NSCS: Cole Pearn Prepared for Crew Chief Role at Furniture Row Racing

Early in the off-season, it was announced that Cole Pearn would take over the crew chiefing duties for Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 78 Funiture Row Racing team, a position that he feels he is prepared for.

“Kind of been the last few years that I had in my mind this day would come and took the steps beforehand to be prepared when it came,” he commented. “Honestly, it’s just making the final transition. Yeah, it’s different for sure but looking forward to it.”

Like most people in the business, Pearn grew up around racing as a result of his dad racing. He got behind the wheel at a young age, racing go-karts, before moving up to race late models at Delaware Speedway.

“The reason I got an engineering degree was to be a better racer and understand the cars at a higher level,” he explained.

Pearn started at FRR about eight years ago, working his way up the ladder, eventually becoming the race engineer underneath Todd Barrier. Now, though, he makes the final step of the ladder.

“So really when it comes down it and making the transition to the crew chief role, it really comes back to everything you’ve done since you were two years old prepared for it,” he added. “I think it’s kind of a natural progression from this stand point.”

Pearn added that having a diverse background will help him be a better crew chief as he can feel the key trigger points with each individual.

“I got good confidence in our group so that will allow me to build a good connection with Martin,” he added. “I feel that we have a good platform to go from, and it’s only going to get better moving forward. You have to manage all of it, really, and each experience that you have with each individual thing is only going to make you more efficient and better at it. Looking forward to all of it, from that side of things.”

Pearn enters the team following a year that saw them struggle with Truex finishing 24th in the standings. Though that isn’t something that he’s worried about as he notes every time has their peaks and valleys, and for the most part, FRR has been strong over the years. This has been noted via Regan Smith winning at Darlington Raceway, and Kurt Busch making the Chase for the Sprint Cup a couple years ago.

“This is the first year that we’ve been on the other side of it,” Pearn commented. “But that was a good thing for us moving forward in the future because I think we’ve been able to reshape ourselves and put processes in to aim for long term stability in terms of being good in the future no matter what rule changes come about. I feel we have a good direction right now and it will provide diligence in the future.”