Pocono: Joe Nemechek race report

Nemechek, No. 78 Team Grind it Out in Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. (June 8, 2008) -- For the second week in a row Joe Nemechek saw a potentially strong finish fade due to a damaged race car. The end result for the Furniture Row Racing driver was a 29th-place finish in Sunday's Pocono 500 Sprint Cup race.

"We really had a good-handling race car up until we encountered damage to our Chevy Impala SS," said Nemechek. "As was the case in Dover last week, we were much better than our finish. Once the aero package is handicapped, there's not much you can do except grind it out and get the best finish possible."

Nemechek, who qualified solidly with a fifth-place starting position, had an up and down performance early in the race, but the right pit-road adjustments stabilized the handling of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet.

But as Nemechek was battling his way through traffic the front-end splitter, which controls downforce on the Car of Tomorrow, got damaged.

"A broken splitter was a big problem for us last week too," said Nemechek. "When the splitter gets damaged you suffer the consequences. Each pit stop we did the best we could to fix the problem."

When the 200-lap, 500-mile race was restarted for the last time with 19 laps remaining, Nemechek was running in 11th place, thanks to a well calculated pit strategy by the Furniture Row Racing team. But while driving a semi-crippled car, Nemechek scraped the wall and was handicapped even more as he slid to the back of the field.

"It was a disappointing finish because we had a good car and good strategy," noted Nemechek. "As we always do, we fought to the end and gave it our best shot. These guys work hard and I am proud of them."

-credit: frr