Joseph Frank Nemechek III (born September 26, 1963) is an American professional stock car racing driver who last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No.

He claimed the record in 2019 after he passed seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty, but was surpassed by Kevin Harvick in 2021.

He is the father of John Hunter Nemechek, who competes full-time in the Cup Series for Legacy Motor Club.

87 with sponsorship from Master Machine & Tool, posting two top-fives and finishing 17th in points, winning Rookie of the Year honors.

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.

That season, he made his Winston Cup debut at New Hampshire International Speedway for his NEMCO team, starting 15th before finishing 36th after suffering rocker arm failure.

33 Oakwood Homes-sponsored 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.

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.

After driving one race in Benson's car at Richmond, Nemechek was hired by Hendrick Motorsports to replace Jerry Nadeau in the No.

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.

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.

[4] 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.

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.

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.

On two occasions, he gave up his ride to Scott Speed after his fully funded team failed to qualify for Darlington and Sonoma.

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 July, Nemechek picked up sponsorship from Extenze and AM FM Energy to run the full race in both series at Daytona International Speedway.

Nemechek returned to his own team in the Xfinity and Cup series, running a limited schedule with Chevrolets.

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.

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.

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.

[14] 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.

[15] 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.

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.

Green 2001  K. Harvick 2002  G. Biffle 2003  B. Vickers 2004  M. Truex Jr. 2005  M. Truex Jr. 2006  K. Harvick 2007  C. Edwards 2008  C. Bowyer 2009  Ky. Busch 2010  B. Keselowski 2011  R. Stenhouse Jr. 2012  R. Stenhouse Jr. 2013  A. Dillon 2014  C. Elliott 2015  C. Buescher 2016  D. Suárez 2017  W. Byron 2018  T. Reddick 2019  T. Reddick 2020  A. Cindric 2021  D. Hemric 2022  T. Gibbs 2023  C. Custer 2024  J. Allgaier