Nemechek, Furniture Row agree to contract buyout

DENVER -- On the heels of Furniture Row Racing announcing plans for a limited 2009 Sprint Cup Series schedule, the team announced Friday a contract buyout of its driver Joe Nemechek.

"Just like the reduced schedule announcement, this buyout of Joe's contract has nothing to do with his on-track performance," said team president Joe Garone. "But our contract with Joe for 2009 was for a full schedule and we're not able to fulfill that part of the deal."

Scaling back

Furniture Row Racing announced last week that it will run a limited schedule in 2009 due to limited resources.

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In only its third year as a Sprint Cup Series team, Furniture Row Racing is coming off its best year, qualifying for 32 out of 36 races and earning the team's first pole position at Talladega Superspeedway in the spring along with a pair of top-20 finishes. Nemechek was 18th in the summer race at Daytona and finished 11th in the fall Talladega race.

Qualifying was critical for the team this season, and Nemechek's knack for getting a good starting position helped set the table for the solid season. Nemechek's specialty was the superspeedways. In addition to his pole at Talladega, he started seventh there in the fall race. And at Daytona, he qualified the car fourth for the mid-summer classic.

Perhaps just as critical was Nemechek's ability to bring the car home in one piece during 2008. He was running at the finish in 26 of his 32 races.

"Joe has been a great leader, mentor and driver for Furniture Row Racing," Garone said. "This move is doing what is best for both Joe and our team. It doesn't require us to have him drive for Furniture Row in 2009, but it doesn't restrict him from doing what he loves -- and that's racing at the highest level every week of the season."

As announced before, Furniture Row Companies -- the team owner, primary sponsor and one the nation's largest furniture retailers -- is a privately-held entity and does not make its sales figures public. But the company is looking at retail sales trends and is tightening all expenses as a result.