Joe Nemechek

Joseph Frank Nemechek, III
Born	September 26, 1963 (1963-09-26) Lakeland, Florida
Achievements	1992 Busch Series Champion
Awards	1987 Lakeland Interstate Speedway Rookie of the Year 1988 United Speed Alliance Racing Rookie of the Year 1989 All-Pro Late Model Series Champion & Rookie of the Year 1990 NBS Rookie of the Year 1992 & 1993 Most Popular Driver
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
Car no., team	87 - NEMCO Motorsports
2010 position	38th
Best finish	15th - 2000
First race	1993 Slick 50 300 (New Hampshire)
First win	1999 Dura Lube/Kmart 300 (New Hampshire)
Last win	2004 Banquet 400 Presented by ConAgra Foods (Kansas)
Wins Top tens Poles 4 62 10
NASCAR Nationwide Series career
Car no., team	87 - NEMCO Motorsports
2010 position	20th
Best finish	1st - 1992
First race	1989 AC-Delco 500 (Rockingham)
First win	1992 Kroger 200 (IRP)
Last win	2004 Mr. Goodcents 300 (Kansas)
Wins Top tens Poles 16 121 18
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
Best finish	53rd - 2006
First race	1996 Parts America 150 (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 4 0
Statistics current as of January 10, 2011.

Joseph Frank Nemechek III (born September 26, 1963) is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and owner of NEMCO Motorsports. He won the 1992 Busch Series championship. He was born in Lakeland, Florida, the older brother of the late John Nemechek, and is nicknamed "Front Row Joe" for his tendency to qualify near the front of the field, a nickname given him by former teammate Wally Dallenbach. He drives his own car with part-time sponsorship from AM FM Energy.

Early career

Nemechek began racing at the age of thirteen in motocross, and won three hundred career races over the next six years. After winning various awards in different short track series around the country, Nemechek made his Busch Series debut at North Carolina Speedway in 1989, where he started 40th and finishing 33rd after suffering engine failure in his #88 Buick.

Busch Series

Nemechek moved up to the Busch Series in 1990, running the #87 with sponsorship from Master Machine & Tool, posting two top-fives and finishing seventeenth in points, winning Rookie of the Year honors. He had sixteen top-ten finishes and finished sixth in points the following year. In 1992, Nemechek got full-time sponsorship from Texas Pete sauce, and won his first two career wins and defeated Bobby Labonte for the championship by three points. He did not win again in 1993, but he won three poles and finished fifth in points. That season, he made his Cup debut at New Hampshire International Speedway for his NEMCO team, starting 15th before finishing 36th after suffering rocker arm failure. After running two more races in the 87, he ran a pair of races for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, his best finish 23rd at Rockingham.

1994-1999

In 1994, Nemechek joined Larry Hedrick Motorsports to drive the #41 Meineke Discount Mufflers Chevy. Despite missing two races, he had three top-tens and finished 27th. He also started one Busch Series race at Richmond International Raceway. The next season, he moved his 87 team up to the Cup series with sponsorship from Burger King, and posted a fourth-place finish at the MBNA 500 and finished 28th in points. After he dropped to 34th in points, he abandoned his Cup team and signed to drive the #42 Bellsouth car for SABCO Racing. After losing his brother John in an accident at Homestead-Miami Speedway early in the year, Nemechek won the first two pole positions of his career, at California Speedway and Pocono Raceway, respectively. He posted four top-tens and finished a career-best 26th the following year. Midway through 1999, he announced he would not return to the 42 team the following season when he picked up his first career victory at Loudon. He won two more poles at Martinsville and Talladega Superspeedway and finished 30th in points that year.

2000-2005

For 2000, Nemechek signed to drive the #33 Oakwood Homes Chevrolet for Andy Petree Racing, winning the pole at Talladega and finishing a career-best fifteenth in points. He missed five races the following year after suffering an elbow injury at a test at Dover in 2001, then went on to win the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at North Carolina Speedway that November.

After Petree's team began to run into financial problems, Nemechek left for the #26 Ford Taurus fielded by Haas-Carter Motorsports. But after sponsor Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Nemechek left the team.

After replacing Johnny Benson (who was injured in an accident at Richmond) in the #10 Valvoline Pontiac for MB2 Motorsports for a few races, Nemechek was signed by Hendrick Motorsports to drive the #25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet (replacing Jerry Nadeau). He had a solid finish to his 2002 season, finishing second twice in the season's final four races.

In 2003, he won at the Pontiac Excitement 400 as well as posting five other top-ten finishes, but finished 25th in points. It wasn't enough for Nemechek to keep his job at Hendrick, and at the end of the season was released from his contract.

For the 2004, season, Nemechek returned to MB2/MBV Motorsports, taking over the #01 U.S. Army car (driven previously by Jerry Nadeau, who was severely injured in a crash in a test run for the Richmond race Nemechek ended up winning the prior season). He won two poles late in the season. In October, Nemechek won at Kansas Speedway, beating out Ricky Rudd at the finish line. Nemechek also won the Busch Series race at Kansas the day before, making him the first driver to pull the Busch-Cup double win at the track.

In 2005, Nemechek won a pole at Michigan and fell seven points short of matching his career-best points finish.

Nemechek's #01 U.S. Army car

Nemechek's #42 BellSouth race car in 1997

Presently

Joe Nemechek's #78 race car in 2007

The #78 in 2008

The MB2 was rebranded as Ginn Racing following Bobby Ginn's purchase of the team in 2006. He moved to Ginn's #13 with CertainTeed sponsorship after veteran Mark Martin and rookie Regan Smith were tapped to share the #01 car. In July 2007, Nemechek was released due to a lack of sponsorship for the #13, which was subsequently shut down. He signed with E&M Motorsports and although he failed his first attempt to qualify at Indy, he made his way into the field for the Michigan race weekend driving the #08 Fans On Board Dodge. He spent the rest of the season driving for Furniture Row Racing, and signed a three-year contract with FRR to continue to drive in the #78 and help expand the team. In April 2008, at Talladega, Joe Nemechek grabbed his 10th career pole driving the #78 National Day of Prayer/ Furniture Row car It marked Furniture Row Racing's first ever pole. In October 2008, Nemechek finished 11th at the Talladega race, marking it Furniture Row Racing's best finish to date. In November 2008, Furniture Row Racing announced that they were planning on running a limited schedule in 2009 or perhaps not at all in light of the economic situation. The day after this announcement Nemechek was released from his contract and as a result making hum free to pursue other opportunities for 2009 and beyond. Shortly thereafter, Joe announced that he would be bringing his NEMCO Motorsports team back to full competition in both of NASCAR's top seires, Sprint Cup and Nationwide. He would race the #87 Chevy in Nationwide and the #87 Camry in Cup. Nemechek ran most of the races for both series that season, but occasionally had a younger fill in. In the Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway, Nemechek flipped after contact with several other cars. His car had minor damage, and he was able to drive it back to pit road.

Nemechek raced in 30 Cup races during the 2009 season despite very little funding. He finished just three events and did multiple "start and parks" where a driver starts the race, then parks to conserve parts, tires, etc. and to collect the prize money. On two occasions, he gave up his ride to Scott Speed after his fully funded ride failed to qualify for Darlington and Sonoma. He qualified for the 2010 Daytona 500 after missing the race the year before. Nemechek picked up sponsorship from England Stove Works, but was involved in an accident on lap 64. Joe would go on to compete in 30 more Cup races with most being "start and parks." That season was highlighted by the 2010 AMP Energy Juice 500, Nemechek led the first lap after starting fourth. He would run the full distance, finishing 27th.

Joe has brought his #87 cars back for 2011 to once again run both major NASCAR series. Nemechek successfully qualified for the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row, but was once again involved in an early incident, thus failing to finish again. On June 9 at Texas Motor Speedway, along with Jeff Burton he made his 900th NASCAR start in all top three series. In the Nationwide Series, Nemechek scored his first top five since 2005 with a 3rd place finish at the Aaron's 312 after being in position to win with 2 laps to go. In July, Nemechek picked up sponsorship from Extenze and AM FM Energy to run the full race in both series at Daytona International Speedway. He lead laps in both races but was taken out in late accidents. He is the only driver in the go or go home category to make every race so far this season. Nemechek is collecting Nationwide Series points for 2011.

External links

• Joe Nemechek official web site
• Nemechek driver profile from Nascar.com
• Joe Nemechek Career Statistics
• Furniture Row Racing

References

Preceded by Bobby Labonte

NASCAR Busch Series Champion 1992

Succeeded by Steve Grissom