Young Nemechek chasing next NASCAR Truck victory

John Hunter Nemechek celebrated his first NASCAR Truck Series victory last week the only way he knew how.

When Nemechek, 18, returned to his Mooresville race shop Monday morning, he went back to work trying to find more speed in his No. 8 Chevy truck.

“He has the ‘want-to,’ as we call it,” said Nemechek’s father Joe. “That’s such a big part of what he is: determination, focus. He knows what he wants. You don’t see that a lot in our sport any more.”

John Hunter Nemechek’s victory at Chicagoland Speedway came in his 23rd career start. And for Nemechek, who was starting his senior year at Davidson Day School only a year ago, it should have happened earlier.

“I thought we had a couple of shots earlier this year that we should have won,” he said. “Gateway, Iowa were some places that should have worked out better for us.”

Nemechek grew up in a racing family. His father, Joe is a longtime NASCAR driver who is still active. His uncle John – whom John Hunter was named after – was killed in a crash during a Truck race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 1997. Nemechek was three-weeks-old the first time his dad took him to a race.

“I’ve seen the good, bad and the ugly of racing,” said Nemechek . “I was pretty much raised in the sport. It’s been fun growing up around the garage and getting dirty, engineering parts to make the cars go faster.”

Growing up around the sport, Nemechek has no illusions about how tough it is to succeed in NASCAR. His Mooresville-based team has nine employees (not counting himself and his dad). John Hunter knows he’ll have to catch on to a bigger team if he is to advance through NASCAR.

Nemechek will run the remaining seven races on the Truck schedule, including Saturday’s UNOH 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. But he said he’s looking for funding for next season.

“I knew when I was eight or nine that I wanted to race stock cars,” he said. “But hopefully I can sign a big contract with a major team – like (Joe) Gibbs Racing, Roush (Fenway) or Penske. You have to let your talent shine and keep working.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Young Nemechek chasing next NASCAR Truck victory."