LOUDON, N.H.—Joe Nemechek was forced to take an early exit from Sunday’s Sprint Cup race after his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet got hit from behind and crashed hard into the inside retaining wall.
The incident at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was triggered on Lap 223 of 300 when Regan Smith—in the No. 01 Chevy—rammed into Nemechek’s car.
The hit obviously didn’t sit too well with the veteran driver, who was credited with a 43rd-place finish.
“I don’t know what the heck he (Smith) was thinking of,” said Nemechek. “We were bunched up three wide out of turn four and I don’t know where he came from. He just drilled the back of my car and turned me sideways. When that happens you’re just along for the ride. Luckily nobody hit me in the driver’s door. But I did hit the interior wall pretty hard and that crushed the radiator.”
“It’s a shame and absolutely no reason for him to be running like that,” added Nemechek.” He just didn’t use his head. We had 80 laps to go and our fuel strategy was working out.”
Nemechek started the 300-lap event 42nd after qualifying was rained out Friday and the field was set according to owner points. He picked up a number of positions early in the race but fell back with handling problems.
“The Furniture Row Chevy was coming around and I felt we took care of the handling issues,” noted Nemechek. “But we never had a chance to see what we could do late in the race because of some bonehead move by another driver.”
Nemechek added, “We had too many things happen to us this weekend that were out of our control. We had a good practice on Friday but then qualifying got rained out and we had to start in the back. That was a major handicap at this track. And the hit today by Regan Smith was totally uncalled for.”
Nemechek and the Furniture Row Racing team will be looking to turn things around next week, when the Sprint Cup Series will be at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.
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