John Hunter Nemechek to drive the No. 45 at Homestead-Miami
John Hunter Nemechek will return to the NASCAR Cup Series, as he fills in for Bubba Wallace in this Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Wallace will miss a Cup race for the first time since the 2017 Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami. In contrast, Nemechek will run his first Cup race since the November 2020 championship race at Phoenix.
Nemechek will drive the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota as he fills in for Bubba Wallace. Wallace is suspended for Homestead-Miami because of an incident with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The 23XI Racing organization’s two cars will both have fill-in drivers, as Ty Gibbs will drive the No. 23 as he continues to fill in for Kurt Busch.
Busch announced on October 15 that he wasn’t cleared to return for the rest of 2022 and will step away from full-time Cup racing.
Nemechek has 39 Cup starts, with a career-high finish of 8th, twice – each at Talladega in 2020.
Since signing with Toyota in 2021, Nemechek has raced the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports truck full-time and earned 7 wins in 43 starts. He earned a Championship 4 berth in 2021 and remains in the hunt for the 2022 title.
Nemechek also has 16 Xfinity starts – five in 2021 and 11 in 2022 – for Sam Hunt Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing. He won with JGR at Texas in October 2021.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com