John Hunter Nemechek: Driver, No. 4 Mobil 1 Toyota
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview:
Event: Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200, Race 2 of 23, 134 Laps –30/30/74; 201 Miles
Location: Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway at (1.5-mile tri-oval)
Date/Broadcast: March 4, 2022, at 9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
Nemechek #Back4More in 2022:
John Hunter Nemechek and the No. 4 Mobil 1 team head to Las Vegas for the first 1.5-mile race of the 2022 season. After two stage wins and a 24th-place finish at Daytona in the season opener, Nemechek is currently tied for sixth in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings with his Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) teammate Chandler Smith. In the 2021 spring event at Las Vegas, Nemechek beat out driver-owner Kyle Busch for his first win with KBM. In the five events that Busch competed in last season, Nemechek won three of them and Busch won twice. In all three of Nemechek’s victories, Busch finished in the runner-up position.
The second-generation driver will be making his ninth career start at Las Vegas in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He has tallied one win, two top-five and three top-10 finishes with average finish of 17.1 in his first eight starts at the 1.5-mile oval. In two NASCAR Cup Series starts at the Nevada track, Nemechek has a best finish of 20th in the fall event. He has also produced an average finish of 5.0 across two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas, including a runner-up finish in the spring of 2019.
In addition to competing in the Camping World Truck series race Friday, Nemechek will be making his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start of the season at Las Vegas behind the wheel of No. 26 Toyota Supra for Sam Hunt Racing. In 56 Xfinity Series starts, he has tallied two wins, one pole, 364 laps led, 14 top-five and 33 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 11.7.
The world’s leading synthetic motor oil, Mobil 1, will be the primary sponsor onboard Nemechek’s No. 4 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for 10 races in 2022 starting Friday night in Las Vegas. Mobil 1 returns to the hood of Nemechek’s Toyota April 7 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Nemechek is an 11-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 with KBM. Across 125 career starts in NASCAR’s third division, he has compiled two poles, 1,231 laps led, 40 top-five and 66 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.7.
Eric Phillips returns to lead the No. 4 team in 2022. His 41 career Truck Series victories make him the winningest crew chief in Truck Series history, with 32 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 first team in Truck Series history to capture an owner’s championship in its first season of competition. In 2014, the Illinois native led the 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. At Las Vegas, Phillip’s drivers have collected two wins, two top-five, and seven top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 13.4 across 11 starts. He won with Nemechek in the spring of 2021 and with Erik Jones in the fall of 2014.
John Hunter Nemechek, Driver Q&A:
John Hunter Nemechek | Las Vegas Motor Speedway Preview
You won this race last year, are you looking forward to getting back to Las Vegas?
“Yeah, I am, we won in the spring Vegas and led most of the fall Vegas race until we had a mechanical issue. Vegas has been a really strong racetrack for me with the KBM Toyota Tundra TRD Pro that we have and hopefully we can go there again and grab our first win of the year. It’s a special place and suits me very well as a driver and I feel like the setups and trucks that we have here at Kyle Busch Motorsports.”
Have you and the team thought about how you will approach practice at Vegas?
“We haven’t really thought about how we’re going to approach it yet. It’s 20 minutes so you can’t really change much setup wise. It will be close to the same as last year as far as going out there and going out there right off the truck and hoping your truck is fast. If not, you can make minor adjustments to it but can’t change springs or shocks. Just have to go out there and hope that we unload the right way and be fast right off of the truck.”
Kyle (Busch) will be in the race again and you beat him three out of five times last year, are you looking forward to battling head-to-head against him again?
“Yeah, for sure. I think anytime Kyle is in the field it is definitely challenging but it is also very rewarding when you are able to beat him. Kyle is strong every time he gets into a truck, and I think he has finished first or second in the last 19 out of 21 races he’s run in a truck. He’s very consistent and always up front when he races, so hopefully we can continue to duel it out with him.
John Hunter Nemechek Career Highlights:
- Eleven-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 125 career starts in NASCAR’s third division, has compiled two poles, 1,231 laps led, 40 top-five and 66 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.7. Registered a career-high and series-leading five victories in 2021 and earned the NCWTS Regular Season championship while finishing 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 56 career XFINITY Series starts, has totaled two wins, one pole, 364 laps led, 14 top-five and 33 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 11.7.
John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Tundra:
KBM-56: The No. 4 Mobil 1 team will unload KBM-56 for Friday night’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Nemechek piloted this Tundra TRD Pro three times last season, including at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., where he was victorious. It is the same Toyota he raced at Las Vegas last fall and was out front for 33 laps before being relegated to a 33rd-place finish after experiencing mechanical issues.
KBM-56 Performance Profile
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected five wins, four poles, 688 laps led, 14 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 13.1 across 42 starts at Las Vegas.
- Nemechek collected a victory at the spring Las Vegas race in 2021, while owner-driver Kyle Busch won in the spring of 2018, 2019 and 2020 and Erik Jones was victorious in the fall of 2014.
- KBM holds the Camping World Truck Series records for most career wins (90) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). With his victory at Bristol Motor Speedway last September, Chandler Smith became the 17th 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 16 career victories at KBM and was the number for both of the organization’s driver championships.
