Published Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Lakeland's Joe Nemechek Reflects on Season of Near-Misses
By Donna
Fellows
The Ledger
Like every driver on the demanding NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit,
Joe Nemechek needs to have certain things on his side to be successful.
Driving skill? Check. A good team? Check.
Strong financial backing? Check.
Luck?
The pits.
"It seemed like we had some terrible luck in a lot of races," said
Nemechek, a Lakeland native and driver of the Team Centrix Financial
No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
In race after race during the 2005 Nextel Cup season, Nemechek
proved he had a car that could contend for the win, only to see
bad racing luck end his day early or relegate him to the back
of the pack.
In the Auto Club 500 last February at California Speedway, Nemechek
was leading the race when he blew an engine on lap 173. He finished
the 250-lap race 39th, even though he led more laps, 63, than
any other driver.
Nemechek's misfortunes continued to the next race, the UAW-DaimlerChrysler
400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. Nemechek had steered
his Monte Carlo into third place late in the race. However, on
Nemechek's last pit stop of the day, he received a bad set of
tires. As a result, he was nearly lapped and saw his potential
topfive performance turn into a 19th-place finish.
The next week, Atlanta Motor Speedway wasn't any friendlier to
Front Row Joe. Nemechek was running as high as second in Atlanta's
Golden Corral 500 before a hole in the radiator sent him behind
the wall for good on lap 280 of the 325-lap race. Nemechek finished
35th.
During the next two races, at Bristol and Talladega, Nemechek
looked to have solid cars but was caught up in early wrecks.
He finished 33rd and 31st, respectively.
Things appeared to be looking up for the No. 01 U.S. Army team
at Charlotte over Memorial Day weekend, however.
With 10 laps remaining, Nemechek was out in front by more than
half a second, a mar- gin that had held for more than 20 laps.
With eight laps to go, however, Nemechek's streak of bad racing
luck continued. As he steered into turn three, his Chevrolet
Monte Carlo ran over a piece of debris from Mark Martin's car.
The debris cut Nemechek's rear, right-side tire and sent him
hard into the outside retaining wall. Suddenly, a sure win became
an 18th-place finish for the U.S. Army team.
And there were others. At least half a dozen times throughout
the season, Nemechek appeared to be a top-10 threat only to have
bad luck negate his strong performances.
"That's probably the most disappointing part in all of it," said
Nemechek of having to overcome bad racing luck so frequently
during what could have been a break-out year for the Lakeland
native.
If Nemechek had finished in the top 10 during the three early
races at California, Las Vegas and Atlanta in which he was running
strong, he would have tallied more than enough points to make
the Chase at the end of the season.
Nemechek said that having a car that performs strong week after
week, but still can't seem to make it into Victory Lane, is sometimes
tougher than just knowing that you didn't have a strong enough
car to contend.
"When you're out there dominating races, then all of a sudden,
something happens -- man, that's pretty hard to fix," said Nemechek.
Through it all, however, Nemechek managed to salvage a respectable
season.
Two top-five finishes and nine top-10s was enough to help Nemechek
finish the season 16th in points. That was three positions higher
than his 2004 finish and nearly matched his best career season
in 2000 when he finished 15th while driving for Andy Petree.
The 16th-place finish earned Nemechek $4.8 million in prize money
for the season, including a Nextel Cup post-season finishing
bonus of $605,000.
"It was a decent year," said Nemechek. "We definitely thought
it could have been better."
Still, Nemechek seems pleased about the direction that his U.S.
Army team is heading in and optimistic that, the way this team
is gelling, the upcoming season should hold strong performances
for the No. 01 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
"I'm hoping it's going to start very good, kind of how this season
started," said Nemechek. "It's one of those things, you've got
to wait and see how stuff is going to turn out."
Nemechek won't be waiting very long. This January, he's heading
to Daytona for some preseason testing. Then he'll be back at
Daytona in February to kick off the 2006 season with the Daytona
500.
And just like the 2005 season, expect Nemechek to push himself,
his team and his car to the front every opportunity that he gets.
"I put more pressure on myself only because I want to run so
well," said Nemechek.
Maybe there was a four-leaf clover or rabbit's foot under Nemechek's
Christmas tree. With a little bit of luck, 2006 could be a good
year for one of Lakeland's most notable sons.