Joe Nemechek

 ( Joenemechek.com Official Website ) 

Joseph Frank Nemechek III (born September 26, 1963) is an American professional stock car racing driver who last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 24 Toyota Supra for Sam Hunt Racing. Nemechek has made the second most national series starts in NASCAR history. He claimed the record in 2019 after he passed seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty, but was surpassed by Kevin Harvick in 2021. Nemechek won the 1992 NASCAR Busch Series championship.

He is the older brother of racing driver John Nemechek. He is the father of John Hunter Nemechek, who competes full-time in the Cup Series for Legacy Motor Club. He is nicknamed " Front-Row Joe", which was coined by former teammate Wally Dallenbach for his tendency in the late 1990s to be a regular contender for a front-row starting position.

Nemechek moved up to the Busch Series in 1990, running the No. 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 got 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 Winston Cup debut at New Hampshire International Speedway for his NEMCO team, starting fifteenth 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 being a 23rd place showing at Rockingham.

After Petree's team began to run into financial problems, Nemechek's team was left without a sponsor and he left for Haas-Carter Motorsports to take over the No. 26 Kmart Ford Taurus that Jimmy Spencer had left for Chip Ganassi Racing. However, Nemechek went from one financial problem to another, as Kmart filed for bankruptcy early in the 2002 season and stopped sponsoring the Haas-Carter team. This forced Haas-Carter to scale back its operations to one team, and Nemechek was released in favor of keeping Todd Bodine, who was driving the team's other car. Nemechek found an opportunity almost immediately, as Johnny Benson Jr., who was the driver of the No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac for MBV Motorsports, was injured in a crash the previous race and required a substitute. After driving one race in Benson's car at Richmond Raceway, Nemechek was hired by Hendrick Motorsports to replace Jerry Nadeau in the No. 25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet. Nemechek drove the remainder of the season for Hendrick and performed well enough to earn that ride full time the next season, including 2nd place runs at Atlanta and Homestead where in the latter of the two races mentioned, he led the most laps, he lost both races to Kurt Busch however.

In 2003, Nemechek started in the second spot, led the most laps, and won the Pontiac Excitement 400. The race was rain-shortened with seven laps left, and just three minutes under a red flag, NASCAR called the race official. Nemechek, in an indoor victory lane, dedicated his win to Nadeau, who previously suffered a massive crash during a practice run at Richmond, which would end up ending Nadeau's career in motorsports. After the big win, Nemechek posted five other top-ten finishes but finished 25th in points. It wasn't enough for Nemechek to keep his job at Hendrick, and was announced to be released from his contract at the end of the season in favor of their Busch Series driver, Brian Vickers. The team later ended up releasing Nemechek early to prepare for Vickers' start in the No. 25 in 2004. Nemechek would move to his 2004 team, the No. 01 for MB2 Motorsports, early, as well.

In 2005, Nemechek won the pole at Michigan. The season was highlighted by a feud with Kevin Harvick. After Harvick caused a multi-car crash involving Nemechek during practice for the 2005 Daytona 500, Nemechek and Jimmie Johnson were outspoken about their displeasure with Harvick. Later, Nemechek got into a tussle with Harvick during The Nextel Challenge. Nemechek got turned into Harvick by Tony Stewart and, because of their Daytona feud, Harvick took Nemechek's role in the wreck personally, which ignited a heated post-race conversation that nearly came to blows. Nemechek remarked post-race that, "Kevin thinks he owns this world, and he ain't squat." NASCAR would issue no penalties to either drivers.

At the end of the season, Nemechek fell seven points short of matching his career-best points finish.

MB2 was rebranded as Ginn Racing following Bobby Ginn's purchase of the team in 2006. He moved to Ginn's No. 13 with a CertainTeed sponsorship after veteran Mark Martin and rookie Regan Smith were tapped to share the No. 01 car. In July 2007, Nemechek was released due to a lack of sponsorship for the No. 13, which was subsequently shut down. NASCAR News, Videos, Scores, Standings, Stats, Teams | FOX Sports on MSN. Msn.foxsports.com. Retrieved on 2014-04-12.

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 team 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. Nemechek would go on to compete in thirty 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 after suffering a blown tire.

Nemechek brought his No. 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 third place finish at the Aaron's 312 after being in the position to win with two 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 led laps in both races but was taken out in late accidents. Nemechek collected Nationwide Series points for 2011 under NASCAR's policy that a driver may accumulate points for only one series, and finished 14th in the final standings. He ran the No. 87 in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series in 2012, with the Cup ride as a start-and-park to fund the Nationwide team. Nemechek made his six-hundredth career start at Michigan and finished 40th after starting 37th. Nemechek finished 11th in the 2012 Nationwide Series points.

In April 2014, Nemechek announced that he would be driving the No. 86 Deware Racing Group Chevrolet Camaro with sponsorship from Bubba Burger. In the 2014 Aaron's 312, Nemechek was running towards the front during the entire race. With three laps remaining, Nemechek was running in the top-ten and finished sixth, his 126th top-ten in the Nationwide Series. For the Coke Zero 400, Nemechek entered with the No. 29 RAB Racing Toyota with sponsorship from ToyotaCare, but failed to qualify. Nemechek joined Randy Humphrey Racing for the Oral-B USA 500, qualifying 34th and finishing 37th. He returned to RAB Racing's No. 29 at the 2014 GEICO 500, and initially qualified 24th, putting him in the field for the race. However, his car failed post-race inspection for an improperly sealed oil tank encasement, and he failed to qualify. This became the first season in Nemechek's Cup Series career where he did not race in any of the superspeedway races.

The following week at Atlanta, he was announced as the substitute for David Ragan in the No. 34 CSX Ford for Front Row Motorsports. At the time, Ragan was driving for Joe Gibbs Racing in place of the injured Kyle Busch. Nemechek drove the No. 34 car to a 33rd-place finish in what would be his only Cup Series start of the season.

Nemechek made two appearances in 2016, driving his own No. 87 in both Xfinity races at Daytona. Nemechek finished eighteenth in February and 36th in July after being caught in an early crash while he was running in the top-ten.

On January 20, 2017, it was announced that Nemechek would drive the No. 87 truck in the first three races of the season. Nemechek would finish fifth in the season opening race. The next week he would finish 24th at Atlanta. Beginning at Gateway after a four race break, Nemechek start and parked the No. 87 until the end of the season, skipping only Eldora and Martinsville where he gave up the ride for Ty Dillon, who brought sponsorship to run the full race. Nemechek's son, John Hunter, would win two consecutive Truck Series races at Gateway and Iowa. Nemechek returned to Xfinity Series and drove the final two races of the season for JD Motorsports, beginning with a start and park at Phoenix in the No. 15 and a full race at Homestead in the No. 01 (ironically his old number in the Cup Series from 2003 to 2006), where he would finished tenth in Stage 1.

In 2018, Nemechek took over as a driver at NEMCO Motorsports after his son John Hunter moved up to the Xfinity Series with Chip Ganassi Racing. He had also been announced as one of the drivers of JD Motorsports' No. 15 car, splitting the ride with other drivers. It was announced that Matt Mills would drive the 15 full time. Nemechek ran the PowerShares QQQ 300 in the 15, and later returned to the car for the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300.

Season still in progress 

Ineligible for series points