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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
NEMECHEK: Breaking The Week Down
We’re stretched pretty thin at NEMCO Motorsports but we all enjoy what we’re doing and are here because we love NASCAR racing...
Joe Nemechek  | http://www.FrontRowJoe.com  |  Posted August 20, 2010   Bristol, TN
The 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season marks the 17th year of competition for veteran driver and team owner Joe Nemechek. (Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images for NASCAR)
I’ve found that one of the biggest misconceptions about NASCAR teams is that we take the “off-season” completely off. Anyone who has ever worked in this sport knows that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The same goes with Monday through Thursday during the regular season – we’re not off the clock; we’re diligently working to prepare for the next weekend’s race and oftentimes beyond that. We work long hours and weeks to do what we love.

Each week begins anew on Saturday (for the NASCAR Nationwide Series) and Sunday (for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series) when the race ends. The immediate thought is what we’ve got to get done to get to the next race. In the case of a small, underfunded team such as NEMCO Motorsports, the limited amount of time we have to get ready to race seems even shorter because we have so few guys on our team.

While the mega-teams may have 300 employees working ahead back at the shop while their road crews are at the track, we only have one employee, a fabricator, back at the shop who doesn’t travel. Needless to say, that one guy can’t prepare all the cars for the next week’s race by himself. So, when my road crew and I are at the track, time sort of stands still at the shop. Therefore, we’re right back to the shop bright and early Monday morning to tackle the next job.

When the checkered flag flies each Sunday, we usually try to hold an impromptu meeting to discuss that day’s race while it’s still fresh on everyone’s minds. We make notes about the small details of things we could have done differently and what we can learn for the
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next time around. We discuss what engine we will run the next week and what our plan is if we’re running the same car again.

We talk about what has to happen the following week because we fly home and are back at the shop first thing early Monday morning. We aim to do some prep work for the next race before we leave town each Thursday, so if things have gone well, we’ve got a small head start on our tasks Monday. Mondays usually involve putting the motor in the car or pulling it out and replacing it if we’re running the same car, making sure the brakes are right, deciding what springs and shocks and setup we’ll put under the car – just going through the entire checklist to ensure we’re as prepared as possible.

On Tuesdays, we usually finish up with the spring package, get the car off jack stands and onto the ground, begin getting it on the setup plate and putting in the chosen setup. Setup work usually isn’t finished until Wednesday, depending on whether or not we’re running the same car as the previous week. On the more packed weeks, we don’t complete this process until Thursday morning, although we aim to button everything up on Wednesday afternoon. Thursdays are spent loading the hauler and making sure we’ve got everything we need for that weekend, from an extra front clip to wrenches. Then it’s time to send the truck driver down the road.

On a normal race weekend in which the Nationwide Series races on Saturday and Cup on Sunday, we fly out Thursday afternoon.

Somewhere in that tight schedule, my general manager, Randy Usher, and I always make time to entertain potential sponsors that we bring through the shop on a weekly basis. Additionally, we send out sponsor proposals every day to companies we think might be a good fit for us. At the moment, we have sponsorship from HostGator.com on our No. 87 Nationwide Toyota, but we’re still looking to bring someone on board the No. 87 Cup car.

We’re stretched pretty thin at NEMCO Motorsports but we all enjoy what we’re doing and are here because we love racing. Being a small team, we all get to wear several different hats during the week, which, although challenging, also can be a great teaching tool for many of the guys who learn to work on the cars from one end to the other. Heck, during the week, you’ll find me machining parts and making pieces for the cars. I’m very hands – probably one of the very few drivers who help build their race cars each week. And for that, I count myself very lucky, despite all the other hurdles.

Joe Nemechek, driver of the No. 87 Nemco Motorsports Toyota, celebrates his 17th season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2010. In 2009, he climbed behind the wheel of his own Cup car for the first time since 1996, making him one of a small number of current independent owner/drivers in NASCAR’s top division. Since his 1989 debut in the sport, the 1992 Nationwide Series champion has claimed four Sprint Cup and 16 NASCAR Nationwide Series victories. His uncanny knack for snagging pole positions earned him the nickname “Front Row Joe” years ago, and he has proven its validity by collecting 10 Sprint Cup and 18 Nationwide Series pole positions. Nemechek, 1990 Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year, was voted Most Popular Driver in ’92 and ’93. The Florida native cut his racing teeth in motocross at age 13, claiming more than 300 wins in six years, and since has gone on to post victories in every series in which he has competed. For more information on Nemechek, please visit www.joenemechek.com.

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The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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