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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
NEMECHEK: Right Where We Need To Be
Our team is right where we should be performance-wise - we just need that one last piece of the puzzle...
Joe Nemechek  | http://www.FrontRowJoe.com  |  Posted March 12, 2010   Charlotte, NC
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)
This first off-weekend of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series often is a time when teams regroup, evaluate their performance thus far and plot their next strategies.

That’s exactly what we have done at Nemco Motorsports this week and we’ve found that we’re in a pretty nice spot for an underfunded team. I’m extremely proud of how the No. 87 Toyota team has qualified and how we’ve performed in the first four races of the year. While we haven’t run all the laps we’d like to, the ones that we have run have been competitive ones.

Our team is right where we should be performance-wise. We just need that one last piece of the puzzle - a sponsor - to take us to the next level and allow us to prove what a strong group we are.

Sponsors are vital at NASCAR’s top level. Having the luxury of a sponsor on our car would enable us to attempt all the laps in each race. For instance, at Atlanta, we completed 175 laps, but had we finished the event like we’re dying to do, those extra laps would have put that much more wear and tear on our engine, transmission and every piece on the car. That leads to the need to replace all those components more often, which requires more funding. If I were to run a few flag-to-flag races without sponsorship, we wouldn’t be able to afford to race the next week because we’d be out of money.

What was so frustrating at Atlanta was that our lap times were faster than several of the more prominent teams and I still couldn’t stick around for the whole thing. Unfortunately, I’m funding this effort out of my pocket. That is the business model we are faced with but we’re making it work. We go to the track each week, solidly make the show and then learn as much as we can during the race while simultaneously following our business plan and trying to attract partners.

A fulltime sponsor would give us the opportunity to finish all the races and push our equipment harder without worrying as much about the cost of replacing it. A company could get one heck of an ROI (return on investment) at Nemco Motorsports because we run well with a very limited staff, resources and money. In fact, we have out-qualified many of the larger teams throughout the season. Between our qualifying and race performance, we’re so close to that breakthrough that we can taste it. We just need a little financial backing to go out and get it.

From time to time, I hear people criticize the so-called “start and park” teams but those folks should walk a day in our shoes. First of all, were it not for my team and others like mine, there might not be full fields each week. I challenge you to find 43 fully-funded teams in the Cup garage. Secondly, by showing up and attempting each race, we are advertising our team to potential sponsors. If you’re not on the track, you’re much less likely to get noticed. Additionally, we have put people back to work in a difficult economic environment. NASCAR suffered job losses along with the rest of the country and Nemco Motorsports is proud to be providing jobs to 10 crew members between our Cup and Nationwide programs.

Is this the way I want to run my Cup program? No. I’d love to run every lap of every race but that is not feasible in the absence of a sponsor. I hope the critics out there appreciate the opportunities they currently have because one day they could find themselves in the same boat. And I’m willing to bet they’d make many of the same decisions I have because, at the end of the day, it’s about the love of the sport and doing whatever it takes to stay in it.

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.frontrowjoe.com.

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Joe Nemechek

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