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John Nemechek
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John Nemechek (March 12, 1970—March 21, 1997, born in Lakeland, Florida), was a race car driver who was killed in an accident during a Craftsman truck race at Homestead, Florida.
younger brother of four-time Sprint Cup race winner Joe Nemechek, John followed his brother into racing, running his first race at the age of twelve in an 80 class dirtbike race. After a quick progression to the 250cc class, he moved onto mini-stock cars, where he raced against his brother, and eventually late-model stocks.
When he wasn't racing, Nemechek served as the front-tire changer on Joe's pit crew, and was on Joe's 1992 Busch Series Championship winning team.
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Encyclopedia
John Nemechek (March 12, 1970—March 21, 1997, born in Lakeland, Florida), was a race car driver who was killed in an accident during a Craftsman truck race at Homestead, Florida.
Life and Racing Career
The younger brother of four-time Sprint Cup race winner Joe Nemechek, John followed his brother into racing, running his first race at the age of twelve in an 80 class dirtbike race. After a quick progression to the 250cc class, he moved onto mini-stock cars, where he raced against his brother, and eventually late-model stocks.
When he wasn't racing, Nemechek served as the front-tire changer on Joe's pit crew, and was on Joe's 1992 Busch Series Championship winning team. He would begin attempting NASCAR races himself, and ran one Busch Race at IRP in 1994. He finished 30th after his #89 Chevrolet suffered engine failure. The following season, he began racing the #8 Chevrolet C/K in the new Craftsman Truck Series. In the first year of competition, Nemechek ran 16 races and had two top-ten finishes. He followed that up with two more top-tens in 1996 and a thirteenth place finish in points, running a single truck he built himself titled The War Wagon under his own team, Chek Racing, Inc.
Death
On March 16, 1997, Nemechek was running a Truck race at Homestead-Miami Speedway when with 25 laps to go, he suddenly lost control of his truck and slammed into the Turn 1 wall driver's-side first, suffering major head injuries. He clung to life over the next five days before finally succumbing on March 21st. Joe was able to pay tribute to his brother by winning a Busch Series race in that November at the same track (which had been overhauled with a reconfiguration, turning the track into a true oval with six degrees of banking, eliminating the rectangular configuration used in March) that took his brother's life, and also naming his son John Hunter after his late brother.
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