Nemechek plans to run full Cup, N'wide slates in 2009

Joe Nemechek's NEMCO Motorsports plans to have Sprint Cup and Nationwide series cars for Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway in less than three weeks -- and the most stunning part of the bold plan is "we'll be at California, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Bristol in both series, too," Nemechek said on Thursday evening.

"We're going to run as much as we can for the amount of funding we have," Nemechek said. "I am truly blessed, because over all the years I put all of my money back into the team. We have a 35,000-square-foot state-of-the-art shop with everything any other Cup team has, except a seven-post machine and a couple of the latest gadgets.

Nemechek

"But when [crew chief] Philippe [Lopez] and some of the other guys arrived and came inside our building, they couldn't believe what was there. They were, like, 'wow.' We haven't raced out of that shop in the last couple years, but everything we have is first class.

"We won a lot of Truck Series and [Nationwide] races out of there, and ran Cup cars out of it in the mid-'90s. The way I do anything, we do it first class. But what we'll be able to do [this season] gets back to the sponsorship opportunities we have and who comes on board, but I'm pretty confident.

"It's a big financial decision I had to make, but just with all the conversations we have going on, I think we're going to have enough money to run both cars, and if I didn't think so I wouldn't be doing it, that's the bottom line."

Nemechek, the 1992 Busch Series champion, will field Toyotas in the Cup Series. He purchased three cars from Red Bull Racing, and will race engines from Triad Racing Technologies. In the Nationwide Series, NEMCO will field Chevrolets powered by in-house engines, and may ultimately switch to Toyota as well.

Despite the search for sponsorship he needs to execute the two-series program the way he'd like to, Nemechek said that years of operating his own team taught him "to do more with less."

In these trying economic times Nemechek said "there's so much talent out there that's unemployed, so many people without jobs that are trying to lend a hand," but that familial effort may be the difference between racing and sitting on the sidelines.

"We have a lot of [sponsorship] plans working and we're real optimistic they'll come through, otherwise we wouldn't be considering doing this -- the amount of money it takes is enormous," Nemechek said. "I can't believe the people, the fans who have stepped up, who just want to help, who've sent even small amounts of money.

"We're starting off small, and we're going to have to work our way into it as we get the financial backing to do it," Nemechek said.

Nemechek said his new Toyotas, which he's never raced in Cup, are "really good race cars." It's something he's counting on to make the Daytona 500, a race which paid a minimum of more than $256,000 to start last year, when Nemechek posted the third-best qualifying speed in one of two Furniture Row Racing Chevrolets that made the race.

"It's going to come down to handling in the [150s] to make the Daytona 500," Nemechek said. "There are an awful lot of teams trying to get in, so for that back half of the field it'll be a heck of a battle."