The No. 01 Chevrolet carried a special camouflage paint scheme Sunday. Credit: Autostock

Nemechek puts Army back on track

LONG POND, Pa. -- Only two weeks after one of the biggest disappointments in his racing career, Joe Nemechek scored his best finish of the season Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

On a muggy summer day in which all the pre-race pageantry revolved around the ongoing celebration of the 230th birthday of the U.S. Army -- Nemechek's sponsor -- the Florida native came home third in the Pocono 500.

The finish was the best for Nemechek's No. 01 Chevrolet since he was fourth last October at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but even more important, it finally fulfilled some of the enormous potential his MB2 Motorsports team had shown since they won last fall at Kansas Speedway.

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"The goal today was to win one for all of our soldiers, but finishing third after the way we started was a pretty good day's work," Nemechek said. "We let some wins get away from us earlier (this season), but today's finish showed the character and potential of this U.S. Army team."

On Memorial Day weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Nemechek lost what seemed to be a sure victory in the Coca-Cola 600 when a flat tire with less than 10 laps to go pitched him out of the lead and into the wall.

Nemechek, driving a car Sunday that was a graphic representation of the Army's latest camouflage combat uniform, fell back from his 18th starting position and was 31st when the first caution flew at lap 29.

"We just didn't have the right setup in the beginning -- the car was real tight," Nemechek said. "But at every pit stop we kept on making adjustments and when it started to click the Army Chevy was fast."

Nemechek had high praise for his chief mechanic, Ryan Pemberton. It was Pemberton who started a turnaround for the team that resulted in the victory at Kansas and an impressive point total in the season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"Ryan made great calls and the pit stops by the Army of One crew were exceptional," Nemechek said. "We passed a lot of cars today because of the great pit stops -- a soldier-type effort by all."

Nemechek was into the top 10 by lap 107, and used a tire strategy that helped his car, and helped him avoid tire troubles that bit a number of competitors.

"We took four tires every stop," Nemechek said of the race's second half. "I knew when they made an adjustment what it would do. I had them free the car up just a little bit and we got too loose -- but we made a gain on it.

"Every time they'd get the car better, I was able to pass guys right and left, high or low -- whatever it was. You've got to have a good handling racecar. They kept making it better and better.

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"Maybe if we could have gotten to the front earlier to run with these guys, maybe we could have run with them."

Nemechek executed a near-perfect restart on the attempted green-white-checker finish to move from fifth into third.

"I was very fortunate on the restart," Nemechek said. "I got past Mark Martin and Kyle Busch. I just got through Turn 1 on the restart really good and so did Kyle.

"We got up beside Mark going in the Tunnel Turn and once he got past Mark, Kyle actually got loose and he slid way up out of the groove. Once he slid up out of the groove, my car was on track and hammer down and got past him.

"That's incredible -- our first top five. The way we have run this year we should have had a lot more. Hopefully the demons are gone and this is the kick start we needed to go on a successful streak."

Nemechek's recent Pocono history virtually epitomizes his 2005 season. A year ago, Nemechek ran in the top-five late in both races, but suffered transmission woes in each and had finishes that didn't represent his car's potential.

In fact, Nemechek's result broke a string of six consecutive Pocono finishes worse than 23rd, and was only his fourth top-10 in his 22 races on the 2.5-mile triangular oval.

It was only his third top-10 finish in 14 races this season.

Nemechek hopes it leads to better results, starting with this weekend's Batman Begins 400 at Michigan International Speedway. He was particularly enthused by the fact that five Hendrick engine department powerplants were in the top 10.

"That makes me feel really good," Nemechek said. "The engines were great today and we were bogging those things down to 5800 RPMs in the corner -- they were down pretty low.

"It was incredible that they pulled up off (the corners) as good as they did. My engine ran as good as anybody else's out there. Brian (Vickers), Kyle and everybody ran good today so we're looking forward to Michigan."