NASCAR Cup Series: Farewell, Furniture Row Racing

The 2018 Ford EcoBoost 400 will be the final NASCAR Cup Series race for Furniture Row Racing. Here is a fond farewell to the team.

Farewell, Furniture Row Racing. The team will field the #78 Toyota, driven by Martin Truex Jr., in the 2018 Ford EcoBoost 400 one final time. In that race, Truex Jr. will compete for the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Following that race, the team will shut down. Martin Truex Jr. and his crew chief Cole Pearn are set to join Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019 as members of #19 Toyota team.

Furniture Row Racing are the defending Cup Series champions. Martin Truex Jr. won the 2017 championship driving for the team.

Martin Truex Jr. has won four races this season. He won at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California and at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky.

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He clinched his Championship 4 berth with a 14th place finish in the Can-Am 500 at ISM Raceway. He has the opportunity to become the first back-to-back Cup Series champion since Jimmie Johnson won his fifth straight championship in 2010.

Allow me to highlight the history of Furniture Row Racing. The team are based out of Denver, Colorado.They are owned by Barney Visser. He also owns Furniture Row, which is why the team are named Furniture Row Racing. Thanks to NASCAR on Fox for this graphic showing the history of the team.

Two fun facts about the team are that Kenny Wallace won the fan vote to make the 2007 Cup Series All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He also raced the #87 Chevrolet in the 2008 Daytona 500. This marked the first time Furniture Row Racing fielded two entries, as Joe Nemechek also drove the #78 Chevrolet in this race.

Regan Smith won the 2011 Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. This was the first victory for Furniture Row Racing, and the victory came at the track referred to as “too tough to tame”.

Late in the 2012 season, Kurt Busch took over as the driver of #78 Chevrolet. The following season, he made the Cup Series playoffs. Furniture Row Racing became the first one-car team to make the playoffs. Busch ultimately finished in 10th place in the 2013 championship standings.

After the season, Busch left the team and Truex Jr. began to drive the #78 Chevrolet. Unfortunately, the 2014 season was a disappointment for Truex Jr. and Furniture Row Racing. Truex Jr.’s girlfriend Sherry Pollex battled cancer, causing stress for him in his personal life. On the race track, he and the team mustered a 24th place finish in the championship standings.

Furniture Row Racing bounced back in 2015. Cole Pearn took over as crew chief and Martin Truex Jr. won the June race at Pocono Raceway. As a result, he qualified for the Cup Series playoffs. He advanced all the way to the Championship 4. He finished in fourth place in the championship standings, and Furniture Row Racing held high hopes for the future.

Furniture Row Racing switched manufacturers to Toyota for the 2016 season when they formed an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing. The move paid dividends. Martin Truex Jr. won four races and made the Cup Series playoffs that season. Unfortunately, a blown engine at Talladega Superspeedway ended his championship hopes.

The 2017 season was Furniture Row Racing’s best season. The team added a second full-time entry. Erik Jones drove the #77 Toyota, and he won the Rookie of the Year Award. Of course, the highlight of the season occurred at Homestead-Miami Speedway when Truex Jr. won the race and the championship to go along with it.

This tweet perfectly describes Furniture Row Racing’s journey to success.

As Bob Pockrass writes, Barney Visser entered NASCAR and poured a lot of money into Furniture Row Racing. When the team struggled to find sponsors, he funded the car with his own company, Furniture Row. Visser took a chance on Martin Truex Jr. and the result skyrocketed the team to the top of NASCAR. The American dream of hard work pays off proved successful for the team.

Yet once 5-Hour ENERGY announced their impending departure from Furniture Row Racing earlier this season, there was a lack of funding. As a result, Furniture Row Racing are set to close.

Furniture Row Racing’s demise is devastating. For prospective Cup Series owners, this is disheartening news. Without enormous funding, a team cannot compete at a top level, and the path to success becomes increasingly difficult.

For NASCAR, there will be backlash if Martin Truex Jr. wins the championship. The championship team will not return to defend their title. In no other major sport is that notion a possibility.

Imagine if Martin Truex Jr. wins this year’s championship. He will end the history of Furniture Row Racing with the ultimate prize. To top that, what would happen if he won the championship by winning the race? That would be arguably the greatest walk-off in NASCAR history. The champion races for a team that subsequently closes their doors.

But regardless of where he finishes in the Ford EcoBoost 400, he and Furniture Row Racing excelled in NASCAR.

When Terry Labonte retired, I lacked a favorite NASCAR driver. When Martin Truex Jr. joined Furniture Row Racing and Bass Pro Shops sponsored him, I cheered for him. I own that diecast. Furniture Row Racing’s cars have always featured gorgeous paint schemes.

I enjoy seeing Martin Truex Jr. remain grateful to all who’ve helped him in his NASCAR career. I appreciate how he typically races clean. I applaud him and his team for their focus on winning the championship despite the knowledge of the team’s closure after this season. I will miss seeing the #78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota compete for wins.

Farewell, Furniture Row Racing.

Martin Truex Jr. will drive the #78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota for the final time on Sunday, November 18. That day, he is set to compete in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. There, he and the rest of the Cup Series field are set to compete in the Ford EcoBoost 400 at 2:30 p.m. ET, and coverage of the race is set to be provided by NBC.