Joe Nemechek

Joseph Frank Nemechek III (born September 26, 1963) is an American professional stock car racing driver. The 1992 NASCAR Busch Series champion, he has the second most national series (Cup, Xfinity, Truck) starts in NASCAR history.

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 began racing at the age of thirteen in motocross and won 300 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 finished 33rd after suffering an engine failure in his No. 88 Buick.

Nemechek moved up to the Busch Series in 1990, running the No. 87 with sponsorship from Master Machine & Tool, posting two Top 5's and finishing 17th in points, winning Rookie of the Year honors. He had sixteen Top 10 finishes and finished 6th 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 5th 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.

In 1994, Nemechek joined Larry Hedrick Motorsports to drive the No. 41 Meineke Discount Mufflers Chevy. Despite missing two races, he had three Top 10 finishes and finished 27th in points. The next season, he moved his No. 87 team up to the Cup Series with sponsorship from Burger King, posted a 4th-place finish at the MBNA 500 and finished 28th in points. After he dropped to 34th in points, he abandoned his Cup Series team and signed to drive the No. 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 10's and finished a career-best 26th in points the following year. Midway through 1999, he announced he would not return to the No. 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 No. 33 Oakwood Homes Chevrolet for Andy Petree Racing, winning the pole at Talladega and finishing a career-best 15th 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'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, 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 10 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.