FANTASY NASCAR Racin

was a NASCAR driver and owner of NEMCO Motorsports. He won the 1992 Xfinity Series championship. He was born in Lakeland, Florida, the older brother of the late John Nemechek, and is nicknamed "Front Row Joe", a nickname given him by former teammate Wally Dallenbach for his tendency in the late 1990s to be a regular contender for a front row starting position. 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 Xfinity Series debut at North Carolina Speedway in 1989, where he started 40th and finishing 33rd after suffering engine failure in his #88 Buick. Nemechek moved up to the Xfinity Series in 1990, running the #87 with sponsorship from Master Machine & Tool, posting two Top 5's and finishing 17th in

points, and 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 got his first two career wins and defeated Bobby Labonte for the championship by three points. 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. 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. 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. 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 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). In October, Nemechek won at Kansas

Speedway, beating out Ricky Rudd at the finish line. Nemechek also won the Xfinity Series race at Kansas the day before, making him the first driver to pull the Xfinity-Cup double win at the track. 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 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 Furniture Row Racing's best finish at that time. 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. Joe 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 Xfinity 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. Ever since 2010 Nemechek has been an owner / driver and as usually happens he had had very little success. He ran full time though 2013 driving for himself and wasn't able to post even one top ten finish in that span. He ran just part-time in 2014 driving for owner Jay Robinson, but a 30th place finish was the best he could muster. 2015 Nemechek didn't race and at all; but put a large amount of energy into bring his son John Hunter Nemechek along through the NASCAR ranks. John Hunter ran 18 races in the Truck series and was able to post a win. (see more on John Hunter below). Joe ran 16 races in 2017 in the Truck Series; mostly in a start-n-park effort

to collect a pay check and help acquire funds to support John Hunters Truck Series efforts. That continued in 2018 as Joe struggled to field a competitive truck, so John Hunter could showcase his talent. Joe started 17 of the 23 races; posting a best finish of third at Daytona. Joe's efforts to help John Hunter seems to have paid off as he made 18 starts driving an Xfinity car for Chip Ganassi; posting one win. In the picture above is Joe is shown with his brother John. John had a fatal crash in a truck series race at Homestead FL. In the foreground is their mother Martha; a mainstay at all the races her boys raced in. John Hunter went on to drive full time for Gallagher Motor Sports in 2019. He also made three Cup starts. While John Hunter has been finding rides of various sources; it

looks like father Joe has also. He stayed busy in 2019 driving his own race machine in the Truck series; splitting time between the #8 and #87. He also made ten starts in the Xfinity Series; all for under funded teams like MBM Racing and Mike Harmon Racing. He made seven Cup starts also. It was the first time he had ran a Cup race since 2015 and he wheeled the #27 for Premium Motorsports. He had a best finish of 29th. Joe and son John Hunter set a NASCAR record the next to last race of the season at Phoenix. They become the first father / son combo to run all three NASCAR series races in the same weekend. On November 15, 2019 Nemechek surpassed Richard Petty as the driver with the most starts in

NASCAR's three national series, and now has 1,188. As of the end of 2019 Nemechek has raced in the Cup Series 24 seasons; made 674 starts and has four wins. He also has 18 Top 5 and 62 Top 10 finishes. In addition he has 445 Xfinity starts with 16 wins and 74 Top 5's. He has made 69 starts in the Truck series; most of them in the last three years as he tries to help son John Hunter along to progress his career. To find out more about Joe Nemechek the Car Owner, click HERE. Some info from WikiPedia. Here is a YouTube video of Nemecheck's last win.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

JOSEPH FRANK "JOE" NEMECHEK - 09/26/1963