John Hunter Nemechek – No. 4 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Tundra Camping World Trucks Bristol Preview

By:
On:
In: NASCAR Truck Series News
Neme’chek’ the Facts:
 
  •  John Hunter Nemechek and the No. 4 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety team will roll into the first race of the Round of 8 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway with momentum on their side. The 25-year-old driver earned his sixth pole award of the year at Kansas Speedway last weekend before sweeping all three stages in route to his second win of the season. With the points reset for the Round of 8 and the additional seven playoff points earned at Kansas, Nemechek is currently the third seed and sits 11 points above the cutoff line to advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway.
 
  • The second-generation driver will be making his eighth career start at The Last Great Colosseum in Camping World Truck Series competition. He has finished inside the top 10 in six of those starts, including four third-place finishes (2015, 2017, 2018, and 2021). In the Xfinity Series, he has two top-five finishes across three starts, including a third-place finish in the fall race in 2019. He finished inside the top 20 in both of his Cup Series starts in 2020, with a best result of 13th coming in the May race.
 
  • Nemechek continues to pace the field and leads all Truck Series regulars in average starting position (6.4), poles (six), average running position (8.344), and driver rating (107.0). He is also second in laps led (335) and fastest laps run (192).
 
  • Pye-Barker Fire & Safety, an industry leader in commercial fire protection since 1946, will serve as the primary sponsor for Nemechek at Bristol Motor Speedway. Pye-Barker, who acquired Nemechek’s long-term partner Fire Alarm Services in 2021, will also serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 4 Tundra TRD Pro in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway (11/4).
 
  • Nemechek is a 13-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 returned to victory lane in 2021 and 2022 with KBM. Across 143 career starts in NASCAR’s third division, he has compiled eight poles, 1,533 laps led, 49 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.3.
 
  • Eric Phillips returned to lead the No. 4 team in 2022. His 44career Truck Series victories make him the winningest crew chief in Truck Series history, with 34 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. At Bristol, Phillips has 11 starts with one win coming in 2010 when Kyle Busch led a race-high 116 laps driving KBM’s No. 18 Tundra in the first leg of his historic weekend sweep. Phillips has also registered two Xfinity Series triumphs at The Last Great Colosseum, in 2017 with Busch and in 2018 with Ryan Preece. 
 
John Hunter Nemechek, Driver Q&A:
 
Do you feel like you have to win one of the races in the Round of 8 to advance to the Championship 4?
“There are four drivers that advance, so the obvious answer is that there will be at least one that will advance by points. So, I think it depends on who wins those three races and where they are at in the point standings. Do I feel like we have to win to get in? No, but I want to win to get in. Winning early in the round and punching your ticket to Phoenix early is obviously better, so looking forward to going to Bristol and trying to do that. We have some momentum on our side and a lot of good things aligning for us. I definitely think it is going to be tough to get in if you don’t win, but I think that there is a chance.”
 
 
John Hunter Nemechek Career Highlights:
 
  •  13-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 eight poles, 1,533 laps led, 49 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.3. 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 Pye-Barker Tundra TRD Pro:
 
KBM-58: The No.4 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety team will unload KBM-58 for Thursday night’s race at Bristol. Nemechek has raced this Tundra three times in 2022, picking up two top-five finishes at Martinsville (April) and its most recent outing at Richmond in August. In 2021, Nemechek piloted KBM-58 to three wins, including leading a race-high 114 laps at Richmond en route to his fourth win of the year. Overall, KBM-58 has recorded four wins, three with Nemechek in 2021 and one with owner-driver Kyle Busch in 2019, 475 laps led, nine top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 17 starts resulting in an average finish of 10.6.
 
 
 
KBM Notes of Interest:
 
  • KBM drivers have collected four wins, five poles, 539 laps led, 11 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.7 across 31 starts at Bristol Motor Speedway.
  • Chandler Smith picked up the organizations most recent victory at the half-mile oval in 2021. Owner-driver Kyle Busch earned the other three wins for KBM, winning the Camping World Truck Series race as a part of his historic Bristol sweeps in 2010 and 2017 and he also won the 2013 event.
  • KBM holds the Camping World Truck Series records for most career wins (98) 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 18 career victories at KBM and was the number for both of the organization’s driver championships.

KBM PR

Speedway Digest Staff
Follow Me
Latest posts by Speedway Digest Staff (see all)
Post Views: 100