Father-son Joe and John Hunter Nemechek to be powered by Chevrolet in 2015 - MotorSportsTalk

Veteran NASCAR driver Joe Nemechek and son John Hunter Nemechek will switch from Toyota to Chevrolet power for their 2015 racing efforts, NEMCO Motorsports announced Friday.

Joe Nemechek spent more than 20 seasons racing with Chevrolet in both the Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series from 1991 through 2011, before switching to Toyota for the 2012-2014 seasons.

“We look forward to joining the Chevrolet NASCAR program this season,” Joe Nemechek said in a team media release. “I’ve had a long-term relationship with Chevrolet for the majority of my career and I look forward to continuing that relationship.”

The biggest part of Friday’s announcement is two-fold:

First, the team will drive a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado for the entire 22-race NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule.

Second, Joe Nemechek and son John Hunter Nemechek will split duties in the No. 8 Chevrolet Truck until early July, when John Hunter will assume full-time driving duties for the remainder of the season after turning 18 years old on June 11.

The younger Nemechek’s first race as a full-time driver on the NCWTS will be July 9 at Kentucky Speedway.

Meanwhile, the elder Nemechek is expected to once again race a part-time schedule on the Xfinity Series and will likely also compete in several Cup series races.

NEMCO will also field Chevrolets as part of its Late Model series program, as well.

Since its inception, NEMCO Motorsports has earned 19 wins: 18 in the Xfinity Series (formerly the Nationwide and Busch series) and one in the Truck Series.

Joe Nemechek won 18 Xfinity races with Chevy power under the hood, including the 1992 series driver, owner and manufacturer championships that season.

The team also has 15 pole positions (14 in Xfinity and one in Trucks). Nemechek earned the nickname “Front Row Joe” for his ability to be a top pole contender throughout his racing career.

Also of note, NEMCO trucks will be powered by ECR Engines from the Richard Childress Racing stable.

“This is a big step for our team and I look forward to working with Chevrolet and the guys at ECR Engines for a competitive season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series,” John Hunter Nemechek said. “I have never worked with them (ECR Engines) before, but I look forward to building a relationship with them and running up front in 2015.”

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports