John Hunter Nemechek had a simple explanation to why he’s pulling double duty the first few weeks of the NASCAR season when he has a new ride in the Cup Series.
“Why not?” Nemechek said.
Nemechek has a second shot in the Cup Series with Legacy Motor Club, which hired him to drive the No. 42 Toyota. It will be his second full season in the Cup Series after a 2020 rookie campaign with Front Row Motorsports, where he earned three top-10 finishes and finished 27th in the championship standings. After the season concluded, Nemechek announced he wouldn’t return to the organization. He has spent the last few years winning races in the Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series.
Now the 27-year-old is back where he wanted to be and in much better equipment. But his time and focus will be split this year, especially at the start of the season, as Nemechek will run 10 races in the Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing. Of those 10 races, Nemechek is doing the first five to start the season: Daytona, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Circuit of The Americas.
“I like to race,” Nemechek said. “I like to be in race cars, and I think getting more laps is more beneficial for myself. Being able to work with the same group of guys at JGR that are on the 20 car besides two positions, I think everyone is still the same. It’s big for me to come back this year and have fun and try to go win races, not really knowing what the Cup side has in store for the first few as far as speed and other things.
“For myself, I wanted to put myself in a situation where I can gain confidence on Saturday and go into Sunday and be able to go out there and strive, learn some things from Saturday to try to apply to Sunday. I’m a race car driver. If we could run all three series every weekend, I’d be raising my hand to be into that.”
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Nemechek won seven races in the Xfinity Series with Gibbs last season and made the Championship 4. He has nine wins in 102 starts.
Over the last three years, Nemechek regained the confidence in himself that was lost when struggling in the Cup Series the first time. But he put himself in a position to succeed by aligning with Toyota and winning organizations like Kyle Busch Motorsports and then Gibbs. It’s also been three years of learning, which Nemechek will be doing again in the Cup Series.
Not only is he driving a car completely different from his rookie season, but it’s also different from what he’s been running in the Xfinity Series. Nemechek doesn’t expect many issues in driving two different cars, but there are some noticeable differences he’ll be aware of on his double-duty weekends.
“I think it’s just remembering what transmissions are in each, where the switches are,” Nemechek said. “(Friday in Atlanta), I went to kill the ignition switch after finishing my qualifying lap, and I reached to where my Cup one is, and it wasn’t in the same spot. So, small things like that.
“But as far as everything else, it’s similar so far. Daytona and Atlanta will be similar; we’re going to have more differences between the two cars when you get to (Las) Vegas, Phoenix, COTA, places like that.”