PHOTO: Brock Beard
SEASON IN REVIEW
Naples, Florida driver Joe Nemechek picked up his second LASCAR Cup Series Championship in 2010, scoring seven last-place finishes in thirty-one starts during the thirty-six-race season.
Nemechek was competing in his eighteenth season on the Cup Series tour. Nemechek’s NEMCO Motorsports team returned to full-time competition in 2009 on a “start-and-park” basis to fund his NASCAR Nationwide Series ride. Nemechek and NEMCO continued to build in 2010, attracting several part-time sponsors along the way, missing just one race in the first twenty-three races of the season, but scoring four more DNQs after that.
The first of Nemechek’s last-place finishes in 2010 came in the season-opening Daytona 500 on February 14. One year after coming one car length short of racing his way into the field for the 500, Nemechek’s #87 England Stove / FrontRowJoe.com Toyota put up the 16th-fastest lap in qualifying, locking him into the field on speed. Unfortunately, he crashed in Turn Three after 64 laps, ending his day. Despite the crash, the England’s Stove Works company received a record number of hits on its website following the race.
Nemechek’s next finish came four races later in Bristol, Tennessee on March 21, where the rear gear gave out on his #87 ComputerWorks Toyota after thirty laps.
The next four finishes came in an unsponsored #87 FrontRowJoe.com Toyota. The first of those, his third of the season, came five races after Bristol in Richmond, Virginia on May 1, when he started 11th, but was involved in a single-car crash after 42 laps. The fourth finish came at Long Pond, Pennsylvania on June 6, where he lost the transmission after eleven laps. The fifth was five races later in Joliet, Illinois on July 10, where the rear gear broke after twenty laps. The sixth was in Brooklyn, Michigan on August 15, where ignition failure was the listed cause after fourteen laps.
Nemechek’s seventh and final last-place run in 2010 came at Fort Worth, Texas on November 7, when his #87 HostGator.com Toyota lost the engine after twelve laps.
At the end of the year, Nemechek finished 38th in points, qualifying 4th at Talladega, Alabama and 7th in Loudon, New Hampshire, but weighed down by thirty DNFs in thirty-one starts. In 2011, Nemechek improved further, qualifying for all thirty-six races of the season and receiving additional funding from AM / FM Energy, another pellet stove-making company, but failing to finish every race but the Coke Zero 400 on July 2, 2011, where he came home 30th. AM / FM Energy upped its support to a full-season sponsor in 2012, and though Nemechek made his third consecutive start in the Daytona 500, he missed five races that season and racked-up twenty-nine more DNFs.
Since returning to full-time NASCAR Nationwide Series competition, however, Nemechek has improved tremendously in the years since, moving from 31st in 2009 to 20th in 2010, 14th in 2011, and 11th in 2012. His best finish in that span came at Talladega, Alabama on April 16, 2011, when his #87 ExtenZe Toyota led in the final ten laps before he came home 3rd.
Nemechek also fielded a second Cup team, #97, for a handful of races, focusing on the restrictor-plate races at Talladega, Alabama and Daytona Beach, Florida. Jeff Fuller scored the first last-place finish for the team at Talladega, Alabama on October 31, when his #97 HeatRedefined.com Toyota qualified 13th, but left after two laps with rear gear trouble. It was the first of the #97 team’s three consecutive last-place finishes at Talladega.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Max Papis nearly became the first NASCAR driver to score four consecutive last-place finishes. The streak began on June 13 in Brooklyn, Michigan, where his #13 GEICO Toyota overheated after eight laps. The next came in Sonoma, California on June 20, when he was involved in a multi-car crash on a restart after 65 laps. The third came in Loudon, New Hampshire on June 27, where his brakes gave out after eleven laps. In the following race at Daytona Beach, Florida on July 3, Papis fell out with a vibration after six laps, but lost last-place to Dave Blaney, who exited two laps earlier.
At Hampton, Georgia on September 5, Denny Hamlin nearly beat Greg Biffle’s record for most laps led by a Cup Series last-place finisher. Hamlin won the pole and led 74 of the first 140 laps, then blew the engine on his #11 Sport Clips Toyota three laps later, sending him spinning down to the apron.
PRISM Motorsports expanded to two teams in 2010, and Michael McDowell qualified the new #55 Toyota into the field for the Daytona 500. Throughout the season, PRISM’s #55 and #66 scored a total of ten last-place finishes, including four in a row from Martinsville, Virginia on March 29 through Talladega, Alabama on April 25. This broke the single-season last-place record for a Cup Series team set by Means Racing’s nine finishes in 1992.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Joe Nemechek (7)
2nd) Dave Blaney, Michael McDowell (5)
3rd) Max Papis (4)
4th) Aric Almirola, Jason Leffler (2)
5th) Mike Bliss, Landon Cassill, Jeff Fuller, Robby Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Brendan Gaughan, Bobby Labonte, Johnny Sauter, Reed Sorenson, Scott Speed, J.J. Yeley (1)
