’re going to get married,” she said. “These days you almost have to be 16, 17 to get a start at the Truck Series – it’s become so young, and I thought if you were 30 you were OK.”
Ruston, like Hemric now, was on that path, though.
She won in a Bandolero at 14 before becoming the first female to lead laps in an ARCA event. In 2011, Ruston won a CRA race in Indianapolis. Her first full K&N season (2013) occurred with one of the best teams, Turner Scott Motorsports. Ruston finished sixth in points.
In 2014, she ran for Ben Kennedy Racing and thought that by running for a member of the France family, effectively being under the NASCAR banner, it would go somewhere.
Although it hasn’t, she’s never envied Hemric’s opportunities, or questioned why his career started to take off as hers hit a few rough patches. Every driver dreams of getting to one of NASCAR’s highest levels, but it only works out for some.
“I always want to race. If it’s at the local level or short track racing – I don’t ever want to give up on it,” Ruston said. “If I’m racing at the short tracks, I’ll be happy with that. If I get an opportunity to move up, I’ll be happy with that.
“I don’t have a plan or a, hey, I’m going to do this by this age and this age and this age. I’m just taking it day by day.”
What’s for certain is that no matter where Daniel Hemric or Kenzie Ruston end up, the other won’t be too far away.