Danny Emerick Takes Seventh Win in Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown

Not many people could build an entire engine in under 30 minutes, that's what makes the Randy Dorton Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown so special. And after his latest triumph in the event on Thursday afternoon, nobody has captured victory in the event more than Danny Emerick, who captured the title for the seventh time.

REPLAY: 2024 Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown Final Build

While it was a record-breaking evening for Emerick, it wasn't a smooth path to the championship battle for the Hendrick Motorsports mechanic and his teammate Shane Flake, who is an automotive technician at Hendrick Toyota of Concord.

Emerick had a hiccup in his team's qualifying round build, which had the six-time champion sweating bullets through the remainder of Wednesday and Thursday's qualifiers. Fortunately, the qualifying time set by Flake and he was fast enough to advance to face off against Scott Vester, a fellow six-time champion of the event, and Joe Gagatch of Hendrick Lexus of Charlotte.

And boy, oh, boy what a final championship build it was.

Vester, competing in his final Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown, along with Gagatch had the advantage early in the build as they assembled the bottom half of their engine and completed the flip of the engine in less than nine minutes.

Sitting at roughly a minute and a half behind the team of Vester and Gagatch, Emerick and Flake were able to rally with a speed run through the top half of their engine build, and they were aided by a snag on Vester's first attempt at firing up the engine. Even Emerick was impressed by the incredible rally that he and Flake, who teamed to finish runner-up in this event in 2021, were able to mount.

"For me, 45 seconds [behind at the flip] is kind of the window. Scott has told me before, that he's always better on the bottom end, and typically I'll reel him in maybe 45 seconds worth on the top end. And I looked at the clock when he did that, and I looked where we were, and I was like, 'Okay, let's see some magic.' It was a minute and a half like you said," Emerick explained. "Fortunately, they had a problem, and that opened the door for us to capitalize on that. So, it was just super exciting. We were really pumped, it's just amazing."

As a result, Emerick and Flake would finish their build just over 31 seconds before Vester and Gagatch. In post-event inspection, each team had one loose fastener, which resulted in a 30-second penalty. The final tally for Emerick and Flake was a 24-minute, 2.44-second run, while Vester and Gagatch completed their build with an official time of 24 minutes, 33.88 seconds.

Taking home his seventh championship in the Randy Dorton Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown was impactful for Emerick, but doing it against Vester, who he considers the best to ever do it, was the icing on the cake.

"Competing against Scott, it's kind of like when you win against Scott, it takes on a whole new meaning because, in my book, he's the best. I would say if you ask a lot of other people, they would say the same thing," Emerick stated. "And sometimes I like to do things the hard way, and I've learned a lot from Scott. You know, we've worked side-by-side for many years here. He's been a great friend, and competitor, and contributed so much to Motorsports. So, anytime I can combine with Scott on anything, it's really special."

For Flake, this was the first time he'd reached a victory in the Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown, and the Hendrick Automotive Group Technician was quite proud of his award.

"It's pretty intense. Very intense," Flake said of the event, and he explained that he feels, "like it was a great achievement. I'm glad it has finally come through."

2024 Randy Dorton Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown Results

Photo Credit: Will Bellamy | Racing America