After Petree's team began to run into financial problems, Nemechek's team was left without a sponsor and he left for Haas-Carter Motorsports to take over the No. 26 Kmart-sponsored Ford Taurus that Jimmy Spencer had left to drive for Chip Ganassi Racing. However, Nemechek went from one financial problem to another as Kmart filed for bankruptcy early in the 2002 season and stopped sponsoring the Haas-Carter team. This forced Haas-Carter to scale back its operations to one team and Nemechek was released in favor of keeping Todd Bodine, who was driving the team's other car, in the fold. Nemechek found an opportunity almost immediately as Johnny Benson Jr., who was the driver of the No. 10 Valvoline-sponsored Pontiac for MBV Motorsports, was injured in a crash the previous race and required a substitute. After driving one race in Benson's car at Richmond, Nemechek was hired by Hendrick Motorsports to replace Jerry Nadeau in the No. 25 UAW/Delphi-sponsored Chevrolet. Nemechek drove the remainder of the season for Hendrick and performed well enough to earn that ride full-time the next season.