LOUDON, N.H. — John Hunter Nemechek showed Saturday that he is the hottest driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and he is proving he made the right decision by going back to the series full-time.

The 26-year-old son of former NASCAR Cup Series regular Joe Nemechek won for the second straight week and the fourth time this season when he took the checkered flag in the Ambetter Health 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Nemechek took the lead for the final time during a series of pit stops in the third stage and survived a pair of late-race restarts — including one in overtime — to take the victory in the No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing.

“Our Toyota JGR Supra was really good all weekend,” Nemechek said. “Pretty dominant performance by the whole 20 team. Winning just keeps getting better and better every time you do it.”

Nemechek, who started second and led 137 laps, has bounced between the Craftsman Truck, Xfinity and Cup series in his young career. He raced the full Cup schedule in 2020 before going back to the Truck Series the last two seasons. A seat opened up at JGR, and Nemechek jumped at the opportunity to compete with one of the Xfinity Series’ best teams.

“When I made the move, it was to come back to win races and championships,” Nemechek said. “Hopefully we’re living up to that expectation.”

Nemechek made his move to the front in the third stage, taking the lead from Sammy Smith on a restart on lap 107. There was a question as to whether Nemechek accelerated on the restart before Smith did, but NASCAR ruled there was no foul.

Nemechek quickly pulled away. By lap 137, he led by nearly three seconds.

However, Nemechek shuffled back in the pack after a round of green-flag pit stops, before which his lead was around four seconds. He bided his time until a caution on lap 161 forced leaders Austin Dillon and Joe Graf Jr. to pit. The lead cycled back to Nemechek, setting him up for the run to the finish.

A pair of cautions in the closing laps put Nemechek’s win in jeopardy, but he got a good jump both times. The race ended when Sheldon Creed wrecked on lap 204, after Nemechek took the white flag as the leader.

“Don’t mess up, that’s it,” Nemechek said of the final restarts. “Don’t make a mistake.”

Pole sitter Chandler Smith, Austin Hill, Daniel Hemric and Sammy Smith rounded out the top five.

After the race, Nemechek credited one of JGR’s Cup Series drivers, Christopher Bell, with helping him figure out New Hampshire. Bell won last year’s Cup Series race here and will start Sunday’s Crayon 301 from the pole.

“Shoutout to another driver; he knows who he is,” Nemechek said. “We’ve been texting quite a bit this weekend, and he’s one of the masters here. He may be on the pole tomorrow.”

After a lengthy caution between the first and second stage, Nemechek took the lead from Chandler Smith on the second lap following the restart. However, the stage was plagued with cautions, including one on a lap 71 restart that involved at least 10 cars when they stacked up coming to the green flag. On lap 86, Nemechek beat Berry out of the pits during yellow-flag stops, but the lead belonged to Parker Retzlaff and others those who did not pit. Sammy Smith took the lead late in the closing laps to take the second stage victory.

Justin Allgaier and Nemechek battled for the lead for the majority of the first stage. Allgaier, who started fourth, drove up to second on the first lap and grabbed his first lead a lap later. Nemechek closed in before taking the top spot on lap 9. He held that position until Allgaier drove back to the front on lap 28.

Allgaier’s lead grew to around a second until a caution on lap 42 ended the stage under yellow, giving him his fifth stage win of the season. However, Allgaier had to start the second stage from the rear of the field for starting his pit stop with the nose of the car outside of his box, giving the lead to Chandler Smith.

The race was slowed by 10 caution flags.

Jason Remillard is a copy editor and page designer for Newspapers of New England. He can be reached at jremillard@recorder.com and followed on Twitter @racinwithjason.