FANTASY NASCAR Racin

JOE NEMECHEK - 11/19/1934 -
NEMCO MOTORSPORTS is owned by driver Joe Nemechek and his family. The team has had success, winning the 1992 Xfinity Series Championship. The team competed in both Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series competition, running for the Xfinity Series points title. The original car in the NEMCO stable, the #87 car debuted in 1989 at North Carolina Speedway as the #88 Buick with Nemechek finishing 33rd after an engine failure. The car switched to the #87 and ran full-time in 1990 with sponsorship from Master Machine & Tool. Nemechek had five top-tens and was named NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year. After jumping to sixth in points the following year, Nemechek and the team won two races and the Busch Series championship in 1992. After Nemechek failed to win the championship again in 1993, he left for Larry Hedrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Series. He continued to drive the No. 87 part-time in the Xfinity Series for several years. Nemechek ran his first Cup race in 1993 driving the Dentyne sponsored #87. He started 15th; but broke a motor part and finished 36th. In 1994 driving for Hedrick he posted a best finish of third at Pocono. In 1995 Joe started his own Cup team and he was an owner/driver for all of 1995-1996 with Burger King as a full time sponsor. He posted a best finish of third at New Hampshire. From 1997-2000 Nemechek drove for various owners and during that time posted four Cup wins. His Xfinity and Truck Series teams raced sporadically during this same time span; and NEMCO did post eight wins in the Xfinity series during this time. In 2009 Nemechek revived NEMCO Motorsports back into a full time Cup team and once again was an owner / driver through 2013. Most of the races during this span he ran with very little

sponsorship, or no sponsorship at all. As would be expected; he didn't run well, and failed to post even a top ten finish during this time. During this same time frame; he also fielded a full time Xfinity team for which he drove. His best finish was a third in 2001 at Talladega. In 2013 Joe's son John Hunter Nemechek broke into NASCAR running two races for his Dad in the NASCAR Truck Series. His first start would come in the #22 truck with Wood Pellet Grills as a sponsor. It would come at Martinsville with the 16 year old finishing 16th on the lead lap. Due to his young age he only ran 10 races in 2014; as he was

restricted to smaller tracks on the NASCAR Circuit. Joe would wheel the truck for the other 12 races that season. Still, in his ten starts that season he posted one top 5 finish and six finishes in the top 10. In 2015 he missed some races while waiting to turn 18 when he would be able to run all the races in the Truck Series. He posted his first win for NEMCO's Truck Series team. The win would come at Chicagoland in September, passing Kyle Larson with two laps to go after Larson ran out of fuel. It was the first win for NEMCO in any series since a Busch Series race at Kansas in October 2004 He finished the year on a high note finishing second in three of his last four starts. In

2016 John Hunter was able to run all 23 of the Truck Series races and posted two wins. He would win early in the season at Atlanta and also win at the road course of Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville Ontario. He qualified for NASCAR's Chase; but had issues in the first round and ended up finishing eighth in points. Also we would see Joe Nemechek back behind the wheel; entered in Truck Series races. On most occasions Joe drove a start-n-park entry. Still not having a full time high dollar sponsor the teams took every opportunity to earn whatever winnings it could to try and get to keep John Hunters truck competitive. Joe Nemechek continued to run NEMCO Motorsports to help further the progress of his son

John Hunter. Joe would make 16 starts, mostly in a start-n-park effort to help secure funds for John Hunter to be able to race. Meanwhile John Hunter would compete in 23 Truck series events. He would win claim two wins while getting eight to five finishes. He finished eighth in the season points. 2018 saw more of the same with Joe making start-n-park efforts. He ran 17 events, and he would have a best finish of third at Daytona. John Hunter made 18 starts in 2018 and he would win at Martinsville and finished in the top five on six occasions. He also had ten finishes inside the top ten in his 18 starts. He also ran 18 Xfinity series races and had one win at Kansas. For 2019 John Hunter was tabbed to drive the #23 full time in

the Xfinity series for Gallagher Motorsports. Still Joe fielded Trucks in the Truck series. Joe himself started 13 races with a best finish of 14th at Miami. John Hunter made five starts with a best finish of seventh at Martinsville. The most notable run was certainly made by Angela Ruch. she only made two starts in Nemechek's race trucks but finished a surprising eighth in the season opening race at Daytona; and was only the second woman to finish in the Top 10 in a Daytona truck race. The other start she made for Nemechek was also respectable as he posted a 16th place finish at Las Vegas. The two Top 10's mentioned (Angela's and John Hunters) were the only two Top 10 finishes that Joe Nemecheks

trucks were able to post in 37 starts. In 2020, since it seemed his efforts of fielding a race vehicle for his son John Hunter had paid off and he had moved up to the Cup Series Joe Nemechek didn't do much in the way of putting any race vehicles on the track. He did field a truck for six races. He drove one race himself and four races John Hunter drove. Nemechek’s truck team only made one start in 2021. Camden Murphy was called upon to drive in the road course race at Daytona. He would start 37th and run a great race finishing 3th. It is not known if NEMCO will continue to operate now that Joe’s son John Hunter Nemechek seems to have a solid footing in NASCAR. Some info from Wikipedia