Nemechek Finishes 17th in Sprint Showdown; Ready for 600

May 17, 2008

CONCORD, N.C. (May 17, 2008) -- An early transmission issue never allowed Joe Nemechek to make a charge in Saturday night's Sprint Showdown at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte.

After starting seventh in the 40-lap shootout, Nemechek fell back and was never able to catch the lead cars. He finished 17th in the 27-car field. The top two finishers from the Showdown -- AJ Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr. -- advanced into the ensuing non-points Sprint All-Star Race.

"We had a rough start and that was costly," said Nemechek. "The car was in high gear going into the corner, but somehow it popped out of gear. When I stood back on it, the car never went anywhere. I thought the motor blew for a second. Once I got back into gear we were okay, but by that time we lost a lot of track position."

Though the result was a disappointment, Nemechek and the No. 78 Denver-based team did gain valuable testing at the 1.5-mile track for next week's Memorial Day weekend classic -- the Coca-Cola 600, May 25.

"We learned a bunch this weekend and it's going to help us in the 600," noted Nemechek. "Between qualifying and how the car ran later in the race tonight, we have a solid baseline to work from when we come back here next week. That's good news for our Furniture Row Racing team."

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