PHOTO: Brock Beard
SEASON IN REVIEW
Naples, Florida driver Joe Nemechek picked up his first LASTCAR Truck Series Championship in 2018, scoring three last-place finishes in seventeen starts during a twenty-three race season. One year after coming just short of the title to Mike Senica, Nemechek claimed his third LASTCAR title overall, combined with the 2008 and 2010 LASTCAR Cup Series Championships.
As in 2017, Joe Nemechek ran alongside his son John Hunter, who made his XFINITY Series debut for a partial schedule. Besides the five starts Joe made in John Hunter’s #8 while the younger driver ran in XFINITY, Joe would drive the team’s second truck, the #87, most often relegated to “start-and-park” duty.
Joe Nemechek’s first last-place finish of the year came at Gateway on June 23, the 10th round of the schedule. He pitted before the green flag, then fell out without completing a lap due to electrical issues. The next took place seven rounds later in Mosport, where the brakes gave out after 2 laps of the road race on August 26. In the weeks that followed, Nemechek took the lead overall on a bottom-five tiebreaker, and with two races to go led runner-up Bayley Currey in that category 9-4.
The LASTCAR battle was settled under the lights at the ISM Raceway on November 9. Currey was scheduled to drive the #63 Chevrolet that weekend, but was swapped out at the last minute for newcomer Jesse Iwuji. Nemechek then took the title with his third last-place finish, pulling into the garage area after 11 laps.
The NEMCO Motorsports team then looked ahead to 2019 and beyond as son John Hunter Nemechek increases his commitment to the NASCAR XFINITY Series. The strength of the NEMCO equipment was shown not only in John Hunter’s win at Martinsville and Playoff bid, but 2018 LASTCAR Cup Series runner-up Timmy Hill’s strong qualifying run in the #87, taking 11th on the grid at Texas.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Defending LASTCAR Truck Series Champion Mike Senica raised the ire of NASCAR officials at Martinsville on March 26. After struggling to keep up speed and losing several laps in the early stages, Senica ignored NASCAR’s black-flagged and was parked with just 8 laps complete. “Tell him to turn in,” said NASCAR’s David Hoots, “He’s done!”
On June 16, J.J. Yeley finished last with brake troubles after 19 laps of the race at Iowa. Yeley would go on to pull the weekend sweep at the track by also trailing for RSS Racing in the XFINITY Series race.
Despite Nemechek’s LASTCAR title, 10 of the 23 last-place finishes in 2018 went to MB Motorsports’ #63 (6) and Beaver Motorsports’ #50 (4). Both teams came short of the title by frequently swapping drivers, then not entering multiple races toward the end of the season. While Mark Beaver of the #50 team helped along the #15 effort between Premium Motorsports and Mike Harmon, Mike Mittler dealt with continuing health issues, and Lap 63 of the fall Martinsville race was run in his honor. Also missing in the closing weeks was owner-driver Norm Benning, whose late crash after 144 laps at Eldora were the most circuits completed of any Truck Series last-placer in 2018. No one else turned more than 47 circuits.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Joe Nemechek (3)
2nd) Bayley Currey, Todd Peck, Scott Stenzel, J.J. Yeley (2)
3rd) Norm Benning, Kevin Donahue, Chad Finley, Clay Greenfield, Mike Harmon, Timmy Hill, Travis Kvapil, Bo LeMastus, Tyler Matthews, Camden Murphy, Mike Senica, Tanner Thorson (1)
