NASCAR: Top 5 remaining free agents for 2021
By Asher Fair
Top 5 remaining free agents: No. 2 – John Hunter Nemechek
John Hunter Nemechek, who had competed and impressed in NASCAR’s lower ranks for several seasons, burst onto the scene late last year in a three-race stint for Front Row Motorsports as the replacement for Matt Tifft, and that performance justifiably landed him a full-time ride with the team behind the wheel of the #38 Ford in 2020.
The 23-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina native somewhat came back down to earth after recording five top 16 finishes in the season’s first nine races, including a ninth place finish at Darlington Raceway. Such a run is challenging to pull off in his equipment and even more challenging to do as a rookie. But he had an impressive rookie year moving forwad nonetheless.
He recorded 16 top 20 finishes and an average finish of 22.4, and he led all rookies in laps and distance completed in what was a stacked class of first-year drivers.
Nemechek is not yet under contract with Bob Jenkins’s team for 2021, but it is expected that he will return.
His name had been thrown around as a possibility to drive for some of the sport’s more competitive teams, including Hendrick Motorsports, Chip Ganassi Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing, but with none of those speculated moves having come to fruition, a return to the #38 Ford is even more likely.