The Cup Series rookie is following in the footsteps of (and occasionally rubbing fenders with) his dad, Front Row Joe
Two days, two races, two wins.
Joe Nemechek swept NASCAR’s Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races at Kansas Speedway on October 10, 2004. He was the first driver to do so, and it was the first sweep of his career. Not to mention the fact that he won the pole that weekend, too—as usual.
Most of the world knows Nemechek as Front Row Joe because of how many times he won the pole; however, to John Hunter Nemechek, Joe is simply dad.
NASCAR Cup Series rookie John Hunter spent most of his early years playing in the garage and traveling to watch his father race. One of his earliest memories is him being on pit road during single car qualifying when his father, unsurprisingly, won a pole.
“Looking back at pictures, I know that I wasn't hardly old enough to walk,” John Hunter says. “I was getting pushed around in a plastic race car with a handle on it, almost like a stroller, around the garage and that sort of stuff.”
John Hunter was two weeks old when he started going to watch his father race, and from an early age, Joe became his hero.
“Growing up around all the race cars and all the guys that were racing on a weekly basis and having your dad wear a fire suit,” John Hunter says. “As a kid, you kind of look at guys in fire suits and whatnot, and they're your heroes.”
Joe remembers a young John Hunter as an instigator of sorts when it came to other drivers and crew members. When Joe was working under Tony Glover, who hated snakes, John Hunter decided to put rubber snakes around him whenever he could, occasionally keeping them wound up.
“He knew everybody's little thing that he could pick on,” Joe says, “but they would pick back.” When he was at practice in Sonoma, California, Joe remembers coming back to the garage and seeing his son covered in duct tape, hanging from the engine hoist.
While he raced full time for a majority of John Hunter’s childhood, Joe was invested in his son’s life and career. Starting at age three, John Hunter would race his father in go karts and even drive them around the shop. Then came motorcycles and quarter midgets. To have his father involved in every step of his career has been “huge” for John Hunter.
“For him to be a dad and a boss and a mentor and an advisor and everything else through the years and owner of cars and a team owner,” John Hunter says, “he's put a lot into me and it's pretty amazing to be able to be at the Cup Series now following in a family legacy and trying to continue that.”
From an early age, Joe shared his wisdom with his son, hoping that as time went on that it would stick. The first time John Hunter wrecked a car, he was 11 years old. He told his father that he needed to go finish his school work but would work on the car later.
“When he came out the next weekend to go race, it was still sitting there wrecked right where we dragged it off the trailer,” Joe says. “So he learned that he has to make the effort to come out and work on it. When he started working on it, then I helped him and we got more help to get it repaired.”
In hindsight, John Hunter admits he thought the guys would fix the car before the test drive for the next weekend’s race. Needless to say, that memory taught him a quick lesson that sticks with him to this day.
“Being able to be at the shop and be hands on, to be able to work with him and learn everything I can about a racecar, how it's put together, how everything works,” John Hunter says. “It definitely helps you communicate with crew chiefs and engineers and everyone else in the shop and gives you a little bit of a perspective to have more respect for your equipment and not just to put yourself in bad situations and have the guys have to work extra, extra hard and extra long hours.”
John Hunter described his father and his career as an “underdog” and how he likes to be in the ‘gray area’ of the sport. While Joe has only 16 Xfinity Series wins over a 32-year period and four Cup Series wins in 24 years, he’s known for his ability in qualifying, hence his nickname “Front Row Joe.” He won 18 and 10 poles, respectively. At his core, Joe is an innovator and John Hunter learned everything he knows from him.
“He's way better than I ever was,” Joe says. “I had to figure out and I've been building all my own cars my whole life. Since I've been racing, I've had to build every one of them and build the engines. I've had to do all that stuff. So I tried to make him do a lot of the same things just to learn it.”
When John Hunter was 16 years old, he came up with a part for one of their trucks that he wanted to make with his dad. He drew it, made it on their CNC mill and it worked. Having that knowledge from Joe means everything to John Hunter.
“When I was younger, being able to learn how to run mills, plays and everything else that we have in our shop to make parts and pieces [was important],” John Hunter says. “Being able to be with each other and kind of have that bond from the working relationship as well as the father-son deal.”
As John Hunter rose through the ranks over the years, the two have had opportunities to race against each other. At Daytona a few years ago, Joe spun his son out twice while they were racing trucks. And most recently at Phoenix in 2019, they became the first father-son duo to compete in a tripleheader.
“It's just been amazing to be able to be on the same racetrack with him at this top of the level of NASCAR,” John Hunter says. “It's something that you don't see every day. You don't see dads and sons out playing football together in the NFL or Major League Baseball or anything like that. So being able to actually be at the top top tiers of NASCAR and be able to race against each other, it's been amazing.”
John Hunter tallied six truck wins and one Xfinity victory. Now he’s is a rookie in the Cup Series, and this season has become memorable in more ways than one. Facing no practice, no qualifying because of the COVID-19 global pandemic isn’t new to John Hunter. Growing up, they didn’t have the means afforded to other up-and-coming drivers.
“The one thing that people really don't know is we've never had a lot of resources to go and test, and testing is everything for a new kid coming up going and making laps at places,” Joe says. “We just never really had a big budget to go and do that. So most of his learning has been in race conditions.”
“If you go to a new racetrack and the cars are even halfway close, he's gonna be tough to deal with because he adapts very, very quickly and figures out the lines and is always trying to find speed.”
As John Hunter solidifies his place in the Cup Series with the help of his father’s advice, the Nemechek legacy continues for another generation. And it all started with a little boy in a race car stroller watching his father win a pole and wear a firesuit.
“Being able to have a dad that is your hero and to follow in his footsteps is something amazing,” John Hunter says, “and something that I've always loved to do, trying to continue on that family legacy.”