Despite being a go or go home car for for much of the last three years Joe Nemechek had managed to qualify for each Sprint Cup Series race dating back to the fall race at Phoenix in 2010.
That streak ended this weekend when the 48 year old driver failed to qualify for the upcoming Sprint Cup race at Fontana.
Nemechek is not running for driver points in the Sprint Cup series, instead opting to run full races at the Nationwide level.
Outside the top-35 in owner points Nemechek will need to qualify for next weekends race at Martinsville on time. Considering his efforts at the Sprint Cup level have largely been of the start and park variety, it’s more then likely he will need to qualify every race this season based on time.
Nemechek made every race in 2011 while needing to qualify on time. He managed to finish one full race and retired early in 34 events and was involved in a crash during the 2011 Daytona 500.
