(born
September 26 ,
1963 ) in
Lakeland, Florida is a
NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver and owner of
NEMCO Motorsports . He won the 1992
Busch Series championship. He drove the #13
Chevrolet Monte Carlo for
Ginn Racing until July 17, 2007, when his team was shut down due to lack of sponsorship. Nemechek's plans are uncertain now that he has no ride. The older brother of the late
John Nemechek (whose death inspired him to name his firstborn son after his brother), 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 .
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 .
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.
In
1994 , Nemechek joined
Larry Hedrick Motorsports to drive the #41
Meineke Car Care Center 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 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.
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.
The MB2 was rebranded as car at Fontana, California and for future races.
