Joe Nemechek

Joe Nemechek

status	active
NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Best placement	15th - (2000)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 667 4th 10 62
NASCAR Xfinity Series Statistics
Best placement	1st - (1992)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 425 16 18th 126
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series statistics
Best placement	53rd - (2006)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 23 - - 15th
Data status: November 2, 2015

Joseph Frank "Joe" Nemechek III (* 26. September 1963 in Lakeland , Florida ) is an American NASCAR - racers . He currently drives the number 87 for his own team, NEMCO Motorsports , in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the NASCAR Nationwide Series . Nemechek is NASCAR Busch Series Champion of 1992. His son John Hunter Nemechek is also a successful NASCAR racing driver.

Career

Early years

Joe Nemechek began racing motocross at the age of 13 . He later competed in several short track races in the USA and also won several of these events. He made his debut in the then Busch Series in the 1989 season at North Carolina Speedway , where he started from 40th and finished 30th.

Busch Series

In 1990 Nemechek finally switched to the Busch Series and achieved two top 5 results with car number 87, as well as 17th place in the championship. He received the Rookie of the Year award for his performance this season . The following year he got 16 top 10 results and sixth place in the championship. In 1992 he won his first two races and was the series champion ahead of Bobby Labonte . In 1993 Nemechek did not win a race, but he started from pole position three times . He finished the championship in fifth. That same season he made his debut in the Winston Cup at New Hampshire Motor Speedway . He started from position 15, but was 36 due to failure of a rocker arm . After two more races in the number 87, he drove more races for Morgan-McClure Motorsports , including a 23rd place in Rockingham .

1994-1999

Joe Nemechek 1997 in Pocono

In 1994 Nemechek drove for Larry Hedrick Motorsports in the number 41 car, but he did not start in two races, drove twice in the top ten and was 27 at the end of the season. In the Busch Series, he only started at the Richmond International Raceway . The following season he was fourth and 28th in the championship at the MBNA 500 . After Nemechek and his team got out of the top 35 and therefore should have qualified for every race, he left the team and signed a contract with SABCO Racing . After losing his brother John at Homestead Miami Speedway , he won the first two pole positions of his career in the Winston Cup at California Speedway and Pocono Raceway . After clinching his maiden win in the Winston Cup in 1999 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway , he announced that he was leaving his team. After two pole positions in Martinsville and on the Talladega Superspeedway , he finished the year 30th in the championship.

2000-2005

Nemechek at the Daytona 500 2005

2000 Nemechek signed with Andy Petree Racing for the car with the number 33. After starting from the front row in Talladega, he was 15th in the championship. A year after an elbow injury, he won 2001 in North Carolina . Due to financial problems within the racing team, Nemechek switched to Haas-Carter Motorsports . After Haas-Carter lost its main sponsor, Nemechek had to leave this team as well.

For a few races he replaced the injured Johnny Benson in MB2 Motorsports car number 10 . In the 2002 season he drove two second places in the last four races for Hendrick Motorsports in car number 25. In the 2003 season he won the Pontiac Excitement 400 , but was only 25th in the championship.

In 2004 he switched back to MB2 / MBV Motorsports and drove the car with the number 01. In November he won at Kansas Speedway ahead of Ricky Rudd . The day before, he won the Busch Series race on the speedway, making him the first driver to achieve the “double”. In 2005 he started from pole position twice and only missed his best year-end result by seven points.

2006 until today

Nemechek at the Daytona 500 2008

In 2006 he drove under the new name Ginn Racing for the same team as in previous years. After Mark Martin took his place, he was to drive in car number 13 from now on. However, since there were no sponsors, he couldn't drive any more races in July, so he signed with E&M Motorsports . After two races, he moved to Furniture Row Racing , where he signed a three-year contract. In April 2008 he achieved his tenth pole position in Talladega, and it was also the first for Furniture Row Racing . In July 2008 he was 18th at Daytona and marked the best result ever for Furniture Row Racing . In 2008 he drove a number 87 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for his own team NEMCO Motorsports in the Nationwide Series . In 2009 he drove a Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup for the same team , this time a customer vehicle from Hendrick Motorsports .

Web links

Commons : Joe Nemechek  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Driver statistics on racing-reference.info