Joe Nemechek finished 17th, but the potential of a much better result vanished when NASCAR called a caution for debris with 15 laps remaining in Sunday’s Nextel Cup race.
The 325-lap, 500-mile event at Atlanta Motor Speedway was looking like it was going to come down to a fuel mileage contest, and Nemechek’s No. 13 Ginn Resorts Chevrolet had enough gas to avoid making a late green-flag pit stop.
“We had them on gas, ” said Nemechek. “It’s really disappointing that caution came out. We were successful at saving gas—we had enough fuel to make it to the end while the majority of the cars in front of us didn’t. We were looking at a top-five or better finish. “
Nemechek’s first big hurdle of the weekend was to qualify. The veteran driver, known as Front Row Joe, accomplished the mission, thanks to a second-lap banzai run during Friday evening’s qualifying session on the super-fast 1.5-mile oval.
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