LOUDON, N.H.—Joe Nemechek and the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team posted their best finish of the season, claiming a 20th-place result in rain-shortened NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It was the fourth straight race that Nemechek has finished in the 20s while driving the team’s No. 78 Chevrolet Impala SS.
“I am very proud of this team—we keep on working hard and making progress,” said Nemechek. “We’re the little guy doing well against the big multicar teams. It’s a credit to everyone in this organization.”
Nemechek, who started dead last in the 43rd position, fought hard to gain track position on the 1.058-mile oval.
“We made some big changes before the race to the front-end of the car and it worked,” said Nemechek. “Our Furniture Row Racing Chevy was good and we passed a lot of cars. We were clicking. When you start 43rd and finish 20th that’s not a bad day.”
Nemechek did survive a scare on Lap 153 of the scheduled 301-lap competition. After passing the No. 01 car of Regan Smith, Nemechek’s car got pinched and spun out on Turn 4. He managed to keep the car from crashing hard into the wall.
“I scuffed the wall a little, but there wasn’t any major damage,” explained Nemechek.
As dark clouds started to roll into the area, a number of teams gambled by not pitting for fuel with the hopes the race would be called early for rain. The gamble for those teams paid off because NASCAR was forced to call the race due to heavy rain on Lap 284. The top-seven finishers did take the gamble.
“We had to make the call to take fuel at the end,” said Nemechek. “We were going to be short if the race went the full distance. We were running in the top 20 and didn’t want to lose that position. We were pleased with the performance and even more happy about our improvement.”
The next event for the Denver-based single-car team will be Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway.
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