- After a two-week break and a disappointing 39th-place finish on the dirt at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, John Hunter Nemechek and the No. 4 Safeway team return to action Saturday afternoon in the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. After five races, Nemechek sits at the top of the Camping World Trucks championship standings, six tallies ahead of Ben Rhodes.
- Since the Camping World Truck Series last raced, Nemechek became a father. He and his wife Taylor celebrated the birth of their first child, a baby girl, Aspen Palmer Nemechek, on March 31.
- Saturday will be Nemechek’s first Camping World Truck Series on the 0.75-mile oval. In 2020, Nemechek made his sole NASCAR Cup Series start at Richmond, where he finished in the 30thposition. In NASCAR Xfinity Series competition, Nemechek has three career starts with a best finish of seventh in April 2019.
- Nemechek is a seven-time winner in Camping World Truck Series action, winning at least one race each season from 2015 to 2018 for his family-owned team, NEMCO Motorsports, and returning to victory lane this year with KBM. Across 107 career starts in NASCAR’s third division, the second-generation driver has compiled two poles, 752 laps led, 31 top-five and 54 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 13.1. The North Carolina native qualified for the Camping World Truck Series playoffs in each of his two full-time seasons, finishing eighth in the championship standings in both 2016 and 2017. He was voted the series most popular driver in 2015.
- The 23-year-old driver produced three top-10 finishes and an average result of 22.4 while competing for rookie of the year honors in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2020. He recorded a career-best eighth-place finish twice, both coming at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, earned the Sunoco Rookie of the Race award four times and finished 23rd in the championship standings.
- Eric Phillips returns to KBM to lead the No. 4 team this season. Phillips led the No. 18 team at KBM in its debut season in 2010 and helped build the organization into one of the premier teams in all of NASCAR before departing at the end of the 2014 season. Under his guidance, the No. 18 team won eight races in its inaugural campaign and became the first team in Truck Series history to capture an owner’s championship in its first season of competition. In 2014, the Illinois native led the No. 51 team to an owner’s championship and his team’s 10 wins spearheaded KBM to a single-season Truck Series record of 14 wins. His 38 career Truck Series victories make him the winningest crew chief in Truck Series history, with 28 of those coming while at KBM. At Richmond, Phillips has two career starts with a best finish of 31st in 2004 with Travis Kvapil.
- All three KBM Tundras will carry a special decal on the B post this week promoting Autism Awareness that includes the website address of NASCAR Sammy (NASCARSammy.com), an avid NASCAR fan autism advocate. Fans can visit his site to purchase a decal and help support his mission.
KBM PR
