NSCS: Furniture Row Racing Hoping for Success in 10th NASCAR Season

10 years ago, Barney Visser made the decision to start a race team in Denver, Colorado. At the time, he was told that it wouldn’t work.

10 years later, he has proved them wrong as Furniture Row Racing has visited Sprint Cup Series victory lane and been part of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“Boy, it’s a long 10 years, but it’s been a lot of fun and rewarding,” General Manager Joe Garone commented. “We’ve had a lot of highs and a lot of lows. Whenever you’re involved in a program that you start from scratch and get to grow it, it just becomes really satisfying as you get to where we’re at right now. While we had a pretty rough year last year, I don’t think we went through what we went through last year at any point in those 10 years. Coming up into the season that we’re heading into now, we’ve made a lot of improvement and a lot of gains so we’re excited.”

As they enter the new season, the team is hoping to have success across the board to keep their partners happy, including a new partnership with Visser Precision. The specialty machine shop  that is owned by Visser has joined on a primary sponsor for a select number of events in 2015.

“They’re working with specialty materials, processes and really pushing the envelope on technology and that machining world, which is really good for us as they’re only a few blocks away from our facility,” Garone stated. “NASCAR is a really good place for them to be at right now with the technology that’s in NASCAR and the services that they can provide. It’s exciting to have them on board.”

Last season didn’t go as planned, though, as they finished 24th in points with Martin Truex Jr. behind the wheel. As a result, the team made some personnel changes, including a change a top the pit box with Cole Pearn taking over. Pearn has been with the organization for several years, working as an engineer underneath Todd Barrier.

“He’s ready to handle the reins and we’re really excited to have him in the position that he’s going to be in,” Garone commented. “We’ve worked really hard on the cars over the off-season. We finished the season on a bit of a roll. We were getting better finishes and I think the cars were making a lot more sense for Martin, so we went into the off-season feeling excited about what we have coming here in ’15.”

Despite being a single-car team, they feel the internal upgrades, as well as their alliance with Richard Childress Racing, will bring success.

“It’s been a blessing for us to be a part of that RCR program,” Competition Director Pete Rondeau commented. “We’ve been aligned with them – I think this is fourth or fifth year….sixth year – whatever it’s been. It seems like the information is a lot better now than. It’s a good flowing path right now. It’s getting better each year. Looking forward to a better relationship this year.”