By Mike Haag, Raceday San Antonio
FORT WORTH, Texas – ROMCO, Inc. owner Robert Mullins had a good reason to celebrate when John Hunter Nemechek won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 220 on Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.
Nemechek, who was driving the No. 4 Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports with ROMCO as his primary sponsor, helped cast ROMCO into the national spotlight by getting the victory before a live and televised audience on FOX Sports television.
Mullins, who owns the Dallas-based parent company of ROMCO Equipment Co., ROMCO Paving Equipment, RPS (ROMCO Power Systems) and MPS (Material Processing Systems), is a former race car driver who drove Super Late Models and once raced at TMS while serving as the president and owner of the ROMCO Super Late Model Series.
The victory was Nemechek’s fourth of the season and ninth top-10 finish in 2021. It was his 10th victory in 114 Camping World Truck Series races. It was also Kyle Busch Motorsports’ seventh win of the season and Toyota’s 21st series victory at TMS.
“I feel like we’ve been making a statement all year,” Nemechek said. “I feel like we’re one of the favorites every time that we show up to the race track. I can’t say enough about Eric Phillips (crew chief) and all these guys. Everyone, the pit crew, everyone at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), the fab shop, machine shop, chassis shop.”
Nemechek added, “Everyone does so good with building our trucks and I’m just lucky enough to be behind the wheel. It’s amazing to get win number four here. I haven’t won with ROMCO Equipment on board yet in my career so finally we were able to get them a win. There’s 250 of their employees here today so huge shoutout to them as well as the fans.”
Nemechek started on the pole and was the dominant truck on the track. He led four times for a race-high 64 laps.
“I feel like we had the dominant truck kind of like we do every single week,” Nemechek said. “I’m just proud to be able to be behind the wheel and blessed to be behind the wheel. Huge shoutout to Kyle (Busch, team owner) and Jack (Irving, TRD) and Tyler (Gibbs, TRD) and David Wilson (president, TRD) and everyone at Toyota for giving me this opportunity. Without them, none of this would be possible. ROMCO Equipment on board, their first win with me so it will be cool to be able to go to victory lane with them. These fans are awesome. We have 250 ROMCO employees here as well today. We just want to keep racking them up.”
Prior to today’s race Nemechek had not netted a top-five finish. His last race here was in 2017. His best finish came in his second start at TMS (summer of 2016) where he placed seventh. His average finish between 2015 and 2017 was 15.2.
Today’s victory was Nemechek’s first at Texas and second top-10 finish in seven races here. He now holds a 78-point lead over Ben Rhodes in the championship standings.
“I hope this is only the beginning,” Nemechek said. “I hope that we have a lot more to come. I feel like we have a lot more work to do. These guys work their tails off. I know Eric (Phillips, crew chief) is one of the first guys there and last ones to leave every night. It’s awesome. Win number 41 for him. Win number 10 for me. Just have to keep it going. We’re #Here4Wins.”
