Joe Nemechek

Birthday: Sept. 26, 1963
Hometown: Lakeland, Fla.

YEAR-BY-YEAR NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RECAP

2007 -- Finished 37th in series points. ... Started the season with Ginn Racing and ended the year with Furniture Row Racing. ... Recorded one top-10, a ninth-place at the Daytona 500. ... Best start was fourth at Talladega in October.

2006 -- Finished 27th in series points. ... Recorded two top-10s, at Charlotte and Atlanta in October.

2005 -- Finished 16th in series points. ... Won pole at second Michigan race. ... Best finish was a third place at Pocono in June.

2004 -- Finished 19th in series points. ... Finished the season with six top-10 finishes in the last 10 races. ... Claimed back-to-back poles at Talladega and Kansas. ... Swept the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series races during Kansas Speedway weekend.

2003 -- Finished 25th in series points. ... Competed in the No. 25 entry for Hendrick Motorsports for the first 32 races of the season before being released by the organization. Joined MB2 Motorsports for the final four races of the season in the No. 01 entry and landed the ride full time for 2004. ... Recorded the third win of his career at Richmond in May after starting second and leading a race-high 156 laps. ... Reached a career milestone when he started his 300th career race at Pocono in June.

2002 -- Finished 34th in series points. ... Season-best finish was second, which occurred at Atlanta (fall) and the season finale at Homestead. ... Two runner-up finishes doubled his previous career total (one in 2000). ... Began the season with Haas-Carter Motorsports, but was limited to only seven starts before the team ceased operation. Last start for the team was California. ... Started the next race at Richmond as a replacement for injured Johnny Benson and finished 12th. ... Starting with the next week, replaced injured Jerry Nadeau in the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports entry for the remainder of the season.

2001 -- Finished 28th in series points. ... Second season with Andy Petree. ... Registered the second win of his career, at Rockingham in November.

2000 -- Finished 15th in series points. ... Departed from Felix Sabates' operation after three seasons and joined Andy Petree. ... Relationship blossomed immediately as he recorded his best career finish in the final points, nine positions better than his previous best of 26th in 1998. ... Posted a career-best nine top-10 finishes. ... Season-best finish was second at New Hampshire. ... Also earned a pole at Talladega.

1999 -- Finished 30th in series points. ... Lowest finish in the championship standings since joining Felix Sabates, but the season was highlighted by his first career victory. His win came Sept. 19 at New Hampshire, also the site of his first start in 1993. ... The victory came in his 180th career start. ... Also earned three poles for the season, a single-season high. Poles came at Daytona's Pepsi 400, Martinsville and Talladega.

1998 -- Finished 26th in series points. ... Earned his first top-five finish since 1995, finishing fourth at Texas.

1997 -- Finished 28th in series points. ... After two seasons as an owner/driver, opted to focus solely on driving and run for owner Felix Sabates. ... Had only three top-10 finishes, but was impressive in qualifying with five front-row starts. ... Recorded first two poles of his career, winning the inaugural one at California Speedway and following with his second at Pocono. ... First pole came in his 105th career start.

1996 -- Finished 34th in series points. ... Second full season as an owner/driver. ... Competed in 29 races and earned two top-10 finishes.

1995 -- Finished 28th in series points. ... Returned to being an owner/driver, competing in his own entry in 29 events. ... Posted four top-10 finishes, including a season-best of fourth at Dover.

1994 -- Finished 27th in series points. ... Enjoyed his first full season in the series, running for owner Larry Hedrick. ... Notched his first top-five performance, a third at Pocono.

1993 -- Finished 44th in series points. ... Following a Nationwide Series championship in 1992, ventured into the series for a limited five-race schedule. ... Ran three races under his own organization and another two with Morgan-McClure. ... First start came July 11 at New Hampshire, where he started 15th and finished 36th.

PREVIOUS RACING HISTORY

Nemechek is a former Nationwide Series champion. He has made 275 career starts in the Nationwide Series, winning 16 races and earning 18 poles. He broke into the Nationwide Series in 1990 and earned the Raybestos rookie of the year honors. Just two years later, he captured the series championship, edging Bobby Labonte by three points in the closest margin in the history of NASCAR's three national series (Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Craftsman Truck). ... Prior to the Nationwide Series, Nemechek enjoyed an immense amount of success in his rookie season in various series. He swept the drivers' championship and rookie of the year honors in three different series in three consecutive years. He accomplished the feat in the Southeastern Mini-Stock Series in 1987; United Stock Car Alliance in '88; and the NASCAR All Pro Series in '89. ... His racing career began in motocross in 1983 and he won more than 300 trophies over the course of his six-year career in the sport.

NOTEWORTHY

Throughout his racing career, he has utilized the mechanical engineering knowledge he gained when he attended the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla., before turning to racing full time. ... Owns his own Nationwide Series team with wife, Andrea, called NEMCO Motorsports.