NASCAR: Furniture Row Racing strike down closing rumors for 2019

Furniture Row Racing have denied the rumors that the team may be shutting down ahead of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season.

As a result of the fact that 5-hour ENERGY announced that they will be leaving Furniture Row Racing and NASCAR as a whole as a sponsor before the 2019 Cup Series season begins, rumors began to swirl that Furniture Row Racing may not return to the Cup Series next year.

However, Barney Visser, the owner of Furniture Row Racing, shot down those rumors and made clear that the team not fielding at least one full-time car in the 2019 Cup Series season is not an option even though they are losing the $10 million sponsor.

Here is what Visser had to say about the matter, according to NBC Sports.

"“Furniture Row Racing continues to develop sponsorship opportunities for 2019 and beyond. We have aligned ourselves with great partners over the years and are very proud of the success our organization has achieved, especially the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series championship with Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing not fielding a team in 2019 is not an option and we have every intention of continuing to build on our success for years to come.”"

Furniture Row Racing still have Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats and Auto-Owners Insurance as co-primary sponsors. In fact. before Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats and Auto-Owners Insurance joined the team as sponsors in the 2016 season, Visser’s own Furniture Row was the team’s lone primary sponsor, so it is not surprising that the 69-year-old does not see a way by which the team will not compete in the Cup Series next year.

Furniture Row Racing entered the Cup Series in the 2005 season with one part-time car, and they have competed with at least one full-time car in every season since then except for the 2009 season when they fielded one part-time car.

There have been seasons during which Furniture Row Racing’s one full-time car was driven by multiple drivers, but in each of the last six and eight of the last nine seasons, they have competed with one full-time driver driving their one full-time car.

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Last season, Furniture Row Racing even operated as a two-car full-time team for the first time in their existence, and they ended up winning their first career championship. Martin Truex Jr. won the title after winning eight races of the season, including the season finale, in his #78 Toyota.

Throughout their time in the Cup Series, Furniture Row Racing have earned 18 victories. Of those 18 victories, 17 have been earned by Truex Jr. since the start of the 2015 season. Four of his 17 victories driving for the team have been earned through the first 22 races of the 2018 season. The team’s only other victory so far was earned by Regan Smith at Darlington Raceway back in the 2011 season.

Will Furniture Row Racing be back in the NASCAR Cup Series in the 2019 season? According to Barney Visser, not returning is simply not an option even with the loss of 5-hour ENERGY as a sponsor.