Marty Cmejla has finally gone to victory lane in NR NIGHT IN AMERICA. It only took 247 previous attempts. Cmejla was excited to see Atlanta Superspeedway on the NR Night in America schedule for November 28th, 2023 with the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars. Did you know Marty Cmejla's first ever NR Night race was with this car-track-combo? It has been one of his best car-track-combos with previous finishes of 21st, 5th, and 4th in NR Night.

Marty Cmejla would begin his night of racing planning on racing all 4 events - Circuit of the Americas, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, and Darlington Raceway. It all began with Circuit of the Americas - Grand Prix with the Xfinity cars. Cmejla was 3 seconds off of the fastest car in practice. There was group qualifying for this. He would roll off 21st.

"When you are at COTA [Circuit of the Americas], you just know you are going to get wrecked in Turn 1 at some point. The track is so technical and there are so many opportunities for trouble," Cmejla said.

Cmejla, started on the inside. He dove down low to protect the bottom. Once he entered Turn 1, the #40 of Matthew Brauer was in front. Cmejla overdrove it a little and hit Brauer's rear end, giving Cmejla 18-seconds of optional front damage repairs. Cmejla never took these repairs, as the battle for track position was very important.

It was an all-out brawl for the first laps. Cmejla was able to survive all the chaos. It was then on Lap 7 when the first caution came out. This meant another restart. Cmejla pitted for 4-fresh tires, and took 1.5 seconds of his repairs. He also filled the gas tank full of fuel. Cmejla restarted 17th. He dove to the inside again, and cleanly made it through Turn 1.

There was another caution then with 6 laps to go. Cmejla would restart on the outside for the first time - in 14th. Cmejla was able to make it cleanly again. Since it was a 4 lap shootout for the win, there was action everywhere. Cmejla was able to keep the car in one piece. On the last lap exiting the 2nd-to-last turn, Aiden McConnaughey and Josh Lilly made contact. McConnaughey came back into the track right into Cmejla's path. Cmejla has to make a hard left avoidance. He hit the wall, but since there was 1 turn left, he finished 12th.

It would then be Atlanta Motor Speedway (Superspeedway) for Race 2. Cmejla would be joined by teammate Patrick Connell for the race. It was quickly time to qualify. Cmejla has a perfect strategy for qualifying here with these cars. Unfortunatley, Cmejla got up the track in Turn 1 on his fast lap - not by much, though. Cmejla would cross the line with a 32.040. This, to Cmejla's surprise, was fastest. Cmejla then went to the bathroom before the race.

"Hey Dad, you should turn on NR Night in America, I might be winning the pole for it," Cmejla told his Dad who was watching TV on the couch. He would turn it on.

Cmejla came back down to his iRacing Setup with 16 seconds left. He was still #1. Cmejla was getting ready to Tweet that he had scored his 3rd career pole. It was then with 1-second remaining where the #24 of River Page set a 32.039 - .001 (1 thousandth of a second) better than Cmejla's time. Page's time would stand. Cmejla would end up starting 2nd.

Dissappointed, Cmejla has achieved the goal of getting immediate track position by a good qualifying run. Cmejla immediately took the lead early with momentum from the outside. Marty Cmejla ran a C Fixed (Trucks) race at 12:15 AM CT on 11/28, where he finished 3rd. This race was important as it taught Cmejla how the runs work at Atlanta; a refresher on everything.

The first caution came out on Lap 6/60. "When it came time to pit, I remembered back to a Atlanta Next-Gen race from May. It was an early caution. I decided to pit for some reason, as 20 cars stayed out. I then got wrecked on the restart. So this time, I stayed out. Track position is key." This is what Cmejla said in regards to pitting or not. River Page and the rest of the leaders would pit, but there would be about 10 other cars who would stay out on these 6-lap old tires.

Cmejla would restart with the lead. Another strong competitor who was looking for his first win was the #12 of Dominic Barbagallo. Barbagallo and Cmejla would battle throughout the race. Andrew Coody and Aidan Walker were also up front. Later, another caution would wave on Lap 17/60. Cmejla would have to pit. Cmejla would restart 9th - the farthest back he had been all day. Cmejla jumped to the outside on the restart, pushing Barbagallo to the lead as Cmejla got up to 4th after 2 laps. It was then when Alexander Balderas turned a car in the back and did a crazy 360 flip-save. Cmejla made a last second move on Barb for the lead, right as the caution came out.

Despite Cmejla's dominance to this point, Patrick Connell was struggling. After contact with Mac Steinmeyer during the first caution, he suffered 4 minutes of optional repairs. Under the next caution, he apparently "ARCA braked" a crash, hitting the #99 of Hunter Birkmeier. Apparently this caused others to be involved, leading to Braden Muhvic removing Patrick Connell from the race. Connell would ultimately finish 40th - MC Motorsports first finish outside of the Top 39 in team history, throughout both NR Night in America and ASPHALT MEDIA.

Cmejla started on the inside on this restart and had Barb in front. Cmejla pushed Barb. It was then Braden Muhvic in the way who was running 40th at the time - a lap car. He stayed on the bottom, putting Cmejla and others in a 3-wide situation. Muhvic filed in right behind Cmejla. "I was hoping he wouldn't wreck me for whatever Patrick Connell did," Cmejla said.

Barbagallo moved to the high lane, allowing Muhvic to just push Cmejla. For the next 15 laps, Braden Muhvic would keep Cmejla up front, by giving hard, but perfect, shoves to the rear end of the #39 MC Motorsports / mcmiracing.com Chevrolet Camaro. It would be then, a caution came out with 13 to go.

"Right as the caution came out, my car slid sideways. I was a ticking timebomb at this point. The previous 5 laps I was on the edge of control, just excessive tire wear. The caution came out as I was sideways, literally saving me," Cmejla said.

Cmejla would pit after this 25 lap green-flag run. Cmejla would restart 5th place. Chad Thurnqist (#67), Brian Donahue (#60), Alexander Krahnke (#57), and Frank DeAngelis (#69) stayed out. Cmejla had the next car on 4-fresh tires, Barbagallo, to his outside. It would be a race to get by these old-tire cars. In turn 3 on the first lap after the restart, Krahnke got sideways. Cmejla had to go middle 3-wide to get by. Cmejla found himself directly behind Donahue and Thurnquist now. Barb had gotten ahead. On the next lap, entering Turn 3, Donahue made contact with DeAngelis. Donahue spun. Others in the back collided, causing a huge wreck.

On the outside of Cmejla, Carlos Truther's #39 got turned. Cmejla narrowly was able to escape. Then, DeAngelis was trying to save his car in front of Cmejla. Luckily, he didn't overcorrect, and Cmejla would be sitting 2nd for a 5-lap shootout. 

Cmejla had none other than Ethan Eckert's #12 Ford Mustang restarting behind him. Cmejla despised Eckert when Eckert was just starting out in NR Night, but Eckert has showed improvement and is one of Cmejla's best friends on the race track. He messaged Eckert that he would stay high and needed Eckert to committ. Eckert responded, "Only if I can get a free coupon for a statistics sheet." Cmejla responded: "Deal".

Cmejla, restarting 2nd, got a rough restart. Barbagallo was in 3rd, 2nd on the inside. Barb was able to clear Cmejla. Down the backstretch, Barbagallo went high on Thurnqist, blocking Cmejla. Cmejla saw a hole open in the middle, but as he went in, he thought better of it and backed out before potentially turning Dominic Barbagallo. Already though, Cmejla had lost the outside.

It was Cmejla's goal to keep Ethan Eckert behind him. He knew Eckert would push him to the win - if needed. Cmejla would continue pushing Barbagallo on the outside. He knew he didn't want to make his move too early. With 3 to go, Cmejla looked to the outside. He had no help, and Eckert saw the opportunity to go low. Cmejla kind of cut Eckert off, keeping him behind. Cmejla stayed in line with Barbagallo all the way until the white flag, with Eckert behind. With 2 to go, down the backstretch, Thurnquist and the outside got a huge run. Cmejla was trapped.

On the white flag, in the tri-oval, Cmejla made a move to the inside of Barbagallo. Entering Turn 1, Cmejla and Barbagallo made contact. Cmejla kept having his door leaned on, and he was trying to get Barbagallo off. After putting him in the wall, Cmejla came down the track.

"I knew I lost my speed. I had to get a push. I saw Jordan Herring's #72 Toyota Supra nose, so I tried to block," Cmejla said.

The problem was is that Ethan Eckert was there, and Cmejla didn't know. He slammed into Eckert, spinning him, Aidan McConnaughey, and Jordan Herring around at once. They came up the track and wrecked the rest of the field. Cmejla, somehow, had a clear track ahead. The only threat was Barbagallo, closing fast behind.

"I thought I was too far ahead. I had to make a big block down the frontstretch," Cmejla said. Somehow though, Barbagallo would never get there, and Cmejla would cross the start finish line 1st, for the first time. He screamed as loud as he ever has for the whole Voice Chat to hear, and he bursted into tears. All this while his family was watching the broadcast upstairs.

Cmejla couldn't believe he had won, in his 248th attempt. Cmejla burned it down on the frontstretch, while in real life, being surrounded by his family. After leading 27/60 laps, easily his most dominant performance, Cmejla deserved this win. He led 17 more laps than Barbagallo, who led 10. Cmejla blew his engine he burned it down so hard.

Cmejla would then get the most anticipated interview from Jonathan Ramos. Cmejla shouted out his website, merch, family, friends, teachers, and everyone who had got him there. It would go down as the 2nd Longest NR Night in America Winner's Interview in history, just behind BlueJimmie48Fan's (Brandon Paunetto) interview.

It took Cmejla 247 starts, 16 podiums, 46 Top-5s, 126 Top-10s, 217 Top-20s, 2 Poles, and 18 DNFs to get his first ever win. Now, Cmejla had a huge weight off of his shoulder, just before the DriveSmart California 500 E-Ticket Event. Cmejla would finish the night off with a 7th-place finish during Round 5 at Daytona - 2008; skipping out on Round 3 and 4 to let the win sink in.

"I still can't even believe it is real -- that I won!" Cmejla said.

MC Motorsports © 2023 Press Release
Article Created at 1:32 AM CT 11/29/2023