 | | 'General' Ryan Pemberton, left, lays out the team's final gameplan with Joe Nemechek prior to the Pocono 500. Credit: Autostock |
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
June 13, 2005
02:38 PM EDT (18:38 GMT)
LONG POND, Pa. -- Joe Nemechek on Sunday almost secured the perfect cap for the U.S. Army's ongoing celebration of the service branch's 230th birthday. Nemechek guided his No. 01 Chevrolet to third position in the Pocono 500, finally gaining a finish to match the potential his crew and cars have shown all season. Nemechek sat down at Pocono Raceway to discuss representing the Army, the issue of respect in Nextel Cup, racing with Boris Said and his team's prognosis for the near future. Q: We've been celebrating the 230th birthday of the U.S. Army, so as a week in week out representative of that branch of the service, how neat is it to carry the Army's newest combat camouflage scheme on your car at Pocono? It definitely means a lot. We do a few promotions a year with the Army and special paint schemes. This one is really special. The Army, 230 years, a big birthday -- that's a long birthday, right there. For all the Army's done for this country -- it's very incredible and I'm very proud to be representing them. We try to make their colors shine every week. Q: People talk about big organizations in racing, like Hendrick and Roush -- and even your organization with three teams -- but what kind of a comfort zone is there in representing such a huge branch of the service, whether you win, lose or draw? Well, there's a lot of ways to look at it, but I'm pretty tough on myself and I think this team is pretty tough on themselves. We want to run well, and if we finish 15th we don't think that's very good. A couple weeks ago we had a shot to win at Charlotte and had a flat tire with 10 (laps) to go. At California we had a dominant car during that race until the engine expired with about 40 laps to go. We've just had a lot of crazy things happen to us this year. We've had some really great racecars and didn't have the finishes to go with 'em. Some days you don't quite have the good car and you out-strategize them and you get a good finish. It's one of the toughest things I've ever had to do, but I think all the pressure comes from myself and with me wanting to do well for all the soldiers out there. Q: I hate to bring up a bad subject, but you had a great car and were in a great position to win at Charlotte. Would winning that race on Memorial Day weekend have maybe been the dream victory of your career so far?  | | |
| Inside the Numbers |
| Joe Nemechek's career stats |
| Year |
W |
T5 |
T10 |
| 2005 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
| 2004 |
1 |
3 |
9 |
| 2003 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
| 2002 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
| 2001 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
| 2000 |
0 |
3 |
9 |
| 1999 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| 1998 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
| 1997 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| 1996 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| 1995 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
| 1994 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
| 1993 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Totals |
4 |
17 |
53 |
|
|
Oh, definitely it would have been a dream victory. After the race, it was like, "We almost won the Coca-Cola 600." But the key word is "almost." Everybody was very disappointed, including myself. I've played that back through my head, I don't know how many times saying "What could I have done different to make it to the end?" There was nothing at all. I heard something, I ran over something on the racetrack and just didn't see it. I just ran over it. I was saying my prayers that we didn't have a flat tire, but we did. We ran over it and got a flat tire. It was just disappointing. We were right there and it was the perfect scenario. It was the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, and there were so many soldiers at the racetrack. It was just incredible. We finally had a lot of strategy stuff fall our way and we were right there in the catbird seat. But we just didn't make it. Q: Even with not being able to finish the deals, as you've wanted to, are you satisfied with the competition level your team has shown? I feel it's been very good. The competition level and the kind of racecars they've given me this year have been very good. We just haven't capitalized on it, yet. Ryan Pemberton and all the guys at the shop -- both teams (MB2 and MBV Motorsports for driver Scott Riggs) are working really, really hard. With the new rules, the spoilers and the aerodynamic part of it, we've worked harder than anybody else out there, trying to have an edge. It's tough trying to get that edge, especially when you're dealing with bigger teams, but a few times this year we've outrun 'em all. Q: How do you feel like the recent management restructuring at MBV, MB2 and MB/Sutton will affect your Army team? I think the restructuring they've done now is a good thing. I think that what they've done is move some key people around a little bit, and they've got more responsibilities, but our organization is growing. Any time there's growth, you have to, No. 1, know what your objective is and No. 2, you have to figure out how you're going to achieve it. Getting those people in those proper areas is the first step in making that structure grow. We still have to be, No. 1, competitive on a weekly basis -- we have to run competitively. That's the bottom line. Whatever we have to do to get there is what we have to do. Q: That sounds like the Army. Is there any concern that "General Pemberton" will get spread too thin now that he's a manager as well as your crew chief? I hope it doesn't get us in too thin a situation, but the people we have in place -- everybody is trying to help each other, and I don't see that situation happening. I think it's going to be all right. You know, Ryan oversees the stuff and makes sure that it gets set up properly and comes to the racetrack. If we can make sure those cars drive good, they'll drive good for myself and for Scott Riggs. I think you'll see the performance there. Q: Looking ahead to the road race at Infineon in a couple weeks, what kind of an impact has Boris Said had, as part of your organization now? Boris is a great person and a great driver. As far as road course stuff, he's one of the best I've ever seen. Between him and Ron Fellows, they're incredible. So having Boris on board, you get his expertise in what you need to get the road course cars to do. I've run very well in the road course races. I have a good feel about what I need and it's a little bit different sometimes than what he feels he needs. But we can still run fast and we've had competitive cars every time we've raced. It's just neat letting him feel different things. He tested at (Infineon) and they tried a lot of different stuff. Some of the stuff he liked and some of the stuff he didn't. Just talking to him about that I think I've learned and all the teams have learned. Q: What's your take on the issue of respect, or lack of respect these days in Nextel Cup racing? Does how competitive it is have a lot to do with that? Absolutely. The competition level and the amount of pressure there is in Nextel Cup racing are incredible to start with. If a team is struggling a little bit they want to get the performance improved and the first thing they say is the driver's got to get up on the wheel. It's tough. If your racecar drives good, you can go. That's pretty much a fact. You've got to have the whole team to make that whole program work. It's not just the driver that makes it work. If you don't have the racecar you can't do it. It's the whole team that makes that go. As far as the young drivers, some of them come in and they've run very well. The sport has changed a lot since I got into it. When I first got into it you had to get hooked up with a lesser team and kind of prove yourself a little bit. Then you went and drove for a better team and that's how you worked yourself up. Nowadays, it seems like everybody is looking for that young driver and they're getting put in very good racecars with good teams that have a lot of good notes. The teams know how to go fast. They get put in that situation and sometimes maybe they have more car than experience and they get themselves in the wrong situation. Sometimes you call it lack of respect. I think they do need to respect the drivers who have been there and done that and have earned their way here. The way they should look at it, they're going to be here a long time. Q: A two-sided question. It's impossible, I imagine, not allowing frustration get the best of you in the heat of the moment, but is it also possible that more gets read into situations when there is an incident on the racetrack? My personal opinion is I think the media sometimes over-reacts. It's kind of like that deal with Kevin Harvick and I at Charlotte. That whole thing started at Daytona -- no big deal. At Charlotte, he was mad at me because he thought I caused the wreck (in the Nextel All-Star Challenge). I didn't cause the wreck. It's just situations, but I think the media is looking for the feuds out there. It's just like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart now, since Dover. The media likes it and everybody likes it. It's like, "Hey, we're going to have a feud out there" -- whether it's true or not. The media wants it and I think the fans want it, too. The tough thing about it, NASCAR and the way the television package is, you have to be real careful what you say; you have to be careful about what you do. You can't just go out and fistfight any more -- you just don't do that. No. 1 -- you'll get fined or suspended. But the sponsors don't like that. So there's a fine line about how all that stuff works. Q: If you look at the upcoming races -- Michigan, Sonoma, Daytona, Chicago -- where do you feel like you guys are most likely to have success? I think we can run good at all the racetracks. We've got a lot of testing coming up here in the next couple weeks. We've run well on the road courses and we ran great at Michigan last year. The first race I think we broke a valve spring running second with 18 or 20 to go. Chicago is kind of like Kansas and we won at Kansas. It's a very similar racetrack and I like to go fast on those mile-and-a-halfs -- and even here at Pocono. Daytona is not out of the question, either. Since Talladega we've had to build three brand new speedway cars and I think we're fixing to test those to try to pick out the best ones. There's a lot of work that's gone on, but I think we can win at all of them. | 
