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Joseph Frank Nemechek

Joseph Frank Nemechek III born September 26, 1963 in Lakeland, Florida is a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver and owner of NEMCO Motorsports. He won the 1992 Busch Series championship. He currently drives the #01 U.S. Army Chevrolet Monte Carlo for MB2 Motorsports. The older brother of the late John Nemechek (whose death inspired him to name his firstborn son after his brother), he is nicknamed "Front Row Joe" for his tendency to qualifed near the front of the field, a term deemed by former teammate Wally Dallenbach. He has sixteen total Busch Series wins.

For 2000, Nemechek signed to drive the #33 Oakwood Homes Chevrolet for Andy Petree Racing, winning the pole at Talladega and finishing a career-best fifteenth in points. He missed five races the following year after suffering an elbow injury at a test at Dover in 2001, then went on to win the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at North Carolina Speedway that November. After Petree's team began to run into financial problems, Nemechek left for the 26 Ford Taurus fielded by Haas-Carter Motorsports. But after sponsor Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Nemechek left the team.

After replacing Johnny Benson (who was injured in an accident at Richmond) for a few races, Nemechek was signed by Hendrick Motorsports to drive the #25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet (replacing Jerry Nadeau). He had a solid finish to his 2002 season, finishing second twice in the season's final four races. In 2003, he won at the Pontiac Excitement 400 as well as posting five other top-ten finishes, but finished 25th in points. It wasn't enough for Nemechek to keep his job at Hendrick, and at the end of the season was released from his contract.

In 2004, Nemechek signed with MB2/MBV Motorsports, taking over the #01 U.S. Army car (driven previously by Jerry Nadeau, who was severely injured in a crash the season before and has yet to return to NASCAR). He won two poles late in the season. In October 2004, Nemechek won his latest race at Kansas Speedway, beating out Ricky Rudd at the finish line. Nemechek also won the Busch Series race at Kansas the day before, making him the first driver to pull the Busch-Cup double win at the track.

In 2005, Nemechek won a pole at Michigan and fell seven points short of matching his career-best points finish. So far in 2006, he has yet to finish in the top-ten in a race.

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