Furniture Row Racing (FRR) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. The team currently fields the No. 78 Camry full-time for Martin Truex Jr.. They won their first championship in 2017 with Truex, becoming the first winner of the Cup Series under Monster Energy sponsorship.
The team is owned and sponsored by Furniture Row, a U.S. furniture store chain, and is based in Furniture Row's home city of Denver, Colorado; it is the only NASCAR team headquartered west of the Mississippi.
The team was also the first single car team ever to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which it did in 2013 with Kurt Busch and again in 2015 and 2016 with Martin Truex Jr..
Furniture Row Racing has a technical alliance with fellow Toyota team Joe Gibbs Racing; previously, from 2010 until the end of 2015, the team had an alliance with Richard Childress Racing under the Chevrolet banner.
On November 19, 2017, Martin Truex Jr. won the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship for the team at Homestead-Miami Speedway, beating out Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Kevin Harvick.
Video Furniture Row Racing
Car No. 78 history
2005-2008
The team made its NASCAR debut in the Busch Series at Nashville Superspeedway in 2005 with Jerry Robertson driving, starting 24th and finishing 33rd. Robertson ran ten races with the team in 2005, his best finish being a 22nd at California Speedway. The team made two NEXTEL Cup appearances as well, with Kenny Wallace debuting the team at Dover International Speedway, and Robertson running at Phoenix International Raceway.
Wallace was scheduled to drive the first five races in 2006 and Robertson filling out the rest of the schedule. At the 2006 Daytona 500, Wallace failed to put the No. 78 Furniture Row car in the field. Wallace qualified for the next two races, at California Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, finishing 41st and 38th. However, the performance of the team was not good enough to make the top 35 in points, and the team ran with various drivers for the rest of the year, Jimmy Spencer (both Pocono races) and Travis Kvapil (at road courses) also drove the car. The team also teamed up with PPI Motorsports to share equipment and resources throughout the season. Robertson also competed in select Busch Series events 2006, his best finish 29th.
Wallace was hired to continue to be the full-time driver in 2007. Wallace had two sixth-place starts this season but was released in August 2007. After Scott Wimmer and Sterling Marlin failed to qualify in the car in the following weeks, Joe Nemechek was named permanent driver. FRR completed a 3-year contract with Nemechek (2008-2010) towards the end of the season. Nemechek locked himself into the field with a third place qualifying run in the 2008 Daytona 500. At the spring Talladega race, Nemechek gave the team their first pole. In the fall race at that track, Nemechek gave FRR its then-best finish ever of 11th.
2009-2012
For 2009 the team announced it would cut back to a part-time schedule due to money constraints. Joe Nemechek was to remain as the driver but the team bought out the rest of his contract after he refused to run a partial schedule. Regan Smith ran 18 races in the No. 78 car in 2009.
The team resumed full-time duties in 2010. The team aligned with Richard Childress Racing and earned Top 35 status for the first five races of 2010 by purchasing the owner points from RCR's No. 07 car. Childress was listed as the official owner of the No. 78.
On November 15, 2010, the Furniture Row Racing transporter and motorcoach were destroyed in an accident on Interstate 25 about forty miles from the team's Denver headquarters. Richard Childress Racing provided the team a fully equipped transporter for Furniture Row's use at Homestead.
At the 2011 Daytona 500, Smith gave Furniture Row its first top ten, with a seventh-place finish. On May 7, 2011, Smith gave Furniture Row its first top five finish, and first victory, at Darlington Raceway in the Southern 500, holding off Carl Edwards. In 2012, the team struggled mightily, and Pete Rondeau was replaced as crew chief by former RCR crew chief Todd Berrier before Indy. The addition of Berrier resulted in the first back to back top-10 finishes (both 9th places) for FRR and Smith.
2013
Despite Berrier bringing Smith two top ten finishes and one top-five finish, manager Joe Garone announced that Smith would be replaced by Kurt Busch beginning at the 2012 Bank of America 500 at Charlotte.
In the 2013 season, Busch improved the status of Furniture Row as a team, with the car becoming more competitive and running in contention more frequently than not. In the first 26 races, Busch recorded 8 top five and 13 top ten finishes, and one pole position (at Darlington in May). These were statistics easily comparable to drivers who were running with the powerhouse teams. The team also had low points, such as a scary wreck in the May race at Talladega that saw Busch flip over and land on top of Ryan Newman in turn 3 with six laps to go. A number of poor finishes, and errors like crashes at New Hampshire and Martinsville, plus a dead battery while leading under a red flag at the Coca-Cola 600, kept the team hovering on the Chase bubble. A streak of top ten finishes by Busch in August, combined with a second-place finish at Richmond, secured the team a Chase berth entry. This marked Busch's eighth season making the Chase. This also made Furniture Row Racing the first ever single car team to race into the Chase.
The car was sponsored by Furniture Row for most of the season, except at Talladega that October, when the car was sponsored by Wonder Bread, in tribute to Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. This is the second time Busch has driven a car with a Talladega Nights-based paint job at Talladega, with the other time being a car based on the "ME" paint job in May 2012 during his tenure with Phoenix Racing.
2014
In August 2013, it was announced that Busch would not be returning to FRR for 2014, as he had signed with Gene Haas to drive with Stewart-Haas Racing starting at the 2014 Daytona 500. The team also announced that they had extended their alliance with RCR. For close to two months, speculation over who would replace Busch at Furniture Row had suggested Juan Pablo Montoya to be the most likely candidate, as Montoya is being replaced in the No. 42 at Chip Ganassi Racing by Kyle Larson, with other potential candidates being Jeff Burton and Bobby Labonte. However, Montoya eventually announced that he would join Team Penske in the IndyCar Series. In early October, after Michael Waltrip Racing announced that their No. 56 team was being cut to a part-time team due to the loss of NAPA Auto Parts as a sponsor in the fallout from the Spingate scandal at Richmond, it was reported that Furniture Row was in talks with Martin Truex Jr. to potentially sign him on.
Prior to the November race at Texas, it was announced and confirmed that Truex had signed a multiyear deal to drive for FRR beginning at the 2014 Daytona 500. The announcement also added that FRR had hired all of the crewmen from Truex's MWR team as well, making for a smoother transition, as Busch had lost several shots at winning races simply because of slow pit stops that plagued the team throughout the season.
Truex had a bad year in 2014, scoring only 5 top tens, leading only 1 lap and finished 24th in the standings. To add insult to injury, Truex's girlfriend Sherry Pollex was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Following that year where Truex failed to gel as much as everybody hoped, the team released crew chief Todd Berrier from duty and hired rookie crew chief Cole Pearn.
2015
Truex's performance dramatically improved during the 2015 season, largely due to the new driver-crew chief relationship between Truex and Cole Pearn. During the Daytona 500, Truex led one lap and finished 8th. Truex earned nine top tens throughout the first 10 races, finishing second at Las Vegas. He led the most laps at Kansas and appeared on his way to a win, when a poor pit stop shuffled him to a ninth-place finish. After leading the most laps for four-consecutive races, Truex and Furniture Row finally broke into victory lane, finishing winning the Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 at Pocono Raceway in June getting Furniture Row Racing its 1st Sprint Cup victory since the Southern 500 in 2011 and breaking a 69 race winless streak for Truex. The win locked Truex and the team into the Chase for the Sprint Cup for 2015 and put him second in the standings. The next week, Truex would finish 3rd in a rain shortened race at Michigan International Speedway becoming the first driver since Richard Petty in 1969 to score 14 top 10s in the first 15 races of the season. Truex would not visit victory lane for the rest of the year but did score a total of 22 top 10s, including 8 top 5s, and finished 4th in the championship standings after racing his way to the championship 4 at Homestead.
2016
On September 27, 2015, it was confirmed that Truex had re-signed with Furniture Row for 2016 and beyond. The team also announced a switch to Toyota in 2016, receiving a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing and engines from Toyota Racing Development. Truex would win his second race with Furniture Row on May 29, 2016 after leading a record breaking 392 of 400 laps of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Truex was able to score his first multi-win season as he won the Southern 500 at Darlington and then scored off a victory at Chicagoland passing leader Ryan Blaney with 4 laps to go. Truex scored his fourth win of the season two races later at Dover, However, for the 78, the car lost the engine at Talladega, cutting the car from the chase.
2017
With 2 laps to go at the Daytona 500, Truex led, but Kyle Larson would pass him in the 2nd turn and Truex ended up finishing 13th. At Las Vegas Motor Speedway Truex would lead the most laps (150) and become the first NASCAR driver to win all 3 stages, Truex and Brad Keselowski would battle for the win late and with 2 to go Keselowski would start to have engine troubles and Truex would go on to get his first victory of the season. At Kansas, Truex would battle with Ryan Blaney all night and would lead the most laps with 104 and beating out Blaney. In the Coca-Cola 600, Truex dominated, leading 273 laps while Jones had a career best finish in 7th place, but Austin Dillon would go onto win the race. Truex dominated again at Kentucky winning all 3 stages and leading the most laps and battling Kyle Busch on several restarts throughout the race for the win.
At the 2017 Brickyard 400, Martin Truex Jr. was battling Kyle Busch for the lead late in the race, but accidentally wrecked Busch, taking both himself and Busch out of the race and foiling Kyle Busch from being the first driver in the history of the speedway to three-peat. The wreck caused a lot of controversy in the Toyota operation. Following the incident, Furniture Row Racing & Joe Gibbs Racing, suspended three #78 crew members for confronting their Toyota teammate's crew chief Adam Stevens.
Following all of their success throughout the playoffs and regular season, they won the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Homestead Miami Speedway by winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 after leading a fitting 78 laps.
Car No. 78 results
Maps Furniture Row Racing
Car No. 77 history
2008
The No. 77 car began as the No. 87 car driven by Kenny Wallace for the 2008 Daytona 500. In early 2008, Wallace returned to Furniture Row to drive in the Daytona 500 in a car that was supposed to serve as a safety net for Nemechek in case his team didn't make the field. Instead, Nemechek locked himself into the field with a third place qualifying run, and Wallace secured a spot in the race in the Gatorade Duels.
2017
On August 7, 2016, Furniture Row Racing announced that Erik Jones would compete full time in the Cup Series with backing from 5 Hour Energy. It marked the return of the No. 77 for the first time since Charlotte fall in 2014, then operated by Randy Humphrey Racing. In December 2016, Furniture Row Racing purchased the charter of the No. 98 Chevrolet owned by Jay Robinson, and used the charter for the No. 77, guaranteeing the No. 77 a spot in every race of the 2017 season. Jones was on loan from Joe Gibbs Racing. In the Coca-Cola 600, Jones had a career best finish in 7th place, but Austin Dillon would go onto win the race. At Pocono Jones improved his best career finish and collected his first top 5 finish by finishing 3rd. At Kentucky, Jones took a 6th place finish for his fifth top ten of the season. On July 11th, it was announced that Jones would leave the team after the 2017 season for his long anticipated move to the JGR No. 20 car in 2018, but 5 Hour Energy will have to stay with the team due to the viceroy rule and Monster Energy being the series sponsor.
Following Jones' announced departure, Furniture Row Racing sold their No. 77 charter to a yet-to-be-named team and announced that they would indefinitely close the No. 77 team at the end of the season.
Car No. 77 results
Wins
Monster Energy Cup Series
References
External links
- Furniture Row Racing
- Official Furniture Row site
- Furniture Row Racing owner statistics at Racing-Reference
Source of article : Wikipedia
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