Early career and Busch Series Nemechek began racing at the age of thirteen in
motocross and won 300 career races over the next six years. After winning various awards in different short-track series around the country, Nemechek made his Busch Series debut at
North Carolina Speedway in 1989, where he started 40th and finished 33rd after suffering an engine failure in his No. 88
Buick. Nemechek moved up to the Busch Series in 1990, running the No. 87 with sponsorship from Master Machine & Tool, posting two top-fives and finishing 17th in points, winning Rookie of the Year honors. He had sixteen top-ten finishes and finished sixth in points the following year. In 1992, Nemechek got full-time sponsorship from
Texas Pete sauce, and got his first two career wins and defeated
Bobby Labonte for the championship by three points. He did not win again in 1993, but he won three poles and finished fifth in points. That season, he made his Winston Cup debut at
New Hampshire International Speedway for his NEMCO team, starting fifteenth before finishing 36th after suffering
rocker arm failure. After running two more races in the No. 87, he ran a pair of races for
Morgan-McClure Motorsports, his best finish being a 23rd-place showing at Rockingham.
Early Cup career In 1994, Nemechek joined
Larry Hedrick Motorsports to drive the No. 41
Meineke Discount Mufflers Chevy. Despite missing two races, he had three top-ten finishes and finished 27th in points. The next season, he moved his No. 87 team up to the Cup Series with sponsorship from
Burger King, posted a fourth-place finish at the
MBNA 500 and finished 28th in points. After he dropped to 34th in points, he abandoned his Cup Series team and signed to drive the No. 42
Bellsouth car for
SABCO Racing. After losing his brother John in an accident at
Homestead-Miami Speedway early in the year, Nemechek won the first two pole positions of his career, at
California Speedway and
Pocono Raceway, respectively. He posted four Top 10's and finished a career-best 26th in points the following year. Midway through 1999, he announced he would not return to the No. 42 team the following season when he picked up his first career victory at
Loudon. He won two more poles at
Martinsville and
Talladega Superspeedway and finished 30th in points that year.
Andy Petree Racing and Hendrick Motorsports For 2000, Nemechek signed to drive the No. 33
Oakwood Homes Chevrolet for
Andy Petree Racing, winning the pole at Talladega and finishing a career-best 15th in points. He missed five races the following year after suffering an elbow injury at a test at Dover in 2001, then went on to win the
Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at
North Carolina Speedway that November. After Petree's team began to run into financial problems, Nemechek's team was left without a sponsor and he left for
Haas-Carter Motorsports to take over the No. 26
Kmart Ford Taurus that
Jimmy Spencer had left for
Chip Ganassi Racing. However, Nemechek went from one financial problem to another, as
Kmart filed for
bankruptcy early in the 2002 season and stopped sponsoring the Haas-Carter team. This forced Haas-Carter to scale back its operations to one team, and Nemechek was released in favor of keeping
Todd Bodine, who was driving the team's other car. Nemechek found an opportunity almost immediately, as
Johnny Benson Jr., who was the driver of the No. 10
Valvoline Pontiac for
MBV Motorsports, was injured in a crash the previous race and required a substitute. After driving one race in Benson's car at
Richmond, Nemechek was hired by
Hendrick Motorsports to replace
Jerry Nadeau in the No. 25
UAW-
Delphi Chevrolet. Nemechek drove the remainder of the season for Hendrick and performed well enough to earn that ride full time the next season, including second place runs at
Atlanta and
Homestead where in the latter of the two races mentioned, he led the most laps, he lost both races to
Kurt Busch however. In 2003, Nemechek started in the second spot, led the most laps, and won the
Pontiac Excitement 400. The race was rain-shortened with seven laps left, and just three minutes under a red flag, NASCAR called the race official. Nemechek, in an indoor victory lane, dedicated his win to Nadeau, who previously suffered a massive crash during a practice run at Richmond, which would end up ending Nadeau's career in motorsports. After the big win, Nemechek posted five other top-ten finishes but finished 25th in points. It wasn't enough for Nemechek to keep his job at Hendrick, and was announced to be released from his contract at the end of the season in favor of their Busch Series driver,
Brian Vickers. The team later ended up releasing Nemechek early to prepare for Vickers' start in the No. 25 in 2004. Nemechek would move to his 2004 team, the No. 01 for MB2 Motorsports, early, as well.
MB2 Motorsports/Ginn Racing in 2005 For the
2004 season, Nemechek returned to MB2 Motorsports, taking over the No. 01
U.S. Army car. He was again replacing
Jerry Nadeau as the driver, although this time it was due to Nadeau suffering a severe injury that would eventually end his racing career. He won two poles late in the season. In October, Nemechek won at
Kansas Speedway, beating out
Ricky Rudd at the finish line. Nemechek also won the Busch Series race at Kansas the day before, making him the first driver to pull the Busch-Cup double win at the track. The victory by Nemechek and MB2 at Kansas was a very emotional victory and Nemechek would say in a post-race interview that it was the biggest win of his career. In
2005, Nemechek won the pole at
Michigan. The season was highlighted by a feud with
Kevin Harvick. After Harvick caused a multi-car crash involving Nemechek during practice for the
2005 Daytona 500, Nemechek and
Jimmie Johnson were outspoken about their displeasure with Harvick. Later, Nemechek got into a tussle with Harvick during The Nextel Challenge. Nemechek got turned into Harvick by
Tony Stewart and, because of their Daytona feud, Harvick took Nemechek's role in the wreck personally, which ignited a heated post-race conversation that nearly came to blows. Nemechek remarked post-race that, "Kevin thinks he owns this world, and he ain't squat." NASCAR would issue no penalties to either drivers. At the end of the season, Nemechek fell seven points short of matching his career-best points finish. race car in 1997 MB2 was rebranded as
Ginn Racing following
Bobby Ginn's purchase of the team in 2006. He moved to Ginn's No. 13 with a
CertainTeed sponsorship after veteran
Mark Martin and rookie
Regan Smith were tapped to share the No. 01 car. In July 2007, Nemechek was released due to a lack of sponsorship for the No. 13, which was subsequently shut down.
E&M Motorsports and Furniture Row Racing He signed with
E&M Motorsports, and although he failed his first attempt to qualify, at Indy, he made his way into the field for the Michigan race weekend driving the No. 08 Fans On Board Dodge. He spent the rest of the season driving for
Furniture Row Racing, and signed a three-year contract with FRR to continue to drive in the No. 78 and help expand the team. In April 2008, at Talladega, Nemechek grabbed his tenth career pole driving the No. 78 National Day of Prayer/Furniture Row car. It marked Furniture Row Racing's first-ever pole. In October 2008, Nemechek finished 11th at the Talladega race. In November 2008, Furniture Row Racing announced that they were planning on running a limited schedule in 2009 or perhaps not at all in light of the economic situation. The day after this announcement Nemechek was released from his contract, and as a result, he was free to pursue other opportunities for 2009 and beyond.
Start and parking Shortly thereafter, Nemechek announced that he would be bringing his NEMCO Motorsports team back to full competition in both of NASCAR's top series, Sprint Cup and Nationwide. He would race the No. 87 Chevy in Nationwide and the No. 87 Camry in Cup. Nemechek ran most of the races for both series that season but occasionally had a younger fill in. In the
Pepsi 300 at
Nashville Superspeedway, Nemechek flipped after contact with several other cars. His car had minor damage, and he was able to drive it back to pit road. Nemechek raced in 30 Cup races during the 2009 season despite very little funding. He finished just three events and did multiple "
start and parks" where a driver starts the race, then parks to conserve parts, tires, etc. and to collect the prize money. On two occasions, he gave up his ride to Scott Speed after his fully funded team failed to qualify for Darlington and Sonoma. He qualified for the
2010 Daytona 500 after missing the race the year before. Nemechek picked up sponsorship from England Stove Works but was involved in an accident on lap 64. Nemechek would go on to compete in thirty more Cup races, with most being "start and parks." That season was highlighted by the
2010 AMP Energy Juice 500, Nemechek led the first lap after starting fourth. He would run the full distance, finishing 27th after suffering a blown tire. Nemechek brought his No. 87 cars back for 2011 to once again run both major NASCAR series. Nemechek successfully qualified for the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row but was once again involved in an early incident, thus failing to finish again. On June 9 at
Texas Motor Speedway, along with
Jeff Burton he made his 900th
NASCAR start in all top three series. In the Nationwide Series, Nemechek scored his first top-five since 2005 with a third-place finish at the
Aaron's 312 after being in the position to win with two laps to go. In July, Nemechek picked up sponsorship from Extenze and AM FM Energy to run the full race in both series at
Daytona International Speedway. He led laps in both races but was taken out in late accidents. Nemechek collected Nationwide Series points for 2011 under NASCAR's policy that a driver may accumulate points for only one series, and finished 14th in the final standings. He ran the No. 87 in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series in 2012, with the Cup ride as a start-and-park to fund the Nationwide team. Nemechek made his 600th career start at Michigan and finished 40th after starting 37th. Nemechek finished 11th in the 2012 Nationwide Series points.
2014 Nemechek's team became
Identity Ventures Racing in 2014, and he drove several races in the No. 66 car, which had a limited partnership with
Michael Waltrip Racing. In April 2014, Nemechek announced that he would be driving the No. 86
Deware Racing Group Chevrolet Camaro with sponsorship from
Bubba Burger. In the 2014 Aaron's 312, Nemechek was running towards the front during the entire race. With three laps remaining, Nemechek was running in the top-ten and finished sixth, his 126th top-ten in the Nationwide Series. For the
Coke Zero 400, Nemechek entered with the No. 29
RAB Racing Toyota with sponsorship from ToyotaCare, but failed to qualify. Nemechek joined
Randy Humphrey Racing for the
Oral-B USA 500, qualifying 34th and finishing 37th. He returned to RAB Racing's No. 29 at the
2014 GEICO 500, and initially qualified 24th, putting him in the field for the race. However, his car failed post-race inspection for an improperly sealed oil tank encasement, and he failed to qualify. This became the first season in Nemechek's Cup Series career where he did not race in any of the superspeedway races.
2015–2018 in 2015 at Dover in May 2018 Nemechek's team announced that for the
2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season that his team would be returning to
Chevrolet after a three-year tenure with Toyota. Nemechek returned to his own team in the Xfinity and Cup series, running a limited schedule with Chevrolets. Nemechek began the season by failing to qualify for the Xfinity race at Daytona, and withdrawing from the
Daytona 500. The following week at Atlanta, he was announced as the substitute for
David Ragan in the No. 34 CSX Ford for
Front Row Motorsports. At the time, Ragan was driving for
Joe Gibbs Racing in place of the injured
Kyle Busch. Nemechek drove the No. 34 car to a 33rd-place finish in what would be his only Cup Series start of the season. Nemechek made two appearances in 2016, driving his own No. 87 in both Xfinity races at Daytona. Nemechek finished 18th in February and 36th in July after being caught in an early crash while he was running in the Top 10. On January 20, 2017, it was announced that Nemechek would drive the No. 87 truck in the first three races of the season. Nemechek would finish 5th in the season opening race. The next week he would finish 24th at Atlanta. Beginning at Gateway after a four race break, Nemechek
start and parked the No. 87 until the end of the season, skipping only Eldora and Martinsville where he gave up the ride for
Ty Dillon, who brought sponsorship to run the full race. Nemechek's son,
John Hunter, would win two consecutive Truck Series races at Gateway and Iowa. Nemechek returned to Xfinity Series and drove the final two races of the season for
JD Motorsports, beginning with a start and park at Phoenix in the No. 15 and a full race at Homestead in the No. 01 (ironically his old number in the Cup Series from 2003 to 2006), where he would finished 10th in Stage 1. In 2018, Nemechek took over as a driver at
NEMCO Motorsports after his son
John Hunter moved up to the
Xfinity Series with
Chip Ganassi Racing. He had also been announced as one of the drivers of
JD Motorsports' No. 15 car, splitting the ride with other drivers. It was announced that
Matt Mills would drive the No. 15 full time. Nemechek ran the
PowerShares QQQ 300 in the 15, and later returned to the car for the
Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300.
2019–2022 Nemechek would once again run primarily in the Truck Series for 2019, splitting time between the No. 8 and 87, sharing the trucks with multiple drivers. Nemechek also returned to Xfinity competition, driving the No. 13 for
MBM Motorsports, and the No. 17 for
Mike Harmon Racing. In September, Nemechek raced in the
Monster Energy Cup Series for the first time since 2015, returning to
Premium Motorsports (formerly Identity Ventures) in their No. 27 car for the
Bojangles' Southern 500 as part of the annual throwback weekend. Nemechek later drove at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the team in September and said that more races in 2019 or 2020 weren't out of the question. Nemechek and his son
John Hunter made motorsports history at
ISM Raceway in early November 2019 by being the first father-son duo to race in all three main series in one weekend. On November 15, 2019, Nemechek surpassed
Richard Petty as the driver with the most starts in NASCAR's three national series, at 1,186. The record stood until
Kevin Harvick surpassed him in 2021. In 2020, Nemechek returned to Mike Harmon Racing in the Xfinity Series, driving their renumbered No. 47 car for the season opener at Daytona as well as at Las Vegas and Phoenix. Nemechek was scheduled to drive a third part-time car for Mike Harmon in 2021, but NASCAR's lack of regular qualifying halted those plans. Nemechek attempted the Truck Series opener at Daytona, but lacked speed and missed the field for the second year in a row. In 2022, Nemechek returned to the Xfinity Series, driving the No. 24 for
Sam Hunt Racing, partnering with his son John Hunter, at the
Wawa 250. However, he failed to qualify for the race after rain cancelled qualifying.
Historic racing Nemechek began competing in
historic motorsport events in 2021 with his old NASCAR cars, making his debut in
Historic Sportscar Racing's Classic Sebring 12 Hour. From 2022 to 2024, he won the Gene Felton Memorial at
Road Atlanta; the first win was the inaugural running. In 2024, Nemechek won the first race weekend for the HSR NASCAR Classic division at
Virginia International Raceway. ==Motorsports career results==