Joe
Nemechek began his racing career in
the motocross ranks at the age of
13. In six years he took home more
than 300 trophies. He made the
switch to stock cars in 1986, and
along the way has posted victories
in every series in which he has
raced. Nemechek won championships
and rookie of the year honors in
three different series in three
straight years -- the Southeastern
Mini Stock Series in 1987, the
U.S.A.R. series in 1988 and the All
Pro series in 1989. He followed that
with Busch Series Rookie of the Year
honors in 1990...Book
Joe Nemechek for Your Event
He
led his family-owned team to the
Busch Series championship in 1992,
as well as back-to-back most popular
driver awards in 1992 and 1993. He
continues to operate NEMCO
Motorsports with longtime crew chief
Brian Pattie, which fields part-time
efforts in NASCAR's three premier
series for Nemechek and selected
drivers.
Nemechek made the jump to the Cup
Series in 1994. His first win came
in the 1999 Jiffy Lube 300 at New
Hampshire International Speedway. He
found Victory Lane again in 2001 at
Rockingham and at Richmond in May of
2003.
Nemechek says winning races is
great, but there's more to a racer's
life than finding Victory Lane.
"The most difficult job is when your
race car is not right and you have
to fight the thing to get around the
track, or when you have a bad day
and crash the car and just try to
finish the race for points. Those
days make it difficult. Most
rewarding is a tough question --
winning a race, or having a dominant
racecar is rewarding, but meeting
new people every day is also great."
Nemechek is known as "Front Row Joe"
thanks to his penchant for putting
up strong qualifying efforts. He
says that the whole thing started
rather innocently.
"That happened back in 1997, right
after my son was born, John Hunter.
The first person to say it was at
Watkins Glen, because we sat on a
pole at California and had a number
of BGN poles, and someone said that
to me at Watkins Glen.
"The following week at Pocono, Wally
Dallenbach, my teammate, was on the
pole at the time and before I went,
the TV crews interviewed him and he
said, 'Don't forget about Front Row
Joe getting the pole,' and we won it
that day and it stuck ever since.
Throughout his racing career, he has
drawn on the mechanical engineering
knowledge gained when he attended
the Florida Institute of Technology
before turning to racing full-time.
A native of Lakeland, Fla., Nemechek
now lives in Mooresville, N.C., with
his wife Andrea and children John
Hunter and Blair.
