John Hunter Nemechek: Driver, No. 4 Mobil 1 Toyota
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview:
Event: Kansas Lottery 200, Race 19 of 23 (Race 3 of 3, Round of 10),
134 Laps – 30/30/74; 201 Miles
Location: Kansas Speedway in Kansas City (1.5-mile tri-oval)
Date/Broadcast: Sept. 9, 2022, at 7:30p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
Neme’chek’ the Facts:
After a 27-day hiatus, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoffs resumes this Friday, Sept. 9 at Kansas Speedway for the cutoff race in the Round of 10. Nemechek enters Friday’s race fourth on the playoff gird, 43 points above the cutoff line for advancing to the Round of 8. The second-generation driver can advance to the Round of 8 with a win on Friday night or by earning 13 points if there is a repeat winner, or by recording 16 points if there is a winner from outside of the top eight (Carson Hocevar or Christian Eckes).
Kansas Speedway is the only track on the Camping World Truck Series schedule that the series travels to twice in 2022. In the first race at the 1.5-mile venue back in May, Nemechek earned the pole before finishing fifth and third in the opening two stages and crossing the stripe in sixth on lap 134. Nemechek will be making his sixth start at Kansas in the Camping World Truck Series. Throughout his first five starts, he has tallied two poles, 19 laps led, three top-five and four top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 9.2. While he hasn’t reached victory lane in a truck at Kansas yet, he picked up his first career Xfinity Series victory at the 1.5-mile venue in October of 2018 for Chip Ganassi Racing. He also finished eighth in the Xfinity Series event at Kansas in 2019.
With five races remaining in the 2022 Truck Series season, the second-generation driver leads all Truck Series regulars in poles (five), average starting position (6.7), and driver rating (104.7). He is also second in average running position (8.700) and third in laps led (264).
The Toyota Racing driver kept busy during the three-week break, running two NASCAR Xfinity Series races for Sam Hunt Racing (SHR) behind the wheel of the No. 26 GR Supra. In his first race at Daytona, Nemechek was running as high as fourth before getting caught up in a late-race accident, relegating him to a 35th-place finish. In his most recent event at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway this past weekend, Nemechek notched another top-10 finish for SHR, finishing in ninth.
The world’s leading synthetic motor oil, Mobil 1, returns as the primary sponsor of the No. 4 Tundra TRD Pro this Friday at Kansas. Mobil 1 will adorn the hood for one more race in 2022 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Oct. 1.
Nemechek is a 12-time winner in Camping World Truck Series action, winning at least one race each season from 2015 to 2018 for his family-owned team, NEMCO Motorsports, and returning to victory lane in 2021 and 2022 with KBM. Across 142 career starts in NASCAR’s third division, he has compiled seven poles, 1,445 laps led, 48 top-five and 79 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.4.
Eric Phillips returned to lead the No. 4 team in 2022. His 42 career Truck Series victories make him the winningest crew chief in Truck Series history, with 33 of those coming while at KBM including five last year. Phillips led the No. 18 team at KBM in its debut season in 2010 and helped build the organization into one of the premier teams in all of NASCAR before departing at the end of the 2014 season. Under his guidance, the No. 18 team won eight races in its inaugural campaign and became the Series history to capture an owner’s championship in its first season of competition. In 2014, the Illinois native led the first team in Truck No. 51 team to an owner’s championship and his team’s 10 wins spearheaded KBM to a single-season Truck Series record of 14 wins. In those 12 Trucks Series starts at Kansas, his drivers have recorded two wins (Mike Skinner – 2009 & Kyle Busch – 2014), two poles, 201 laps led, four top-five, and six top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 10.3. Phillips also has one NASCAR Xfinity Series victory at Kansas, he was atop the pit box for Christopher Bell’s first series victory in 2017.
John Hunter Nemechek, Driver Q&A:
“Will having competed in a couple of Xfinity races during this long off period from the truck series scheduled be beneficial to you?”
“Being able to stay in the seat I think it’s helped me. Having three weeks off in between truck races is definitely difficult from getting into a groove staying mentally sharp and really just making sure that you’re on top of everything that’s going on. I think being in the seat helps me as a driver continue to learn and gain valuable knowledge and experience. As well as just being able to be on top of everything that is going on with pit road stops, restarts and a lot of different things that play into those.”
How will you approach this race being 43 points above the cutoff line?
“We have to race smart; the main goal is to advance to the next round and continue to put ourselves in a good position to try and make the Championship 4. Yes, winning would be great but the big goal is to advance.”
“You’ve finished inside the top 10 in 6 of 7 starts at Kansas between truck and Xfinity including a Xfinity win. What makes you so successful at this track?”
“Kansas has always been really good to me, have rattled off quite a few top-10’s like you said and for me it’s a place that suits my driving style. You can run the bottom, you can run the middle, and you can run the top. You have to have a good balance in your vehicle, but a driver can also help quite a bit from running those different lines and trying to stay on top of the racetrack as it changes. Kansas has always just been a place that I loved, and I’ve run really well there from the first time that I ever raced there.”
John Hunter Nemechek Career Highlights:
- Twelve-time winner in Camping World Truck Series action, winning at least one race each season from 2015 to 2018 for his family-owned team, NEMCO Motorsports. Across 142 career starts in NASCAR’s third division, has compiled seven poles, 1,445 laps led, 48 top-five and 79 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.4. Registered a career-high and series-leading five victories in 2021, earned the NCWTS Regular Season championship and finished third in the final standings after qualifying for the Championship Four for the first time in his career.
- Produced three top-10 finishes and an average result of 22.4 while competing for rookie of the year honors in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2020. He recorded a career-best eighth-place finish twice, both coming at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
- Across 65 career XFINITY Series starts, has totaled two wins, one pole, 510 laps led, 17 top-five and 37 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.3.
John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Tundra TRD Pro:
KBM-56: The No. 4 Mobil 1 team will unload KBM-56 for Friday night’s race at Kansas Speedway. Nemechek has raced this Tundra three times in 2022, earning two poles (Las Vegas & Texas), one top-five (Pocono), and two top-10 finishes (Pocono & Texas) while leading a total of 37 laps. In 2021, Nemechek piloted KBM-56 three times including a win at Pocono Raceway in June. Overall, KBM-56 has recorded one win (Nemechek), three poles, 91 laps led, three top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 14 starts resulting in an average finish of 12.7.
KBM-56 Performance Profile
KBM Notes of Interest:
- Across 38 starts on road courses, KBM drivers have earned two wins, 15 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes, with an average starting position of 9.3 and an average finish of 11.7.
- Owner-driver Kyle Busch earned his organization’s most recent road course win in June at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. Erik Jones picked up KBM’s first road course victory in 2015 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont.
- KBM holds the Camping World Truck Series records for most career wins (95) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). With his victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 19, Corey Heim became the 18th different driver to win a Truck Series event for KBM. In addition to collecting a series-record seven Owner’s Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers: Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
- The No. 4 has 17 career victories at KBM and was the number for both of the organization’s driver championships.
