After a week off, John Hunter Nemechek and the No. 4 Mobil 1 team roll into Kansas Speedway coming off their second win of the weekend at Richmond Raceway, where Nemechek was able to hold off a late-race charge from Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) driver-owner Kyle Busch. After six races, Nemechek continues to sit at the top of the Camping World Trucks championship standings, 20 tallies ahead of Ben Rhodes.
In NCWTS competition, Nemechek has three starts at the 1.5-mile track, where his best finish of third came in 2017. In 2020, Nemechek made two NASCAR Cup Series starts at Kansas with a best finish of 17th, which came in the October event. In 2018, Nemechek captured his first career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Kansas.
KBM enters Saturday’s event having won the last four Camping World Truck Series races. Nemechek started the streak at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway in March and captured KBM’s most recent triumph at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Busch was victorious at Atlanta and Martin Truex Jr. captured his first Truck Series victory at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Dirt Track. It’s the fifth time in the organization’s history that they’ve collected four straight victories but have yet to make it more than four straight.
Nemechek is an eight-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 this year with KBM. Across 108 career starts in NASCAR’s third division, the second-generation driver has compiled two poles, 866 laps led, 32 top-five and 55 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.9. The North Carolina native qualified for the Camping World Truck Series playoffs in each of his two full-time seasons, finishing eighth in the championship standings in both 2016 and 2017. He was voted the series most popular driver in 2015.
The 23-year-old driver 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, earned the Sunoco Rookie of the Race award four times and finished 23rd in the championship standings.
Eric Phillips returns to KBM to lead the No. 4 team this season. 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. His 39 career Truck Series victories make him the winningest crew chief in Truck Series history, with 29 of those coming while at KBM. At Kansas, Phillips has 10 starts with two wins coming with Mike Skinner (2009) and Kyle Busch (2014).
John Hunter Nemechek, Driver Q&A:
Kansas was the site of your first NASCAR Xfinity Series win. Is it a place that’s special to you each time you go back?
“Going back to Kansas this weekend. It’s where I got my first NASCAR Xfinity Series win there in 2018. It’s a very special place for me and our family. My dad (Joe Nemechek) swept the weekend there in 2004, and I was able to be in victory lane as well as getting my first Xfinity win there. It’s a special place. It’s a really unique racetrack. I like going there. It’s one of my favorite racetracks to go to. I’m looking forward to this weekend.”
You haven’t raced a truck at Kansas since 2018, but the truck series had three races there last year. How much will you look at KBM’s notes from those races at Kansas last year?
“The trucks raced at Kansas three times last year. They have a lot of notes compiled from those three races. I haven’t been in a truck at Kansas since 2018. It’s unique circumstances. I don’t think it will slow us down. I am confident in my Mobil 1 team. I look forward to getting on track to see what we have. We just have to be consistent and go out and beat the boss.”
At the beginning of the season, Marcus Lemonis from Camping World announced that the team leading the point standings after Kansas would receive a $50,000 team bonus. You have a 20-point lead heading into this race. Are you looking forward to having that extra incentive on the line for your team Saturday?
“I’m definitely looking forward to having the incentive for the extra bonus for our team this weekend. We have to go and just hold the points lead. I hope that we can do so. We have a really strong team. I’m proud of all my guys. They’ve put in a lot of effort and work alongside everyone at KBM. Hopefully we can go out there and get it done!”
