Joe Nemechek says whenever there is downtime, it's all about his wife and three kids. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: Nemechek

For Joe Nemechek, a proven race and pole winner in both the Nextel Cup and Busch Series, 2006 has been one of the most frustrating and baffling seasons in his lengthy racing career.

But as the driver of MB2 Motorsports' No. 01 Chevrolet heads to this weekend's AMD at The Glen at Watkins Glen International, he's got a solid family anchor to provide stability and a long road of racing history to bolster his spirits.

Joe Nemechek's best finish came at Las Vegas earlier this year. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Nemechek's 2006 results Race Start Finish Status Daytona 38 33 running California 8 27 running Las Vegas 7 13 running Atlanta 13 17 running Bristol 16 28 running Martinsville 22 23 running Texas 17 23 running Phoenix 32 35 running Talladega 6 27 crash Richmond 17 28 running Darlington 36 16 running Charlotte 19 18 running Dover 13 35 running Pocono 21 29 running Michigan 7 26 running Sonoma 10 25 running Daytona 5 19 running Chicago 17 33 running Loudon 16 41 crash Pocono 10 17 running Indianapolis 21 24 running Average 16.7 25.6

While celebrating some downtime recently in his native Florida, Nemechek took a break to answer 10 questions not necessarily connected to his racing career.

1. What's your favorite outdoor activity, other than racing?

Nemechek: I don't really know how to answer that, because just spending time outdoors with my kids is my favorite -- whether it be playing football or baseball or riding motorcycles.

I mean, it's just being with the family in the outdoors. Each one of the kids has their own favorite thing to do. For my son, John Hunter, it's motocross.

For my other two little girls, Kennedy and Blair, it's probably spending time in the pool. But it's just doing everything from riding bikes, baseball, to just everything possible.

Our schedule makes it harder and harder to juggle family time, and it seems like more and more it does get a little frustrating not to have more time for the family.

But that's only because my kids are growing up. We don't home school our kids, and during the school year, they're in school and you can't take them away from something they love -- and they love going to school and they love learning right now.

So you have to do the best job that you can at letting them do what they need to do. It definitely costs more money, but we usually end up flying them in after school's over on Fridays, just so you have more time together.

2. What is the most embarrassing moment you'll own up to, either in or out of racing?

Nemechek: Wow, there have been so many. But the most embarrassing moment was something that Michael Waltrip did at Loudon a couple of weeks ago -- run into the back of somebody under caution.

I did that at Hickory Motor Speedway, I think it was back in 1991 in a Busch race, and I basically knocked myself out of the race. It was under caution, I wasn't paying attention and I hit the car in front of me. I basically wrapped the radiator around the engine.

It was for no reason and it was pretty embarrassing. I don't remember how the guy I hit dealt with it -- I was too embarrassed because here, your car's ruined and you're out of the race so it was a pretty bad day.

3. What was your first car?

	Bobby Ginn became new majority owner in MB2 Motorsports.
	GINN BUYS MB2 Real estate developer Bobby Ginn recently purchased a majority share of ownership in MB2 Motorsports, and the team is looking forward to the expanding future.  •   Complete story, click here

Nemechek: The first car that I drove on the street, when I was able to start driving legally, was probably a Honda Accord that we owned. It was nothing like all these tuner cars we see today, it was pretty simple.

It was either that, or my dad's pickup truck, but I would say the Honda Accord was the one that we learned to drive in. It was a manual shift so I had to learn all that, and I took my driver's test in that car.

4. What's your favorite recent movie or TV show?

Nemechek: I guess the biggest shows, in order of what we watch, are CNN Headline News, we definitely watch The Weather Channel, we watch SportsCenter, just trying to keep up with everything that's going on.

We watch a lot of Discovery Channel, some reality shows and a lot of cartoons. Their favorites are all changing, and I'm trying to think of the show that they have on in the evenings, about a little girl who's growing up.

What in the world is the name of that show? Now, the littlest one likes Dora the Explorer, but the other two like it. It's a little series that they have on in the evening on one of the Disney Channels -- about a little girl growing up with her dad and an uncle lives with them.

It's been on a long time, and most of them are re-runs but the kids love it, because they're seeing other kids about their same age growing up and dealing with family things and friend things. It's just a family show.

5. If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be?

Nemechek: Of people that I've met, I think either the president or the vice president. I think that would be pretty cool swapping places with either one of them.

Even knowing all the trouble they're in the middle of right now, just knowing all the things that they have to deal with would be impressive.

You know it's tough, because politics plays such a big part in how this world is run but just getting to know the people and the government that we have right now, from President Bush to Vice President Cheney to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- they are just incredible people.

They are just like you and me. They've got to put their pants on one leg at a time, they sleep the same -- they're just like us. But they have to deal with so many high-powered people, and I'd just like to experience that for a day.

6. Which athlete outside of racing do you most admire?

Nemechek: The quick answer on that is probably Lance Armstrong, just for what he's been able to accomplish with all the personal challenges he's had to overcome in his life, from cancer to everything else he's had to deal with.

To go and dominate the cycling world like he's done has been pretty incredible.

7. Is there a movie you can watch over and over again?

Nemechek: I'm sure it's going to be Talladega Nights, with Mr. Ricky Bobby driving. But right now, probably one of the movies that I like the most is For the Love of the Game.

It's an awesome movie -- a baseball movie. But there are so many of them that we watch all the time, or that the kids watch. As you hear, everything's about the kids. That's what it's about and that's not a bad thing.

8. What is your worst guilty pleasure?

Nemechek: I don't ever get a chance to sleep in, so that's definitely not it. I love ice cream, but that's not the big thing. It's probably hard candy, or just sweets in general.

I don't have any of 'em under contract, so I don't have a favorite brand.

9. If you could go back in time, what period in history would you like to live in?

Nemechek: It's hard to answer that because I've never had to think about that. I kind of like the period I'm living in right now.

10. What is one thing your fans don't know about you that you'd like to tell them?

Nemechek: I'm a really competitive person, which I think most of them know -- but I'm competitive within our family, too; and I'm competitive with our kids.

I think that's good because it teaches them about life. But you have to be fair -- absolutely. No cheating allowed. That's wrong because that gives them a bad impression of how they're supposed to live.

So you have to do things fairly, but be competitive in everything that you do -- I don't care if it's putting on a pair of roller skates -- it's being competitive.