In 2021, John Hunter Nemechek made the most of his three-race NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule with Joe Gibbs Racing by winning at Texas Motor Speedway. He will hope to repeat the effort in 2022 as JGR made the same offer to him, with starts scheduled for Richmond Raceway on 2 April, Dover Motor Speedway on 30 April, and Texas on 24 September.
“John Hunter was impressive in his starts with us last year and we’re excited to have him back this season to work with Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and our #18 team for a few races,” commented JGR Xfinity programme executive vice president Steve de Souza. “He really has made the most of every opportunity and we expect he will run up front again in these races.”
Nemechek primarily competes in the Camping World Truck Series for JGR partner Kyle Busch Motorsports. In his first season with the team in 2021, he took the series by storm with five victories and the regular season championship before finishing third in points. His 2022 campaign has started on a rough note with finishes of twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth after being involved in wrecks in both, though he led the most laps at Daytona and won the pole at Las Vegas.
In addition to his full Truck slate, he ran the Las Vegas and Phoenix Xfinity races for Sam Hunt Racing. After a twelfth in the former, he led SHR’s first laps at the latter with eleven en route to a fifth-place finish.
“I am really excited to have this opportunity to race again in JGR’s Xfinity Series programme after the success we had last season,” said Nemechek. “We were able to pick up a win in just three starts and hopefully we can add to that success this season.”
The #18 serves as JGR’s multi-driver car while Brandon Jones and Ty Gibbs are full-timers in the #19 and #54, respectively. Drew Dollar piloted the car at Daytona while Trevor Bayne did so at Fontana and Phoenix, winning the pole at the latter, and Ryan Truex at Las Vegas. Like Nemechek, Truex also made a start for SHR.