John Hunter Nemechek is
coming off a career-best ninth-place finish in yesterday’s The Real Heroes 400
at Darlington Raceway. Nemechek answered
questions as part of a teleconference on Monday to talk about his run.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK,
No. 38 Scag Power Equipment Ford Mustang – WHAT
DID IT MEAN TO FINISH IN THE TOP 10 AND GET BACK TO THE
TRACK? “It definitely means a lot to our
team. I feel like we’ve kind of had
speed all year and we’ve made our cars better during the off-season
transitioning to Front Row Motorsports.
Yesterday, we came in with no expectations. We just kind of had the
mindset to run every
lap and learn the most that we possibly could, and while doing that we
made the
right adjustments all day. We stayed on
top of the race track and we kind of ran our own race and it led to us
running
top 15 most of the day, which is a really great accomplishment for
myself and
Front Row Motorsports for my first time being at Darlington in a Cup car
and
just trying to learn. It’s definitely a
hard race track, but, overall, the pit crew did amazing. Seth and
myself did great at communicating. The engineers were awesome. It was a
full team effort and we stayed on
top of it, so it was definitely a great day and something to be proud of
for
us. I think that’s Front Row’s first top
10 finish on a non-superspeedway in almost four years, so it’s pretty
amazing
to have that accomplishment and hopefully we can continue to have the
momentum
roll our way, but it came down to the final restart and we had our car
tuned up
for the end. I was hoping we were gonna
have a couple more laps. I think we
could have got Reddick and Erik Jones, but, overall, a solid day. I’m
looking forward to going back to Darlington
on Wednesday.”
CAN YOU COMPARE THE EXPERIENCE
OF COMPETING IN THIS RACE VS. WHAT YOU DID LAST YEAR IN THE XFINITY SERIES? “We weren’t very good at Darlington last year
in the XFINITY Series, so for myself to kind of go there with an open mindset,
a lot of preparation was done, a lot of video was watched, talked to quite a
few Cup drivers during the quarantine about Darlington when we knew that we
were going back there and just tried to be a sponge and just soak everything up. I would say Darlington last year I didn’t
really like it. I didn’t really like the
place. It definitely was a struggle for
myself and for our team last year. We
weren’t that great, so coming into Darlington this year it was completely
different than the XFINITY car, just trying to make the most of the situation
and with no practice I definitely like it almost gave our team a little bit of
a better opportunity to run good as we didn’t have time to either mess up our
car or our adjustments and set up through practice, but it didn’t really allow
others to make major gains through practice, where we might not be able to do
the same, so it was a lot of fun being able to tame the Lady in Black, and I
had a blast. It’s a place I really like
now, not really from last year, but being able to slide around and tire wear,
being able to run multiple grooves, it was overall just a really fun race yesterday
and really great just to be back in the seat.”
HOW TOUGH WAS THIS RACE
COMPARED TO WHAT YOU WERE EXPECTING GOING IN, AND WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR YOUR
CONFIDENCE GOING INTO WEDNESDAY? “I
think from a confidence standpoint it definitely makes me feel really good to
be able to go back there. We have some
notes that I think we can get better from, from yesterday, some things that I
wish the car would have done a little bit differently. It’s an opportunity for us to have a really
good notebook. I mean, coming into
yesterday our kind of plan as a team to run every lap and learn the most that
we possibly could and we were really planning on the second Darlington race
being our best race, so to come home with a ninth in the first Darlington and
hopefully we can build momentum and continue to roll on that.”
WAS THE RACE TOUGHER OR
EASIER ON YOU THAN EXPECTED? “I don’t
think that it was terrible from a physical demand standpoint or anything like
that. I definitely think from being out
of the race car and coming back into the race car from so much time off, I explained
it as a really long rain delay even though it was almost the amount of time
that our off-season is, so it was definitely very good to be back in the
seat. I definitely think that it shows
who has been training and who hasn’t, and who has been preparing for coming
back to racing. I’m just glad that from
a physical standpoint it wasn’t as demanding as I thought it would, but I was
tired afterwards. I left everything out
there on the race track, that’s for sure.”
WILL YOU TAKE THE SAME
CAR BACK ON WEDNESDAY? DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE
AN ADVANTAGE OR DISADVANTAGE WITH THE BIGGER TEAMS WITH TWO DAYS IN
BETWEEN? “I definitely feel like from
the advantage standpoint, I don’t necessarily know if the bigger teams will
have more of the advantage or if we’re gonna have the advantage. With not having practice or anything, it’s definitely,
I feel like it gives us a little bit of a chance. With Front Row Motorsports and us having two
cars we can learn off of each other, but when you’re racing against big teams
that have four cars, you can almost come to the race track with four different
setups and see which one works best, and then all the cars can kind of trend to
that setup, whereas with two it’s hard to learn and hard to gain that many
notes during the whole time, so I feel like going back some of the bigger teams
are probably gonna step their game up.
We just have to do the same and we just have to stay focused on the task
at hand and we’re gonna go back with the same mindset of running all the laps
and just try to put us in position to have a good finish.
ARE YOU BRINGING THE
SAME CAR BACK? “We’re not bringing the
same car back Wednesday. Darlington is
really rough on equipment as far as with the sand and everything in the race
track being so abrasive, so we’re definitely gonna have to tune it up. Even though the car was clean, it didn’t have
any scratches on it, it was very well pitted out from all the sand and
what-not.”
HOW DOES THREE RACES IN
A SHORT PERIOD AFFECT YOUR TRAINING, ESPECIALLY WITH A 600-MILER AT THE END OF
THE WEEK? “It’s definitely something I
have to get used to. The longest race I’ve
been a part of has been 500 miles, and I think I’ve run two of those races so
far, so it’s definitely something that I have to train my body for, but as far
as physical shape and mental shape during the whole quarantine process with COVID,
I upped my training quite a bit. I probably
doubled or tripled what I was doing on a weekly basis already, so I feel really
good about my physical shape and my mental shape right now. As far as the recovery process, I actually
got home and took an ice bath last night, so it’s definitely something that you
have to kind of train for and I’ll be on a bike later today spinning and trying
to recover a little bit, but everything that we’re doing during these times
with three races in pretty much seven days is all recovery stuff, just trying
to flush out the body and trying to flush out the legs, rather than putting in
very high, physical demand process and letting all of our energy and what-not
kind of recover before we get back in the race car.”
WHAT
WAS IT LIKE ON THE
GRID YESTERDAY WITH NO FAMILY, FRIENDS AND PROBABLY NO MRO TO DO A
PRE-RACE
PRAYER? “It was definitely different. I know I think MRO had virtual
chapel yesterday. I did not get to attend, sadly. We were actually
debriefing and getting ready
for the race with our team, but I did have some texts and some chat back
and
forth with another pastor that we’ve been able to talk with during this
time
and trying to create that mentality as well.
As far as on the grid it was definitely a different feeling, something
that we’re not used to and something that we hopefully don’t have to get
used
to as far as not having friends and family there. The whole atmosphere
was different without
fans and it’s not something that you kind of look forward to going back
to, knowing
that there aren’t gonna be fans there, but I am glad that we’re back in
the seat
and that we are back racing. Hopefully,
we can get fans back soon because it’s definitely not the same.”
WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOUR
ROLE IS IN THIS ROOKIE CLASS? CUSTER,
BELL AND REDDICK HAVE GOTTEN ALL THE ATTENTION, SO HOW DO YOU FEEL? “I definitely think from a success standpoint
it’s coming back to I guess putting all your effort into trying to make the
most of the opportunity, but it goes back to communication with my crew chief
and my whole team, and making the right decisions at the right time. I definitely feel like all the talk was about
the big three. It was like the big three
and me, like what about me over here?
So, definitely trying to make a name for myself as far as part of the rookie
class, and I feel like we’ve been able to do some of that and we just have to
continue to try to do that, but the big three definitely aren’t going
away. They’re hard to compete with and
they’re all really good. To be able to continue
to compete with them and to race them week in, week out with the circumstances
that we have at Front Row, it definitely makes myself feel good and makes our
team feel good. I hope to continue to
build momentum through the runs that we’ve had.
Like I said earlier, we’ve had speed all year, we just haven’t had
finishes that we need to show. We’ve
always gotten collected in somebody else’s stuff at the end of a race and that
part definitely stinks, but we want to continue to run strong and finish strong
and continue to show the speed that we have.”
CAN
YOU LOOK AHEAD TO
THE 600 AND QUALIFYING FOR THAT RACE? “It’s
definitely gonna be interesting. I definitely
feel like going back qualifying with no practice, I mean go out there
and hold
it wide-open and hope she sticks, but, all in all, it’s gonna be
interesting to
see who comes out with more of their race setup or who comes out with
more of
their qualifying setup to qualify good or whatever it may be. The 600
is gonna be a long race. It’s gonna be the longest race I’ve ever been
in, so it’s a matter of taking your time and making the most of the
opportunity
and not getting tired, not getting mentally tired, staying focused
throughout
the whole thing. I think yesterday definitely
shows that we started 34th and ended up ninth, and we continued to
make passes. It may be a little bit different
at Charlotte, but I don’t think it really matters where you qualify at this
point, so to continue to try and build on that and just focus on the race, I
think, is gonna be our No. 1 priority.”
DO
YOU FEEL YOUR
STRENGTH IS OUTWORKING THE COMPETITION OFF THE TRACK? “I wouldn’t say
that I outwork the competition. I definitely think that everyone puts
in
effort and time into studying and what-not, but I think it’s utilizing
your
resources to the max. I definitely feel
like I work hard in that aspect of trying to utilize all your resources
from
video to data to asking questions to try and be a sponge and soak
everything up. I definitely feel like through my years of
racing I’ve kind of had to learn some things the hard way and sometimes
that’s
the best way to learn things, so just trying to learn, trying to be the
best
sponge I can be, but, all in all, I definitely feel like the whole
atmosphere
in the garage of all of us rookies trying to be the best that we can be
is
working hard, so I wouldn’t say that I outwork everyone, but I
definitely do put
in a lot of time and effort and I am dedicated to this.”
WHO IS YOUR SPOTTER AND
HOW IMPORTANT ARE THEY UNDER THESE CONDITIONS?
“I have Chris Osborne as my spotter.
He’s a veteran spotter. He’s been
a great help and a great influence to me this year. He’s definitely given me all the information
that I could ask for and he’s been around for a while, so he’s seen different
trends through the years and he can continue to relay information that there
are certain things I don’t necessarily think about from yesterday during the
race or before we even raced, getting on a call with him and just being able to
talk about his experiences at the race track.
He can throw out pointers for me and I definitely kind of know my trends
as a driver when certain things happen or when I kind of focus on not necessarily
the wrong things, but not the fully correct things while we’re running
laps. He can kind of see those trends
and push me to be better and tell me to focus, so he keeps me on my toes and he
keeps me focused, but at the same time he gives me a lot of information. Spotters are key right now with no practice
and no qualifying, and especially for my first time being at Darlington in a
Cup car, being able to learn some of the things from these guys that have so
much experience at Darlington and are race winners and champions in this sport,
he can definitely give me information on them and just trying to be smart about
everything that we do. He definitely keeps
me on my toes with that aspect.”