NEMCO Motorsports Team
NEMCO Motorsports was founded in 1990 to start Joe Nemechek's NASCAR Busch Series racing program. It is a family operation, where Joe's family is an integral part of the operation. Today, NEMCO is fielding cars in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide Series. To date, NEMCO Motorsports has more than 28 NASCAR wins.
Joe began his racing career at age 13 in motocross racing. He won more than 300 events before turning to stock cars in the 1980s. Joe ran his first full season in the NASCAR Busch Series in 1990, capturing Rookie of the Year honors. Just two years later, Joe won the 1992 NASCAR Busch Series Championship title. Joe was voted NASCAR Busch Series Most Popular Driver in 1992 and 1993. Joe is known throughout racing as "Front Row Joe" for his 28 pole starting positions, 20 wins and 183 top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series.
The original car in the NEMCO stable, the 87 car debuted in 1989 at North Carolina Speedway as the 88 Buick with Nemechek finishing 33rd after an engine failure. The car switched to the 87 and ran full-time in 1990 with sponsorship from Master Machine & Tool. Nemechek had five top-tens and was named NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year. After jumping to sixth in points the following year, Nemechek and the team won two races and the Busch Series championship in 1992.
After Nemechek failed to win the championship again in 1993, he left for Larry Hedrick Motorsports at the Winston Cup level. He continued to drive the 87 part-time in the Busch Series for several year. After winning the Hardee's 250 in 1994, Nemechek did not win until 1997, when he won the Carquest Auto Parts 300 and the Jiffy Lube Miami 300 in the BellSouth sponsored car. Beginning in 1998, Nemechek began sharing the car with Ron Fellows. Fellows picked up his first win that year at the Lysol 200, then finished second the next year to Dale Earnhardt, Jr., before winning at Watkins Glen the next two years. In 2000, the team got new sponsorship from Cellular One, and Nemechek went on to win three races in 2003.
In 2002, David Reutimann drove the 87 for four races, his best finish a twelfth at Memphis. The next year, Hendrick Motorsports development driver Kyle Busch climbed on board for a number of races with ditech sponsorship, posting two runner-up finishes. Reutimann also drove the 87 for a few races in 2003, finishing in fifth place twice. Nemechek shared the 87 with Reutimann again in the early parts of 2004, before Reutimann left. Midseason, Hendrick development drivers Blake Feese and Boston Reid drove for a handful of races in the 87. Feese's best finish was a 33rd at Indianapolis Raceway Park, and Reid's a 26th at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Nemechek picked up a win that season at Kansas Speedway. His lone highlight of 2005 was winning the pole at the season-opening race at Daytona. Ron Fellows returned to the 87 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where he finished 41st after a wreck.
In 2006, NEMCO has run two races with Nemechek at Daytona and Homestead, where he started finished fortieth and twenty-third, respectively. He ran three of the first four races in 2007 with bruton vineyards sponsoring, with a best finish of thirteenth. The #87 came back full time in 2009. Nemechek drove most of the races with Chad Blount, Mike Bliss, Kevin Conway and Jeff Fuller filling in.
NEMCO Motorsports Team Video
