When the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rolls into Martinsville Speedway for this Saturday’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (2:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), John Hunter Nemechek will arrive as the series’ most recent winner.
It’s coming up on a five-week break for Nemechek and his fellow racers, more than a month since he pulled into the winner’s circle at Atlanta Motor Speedway for his second career victory.
The win sets up the 18-year-old to be in position to participate in this year’s inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase. Similar to the Sprint Cup Series’ Chase format, eight drivers will compete for the title, attempting to advance through two elimination rounds to reach the championship-determining event at Homestead-Miami Speedway where four will vie for the title.
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That Nemechek is already in position to begin considering Chase scenarios is nothing short of remarkable – the son of former Sprint Cup driver Joe Nemechek had only 30 career starts in the series heading into the 2016 season.
That his NEMCO Motorsports team has been able to compete against larger, more established organizations in spite of its limited resources is no less amazing.
There’s no questioning Nemechek’s talent – he has finished in the top five in roughly one third of his starts and has 17 career top-10 results. His first win came last season at Chicagoland Speedway.
The inability to test slows progress, but it’s something each team must deal with today. Nemechek said it helps that he is surrounded by so much experience on his team.
“I have two of the most veteran (people) here in Dad and (crew chief) Gere Kennon,” he said. “They like to do stuff the old way, old school; all their experience and knowledge I’ve learned from.
“Dad has taught me everything he’s learned in a 20-year period in a 3-4 year period. That’s sped up my learning curve. Then bringing Gere on board, he’s taught me a lot about these trucks; he’s been in the sport forever.”
The elder Nemechek won four times during a 20-plus year career at the premier series level. He also won 16 times in what is now the XFINITY Series, and was that division’s champion in 1992.
Kennon’s racing resume includes title-winning runs with two-time series champion Sam Ard in what is now known as the NASCAR XFINITY Series, as well successful stints with Brett Bodine and Ron Hornaday in the that series. Kennon was also a chassis specialist for Roush Racing before moving into a crew chief role in the mid-‘90s for team owner Butch Mock and driver Morgan Shepherd in the premier series ranks.
NEMCO Motorsports is a single-team, family-owned organization with roughly a dozen employees and limited funding. The group hired its first engineer this season.
They might get out-spent, but they won’t be out-worked. They might be out-engineered, but not out-smarted.
“To be competitive in this series, it takes a few million dollars,” Joe Nemechek said. ” … It’s hard to round that up on a weekly basis.”
Funding from Fone Fuel and Berry’s Bullets has been a big help, he said, but added that his group is “making hundreds and hundreds of calls every week.
“I know what we spend in this deal, and we’re probably spending half of what the big teams are. But it’s too hard; you just can’t keep doing that and have success. At some point all your people get burned out; it’s tough.”
Parker Kligerman has driven to the top of the points standings after teaming with the small Ricky Benton Racing organization. Nemechek sits third, behind Kligerman and Brad Keselowski Racing’s Daniel Hemric.
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He has five starts at Martinsville, more than at any other track hosting the series, and finished second there in last season’s fall event.
“It means a lot to be able to come back to the race track where I made my (series) debut,” Nemechek said during the track’s recent media day event. “I’ve improved a lot since then.
“Also to finish second here (last fall), we’ve improved on our finishes every time we’ve been here over the past two and a half years so if we can keep doing that and just improve it by one (position) this year, we’ll be good.”