Conversation: Joe Nemechek

SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- Joe Nemechek is one of the fortunate few drivers to have won a Winston Cup race this season, scoring at Richmond International Raceway in May.

But despite that victory, 2003 has been a bit of a struggle for Nemechek, crew chief Peter Sospenzo and the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports team. They tumbled from ninth to 24th in the points standings with a string of bad luck.

AUDIO CLIPS Listen to the conversation 1.13 MB / 9:28 Listen

Recently, sponsors UAW and Delphi said they wouldn't be back with the team in 2004, leaving Nemechek's status in doubt. NASCAR.com dispatched Lee Montgomery to talk to Nemechek about his future, about his Busch Series team and how he handles the pressure of driving in NASCAR's top series.

Q: First of all, what's going on next year with you and Hendrick and this ride? Anything positive or definite yet?

Joe Nemechek: "You're asking the wrong person. I'm here to drive this race car. We've got some great sponsors with UAW and Delphi and Chevrolet. I know there's a lot being talked about right now, and a lot of that information I don't have access to or haven't been told. I know there's a lot of negotiation going on.

"I plan on finishing out my career here. Hendrick Motorsports is a great organization. Papa Joe Hendrick, Rick Hendrick, they gave me a great opportunity to come over here. Won a race this year, and I think we can win some more. The team is very, very competitive."

Q: Is it a case where you feel like you've got to prove yourself at all, or does your track record speak for itself and they're making some other decision?

Nemechek: "Well, in this sport, you have to prove yourself every week because you're only graded on your last performance. I don't feel I have to prove anything. I'm trying to win races. That's what I want to do. If I didn't think I couldn't win races, I wouldn't be doing this."

Q: For a long time, people called you "Front Row Joe." And you still hear that every now and then. Is there any kind of secret to being a good qualifier? Why do you think you are a good qualifier?

Nemechek: "When I first started Busch Series racing, I wasn't a good qualifier. I had to wok on it really hard. A lot of it's mental, just knowing where you have to be at the right time. A lot of it's getting your car to where you can drive it and know what you need to go fast at that particular time. It's the experience I've gained over the years. I know what I need to do. Going out cold turkey and trying to go fast with no practice, I seem to do exceptionally well at."

Q: Why is that? DO you have bigger cajones than most drivers?

Nemechek: "I don't know. Let's see who's the bravest. It's one of those deals. I've always been good at that. I know I can just tell you this, from all the safety aspect that's going in making the cars safer -- all the restraints, the HANS and everything else -- I feel a lot safer in the car."

Q: You came up "the hard way," through the lower divisions, Late Models and all that kind of stuff. Is that getting harder to do these days, a driver being able to earn his way up the ladder?

Nemechek: "Yeah, I think it's definitely getting harder. There's good and there's bad to it. A lot of the new drivers coming in, they haven't had to prove themselves. All of a sudden, they're getting in great equipment and they're starting out with the best there is -- which is cool. It's a great opportunity for those folks. Back when I came in and a lot of the older Winston Cup drivers, they had to get in something that wasn't so good and prove themselves, and then make the next step and the next step. Times have changes. That's part of racing. A lot of the sponsors, a lot of the team owners, they like the new, young drivers that are coming along. They don't have a lot of fear. That's good. It's good for the sport. They need new people in.

JOE NEMECHEK  •  Driver Page  •  2003 Stats  •  Crew chief Peter Sospenzo  •  Hendrick team page

"But I don't count myself as an old-timer. I'm not a young guns, but I'm not an old-timer. I'm kind of in between there. I'm kind of like Bobby Labonte. Still a lot of competition left in me. I can still win an awful lot of races."

Q: A lot of the young guys we were just talking about maybe haven't really paid their dues, so to speak. Do you think that having some of the younger guys have caused some of the problems with the gentleman's agreement, maybe they just don't know any better?

Nemechek: "I don't know how to answer that. People have got to use common sense. IF they do, everything's fine. If they don't, they'll either make new rules, or they'll get reprimanded, one or the other."

Q: How involved are you in the ownership of your Busch team. Is it a day-to-day thing? How often do you deal with that?

Nemechek: "I'm involved with it on a daily basis. That's a business I set up, and it's been running since 1988 We've been very successful with our Busch Grand National program, with NEMCO Motorsports. We've won three races this year with our Cellular One Chevy. We're to get the Kleenex Chevy back on track and get it back in Victory Lane, which I think is going to happen very, very soon.

"It's all about people. Any organization, whether it's Hendrick Motorsports or my own Busch Series operation, you've got to have the right people. I feel I have the right people to make all that work. There's headaches to go along with it, but you learn how to deal with them, and you learn what's important and what's not."

Q: Are you going to look for a younger driver for the 7 car for the rest of the year and next year? What's going on there?

Nemechek: "There's a lot of questions right now. No. 1, we need to get it back in Victory Lane. Greg Biffle very much wants to drive that car, and I know he's going to help us out with some races here in the near future. I think he's going to get to back to Victory Lane real soon. The car is very competitive. All the cars are the same as what the Cell One cars are. I know I've driven it a few races.

"We've had some motor problems here recently. It's unfortunate because I thought we had a shot at winning at Loudon. Started by points, and we started way back, but we passed all the cars up to like fifth or sixth place, and then we had a motor failure. Carl Wagner builds our motors, and they got a bad batch of parts. They know what they've got, and they figured it out, so stuff's fixed. We're going to win some more races."

Q: Obviously, you've got Kyle Busch in some of your cars, You and Hendrick hooke dup with him. How good is he, and how good can he be?

Nemechek: "Oh, he's definitely going to be one of the next superstars in this sport. His brother Kurt wins races. He's right there in the front every week. Kyle's going to be that way. He just needs to gain some experience. The deal Rick and I put together for running him in seven races this year -- pretty interesting program. It gives Kyle a chance to jump in first-class cars. Right away, he's in top-notch cars that are winning races with a winning crew. Everything's there. All we've got to do is change the seat, change the paint on the car and the decals and go. It's been good for him. He sees what he needs, and he's fast. We've tested some places, and he ran at IRP. I know he's going to be racing at Darlington. He's got a lot of races coming up, and he will be competitive in every one of those. He'll have a shot at winning."

Q: Does Rick look to you at all as a mentor for him? Or is it just a car owner's role?

Nemechek: "That's part of it, trying to help a new guy coming in that's never seen a lot of these places. Tell him what he needs to do to go fast around these places. I've run fast at just about every one of these race tracks, and I've had a shot of winning at just about every race track at some point in time. You learn what it takes to go fast. I'm trying to pass off some of those tips. I know his brother's trying to help him, so he's got a lot of support."

Q: You talked a little bit about this earlier, about some of the pressures of the sport. How do you deal with them? Do you just let stuff roll off your back or do you go kick the dog at home?

Nemechek: "The biggest thing for me is, I'm very competitive. I want to win. Peter Sospenzo, Ed Guzzo, this whole No. 25 race team wants to win races. If we have just a little bit of luck, we're going to win a lot of races. We went from ninth in the points at the first Bristol race, and we fell back to 24th in the points. If any bad luck could happen, it definitely happened to us. That's what unfortunate about it. We're on a rebound right now. We have a little luck going our way, and we're going to get back to the front."

Q: If you and the 25 don't work out for next year, is there anything else on the back-burner for you? Or is that going to be it? Or do you even want to talk about that?

Nemechek: "You're asking way too many questions right now. Heck, I have no clue."

Q: You mentioned you're still a reasonably young guy, do you have any idea how much longer you're going to be in it? Five years? Ten years? The sport's kind of crazy.

Nemechek: "Here's a saying that I talk about. A lot of drivers out there probably need to pay attention to it: If you every start talking about retirement, you better retire right then because you're done."