Consistent John Nemechek climbing in truck series standings

John Hunter Nemechek is a growing boy in the world of motorsports, his angelic features unchanged by the success of a good competitive stretch that includes four consecutive top-10 finishes and his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory two weeks ago.

His victory at Chicago was met with demonstrations of good wishes from NASCAR’s royalty of today and yesterday, both in person and by the Twitterverse.

It’s very easy to like this personable, genuine, bright-eyed 18-year-old, who has an air of goodness about him that makes one wonder if he’s not tailed by a very persistent and loyal guardian angel.

And perhaps he is.

Nemechek’s namesake was the first John Hunter Nemechek, his uncle who was killed in an accident at the truck race at Homestead-Miami in 1997, only three months before this John Hunter was born.

Nemechek’s uncle drove the same No. 8 that Nemechek drove to victory at Chicagoland on Sept. 19, the first victory ever for the No. 8.

“To have the same name as him is something I look at as an honor,” Nemechek, son of Joe, said Tuesday during a promotional stop at Texas Motor Speedway. “He’s still lingering around the shop. There’s been a few stories where tool boxes have moved at night and sometimes you’ll get a thump on the head and no one is around … that type of stuff.

“He’s still there.”

That’s not the talk of a teen prone to fantasy, but rather one who has seen his faith in a close family and in his career, which appears ready for takeoff.

Nemecheck followed his first victory with a fifth-place finish at New Hampshire last week, his sixth top-10 of the season. It’s a consistency built on, Nemechek said, his transition to driving in the series full time. Nemechek has driven trucks since he was 16 but was prohibited from driving 1  1/2-mile tracks until his 18th birthday in June.

Joe Nemechek, co-owner of the team with Sid Mauldin of Amarillo, drove those tracks in John Hunter’s stead.

Nemechek will make his debut at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 6 for the WinStar World Casino & Resort 350, part of a race weekend that includes the NASCAR Xfinity O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge and concludes with the NASCAR Sprint Cup AAA Texas 500.

Those NASCAR elites who were so supportive of Nemechek in victory more than anything admire how Nemco Motorsports has done it … the hard way, operating on the shoestring budget relative to a mom-and-pop start-up.

Like presidential aspirants now crisscrossing the country, young Nemechek is in search of the money of sponsorship. It’s the hard reality of his sport, and in order to continue to grow and move up he’ll need money. Even joining another team would likely require him to bring the sponsor, in addition to the obvious ability he has recently shown.

“There’s always conversations [about a sponsor], but you have to have funding to go places,” Nemechek said. “Sadly, it’s not the day and time when you don’t have to worry about funding, you can just worry about talent. The funding aspect is still there.”

Driving well and winning certainly can’t hurt. On the season, Nemechek is 13th in the season standings, behind leader Erik Jones.

Team Nemechek is confident and motivated and enters the final six races with momentum.

And probably with Uncle John watching.

Some might call Nemechek earning his first career victory on the exact day 16 years after Joe won his first Sprint Cup victory merely a coincidence. Perhaps so, but coincidence doesn’t make dreams come true.

Faith does.

“We actually had some ghostbusters come in, which was really cool,” Nemechek said. “We have videos of shadows moving and no one is in the shop.”

And you have to be on your toes, he said. Never know if Uncle John has a prank working.

“It’s crazy. It’s him.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Consistent John Nemechek climbing in truck series standings."