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Joe Nemechek
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Joseph Frank Nemechek III (born September 26, 1963 in Lakeland, Florida) is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and owner of NEMCO Motorsports. He won the 1992 Busch Series championship. He currently is bringing his NEMCO team back to run the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series in the #87 Chevy for 2009. The older brother of the late John Nemechek, he is nicknamed "Front Row Joe" for his tendency to qualify near the front of the field, a term deemed by former teammate Wally Dallenbach.
chek began racing at the age of thirteen in motocross, and won six hundred career races over the next six years.
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Encyclopedia
Joseph Frank Nemechek III (born September 26, 1963 in Lakeland, Florida) is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and owner of NEMCO Motorsports. He won the 1992 Busch Series championship. He currently is bringing his NEMCO team back to run the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series in the #87 Chevy for 2009. The older brother of the late John Nemechek, he is nicknamed "Front Row Joe" for his tendency to qualify near the front of the field, a term deemed by former teammate Wally Dallenbach.
Early career
Nemechek began racing at the age of thirteen in motocross, and won six 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 Sauces, 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 the season before and has yet to return to NASCAR). 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.
Presently
The MB2 was rebranded as Ginn Racing following Bobby Ginn's purchase of the team in 2006. He drove the #13 with CertainTeed sponsorship after being replaced in the 01 by Mark Martin and Regan Smith. In July 2007, Nemechek found himself without a ride in the Nextel Cup Series after being released due to a lack of sponsorship for the #13 car. 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 has now signed a 3 year contract with FRR to continue to drive in the 78 and help expand the team. In April 2008 at Talladega Joe Nemechek driving the 78 National Day of Prayer/ Furniture Row car grabbed his 10th pole of his career. It also 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 ever. 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 is free to pursue other opportunities for 2009 and beyond. Joe Nemechek announced that he is bringing his NEMCO Motorsports team back out from the garage to compete in both of NASCAR's top seires, Sprint Cup and Nationwide. He will race the #87 Chevy in Nationwide and the #87 Toyota in Cup. He is currently looking for a sponsor and he is also in the works of hiring young drivers to help teach them to be top contenders in the sport.
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