An accident on Lap 70 of 250 forced Joe Nemechek to retire early from Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway. He was credited with a 43rd-place finish.
As Nemechek was exiting Turn 2 on the two-mile oval he lost control of his Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet and proceeded to crash into the concrete wall. He was not injured in the accident, but he was still taken to the infield medical center where he was observed and released.
“The track was really slick, especially down in turns one and two,” explained Nemechek. “I was trying to get a run on the guy in front of me and the car just broke loose. When I tried to correct it, the car grabbed hard on the back, swung the front and shot me into the wall. The car was not repairable and it was game over.”
Nemechek, who qualified 20th, was having a steady run and even radioed the crew just before the accident to say that the car was coming around.
“I was just starting to get some rhythm and feeling good about the handling of the Furniture Row Chevy,” noted Nemechek. “I had a feeling that we were on to something good. But then the bottom fell out.”
The good news of the weekend for the 3-year-old Furniture Row team is that it set a single-season team record of qualifying in 22 races.
“We have 11 races remaining and we’re going to shatter that season record,” observed Nemechek. “Today was just a detour. We’ll regroup and be ready to go next week.”
Nemechek and the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team will head to Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, where the Sprint Cup Series will compete on Saturday night.
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