MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Five races into the Cup Series season, Front Row Motorsports is acting like the perfect lower middle class family who moves into a rich neighborhood -- they're fitting in and they're thriving.

And after five races, which could be considered a year in a normal life, there are "no cars on blocks in Front Row's yard" -- just three Ford Fusions that were locked into the starting lineup at Martinsville Speedway for Sunday's Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 as a result of being in the top 35 in the 2010 owners' points.

“

We've still got a lot of growth to do. We don't have a big fleet of cars -- we each got three or four cars, so we kinda gotta take care of our stuff and work really hard together.

”

-- TRAVIS KVAPIL

The result was a lot of smiling faces in the hauler of the organization's most veteran team, its No. 34 squad for driver Travis Kvapil, on a sodden Friday afternoon when Martinsville qualifying was rained-out.

And it was especially so for team owner Bob Jenkins, who hadn't planned to travel to Martinsville until Sunday, when a forecast of rain is threatening the early afternoon race start.

"We're getting all three teams to work together as one," Jenkins said. "That's what we continue to work on and we're getting there."

But truth be told, the facts entering this weekend were far from the expectation of many garage observers -- and even some of Front Row's management.

When the team's entries were filed for Martinsville, which occurred before last weekend's race at Bristol, the team entered veteran driver David Gilliland in the No. 37 usually driven by rookie of the year candidate Kevin Conway.

At that time, Conway's car was lowest of the three in this year's owners' points, which after Bristol would be used to set the locked-in top 35. But after a workmanlike 28th place at Bristol, the 37 was 35th, Travis Kvapil's No. 34 was 34th and Gilliland's usual No. 38 was 32nd.

Whatever happens Sunday, Jenkins and his hierarchy are pleased.

"We have expectations for David and Travis and their teams -- we want to see those guys in the top 25," Jenkins said. "Kevin and his team are improving, too -- they've been inside the top 35. We're moving in the right direction.

"We know our goals and expectations. Ford is a big part of helping us and their help has been great. We're moving in the right direction, but still have room to improve."

Everyone on Jenkins' team agrees, and they have a good handle on the reality of what they've achieved, and where they are.

"I feel like the No. 34 and the No. 38 have teams and equipment good enough to be top-25 cars, week-in and week-out," Kvapil said. "It's just minimizing mistakes. We've still got a lot of growth to do. We don't have a big fleet of cars -- we each got three or four cars, so we kinda gotta take care of our stuff and work really hard together.

"And I think we're all pleased with the progress Kevin has made, too. He knows, with his experience and with where we're at, he just kind of needs to finish laps and take home a 30th-place finish if that's what he's got facing him. And he's done good, bringing 'em home and not tearing stuff up.

"So I'm pleased with all the progress we've made in the first five races, but I think David and I need to up our performance and not worry about staying in the top 35 as much as getting some good, solid finishes."

"It really does feel good, for sure," team general manager Jerry Freeze said. "Because when we bit off this third team, for this year we really had to upgrade the shop, the inventory and the assets -- not just to accommodate the second [full-time] team, but also a third team as well, because the third team really had no assets whatever."

Freeze said the organization's second car a year ago, which actually made 13 races while not attempting a full schedule, was a "start and park" effort fielded by "five guys just getting a car ready and taking their best crack at qualifying.

"So January was a very busy month, trying to get the assets acquired, people hired -- the whole nine yards -- so it's been kind of funny that that's been the best performing car, the David Gilliland [38] team.

"But we've been real, real pleased with the way all three cars have run -- even Kevin, because I didn't know what to expect with Kevin."

Freeze said the team met Conway, who has major sponsorship from ExtenZe, at Homestead last November and that he knew only that Conway had 25 career starts in the Nationwide series, with only one Cup Series attempt, unsuccessfully, at Phoenix last fall.

"I didn't know what we were getting ourselves into," Freeze said, "but the guy's finished the distance at all the races he's been in, he's only been in one minor caution flag incident, which was a spin at Vegas. He's doing exactly what we want him to do, which is run laps, get experience and just build his notebook, to get better for next time.

"So it really has been a great feeling. The No. 38 -- which is the No. 37 here -- really has exceeded expectations. We've stumbled a little with the No. 34, because we felt like that was our experienced team with a veteran driver -- but we've had some issues with broken parts, a valve spring at California and a broken header at Vegas.

"We just missed it at Atlanta [but] we ran decent at Bristol. Once we get to the core of the racing the No. 34 will stabilize and rise up in the points."

The situation reprises 2008 for Kvapil and Gilliland, who were over-achieving teammates at a lightly-funded Yates Racing team, where they both finished in the mid-20s in driver points. Kvapil said there were some similarities to the two situations -- but one major difference.

"The biggest difference was we had Roush Fenway as a kind of a big brother, where we could always lean on them for the technical support," Kvapil said. "A lot of our setup information definitely came from them and any of the changes that were implemented on the Roush cars got implemented in ours.

"Here, we're trying to find it on our own, definitely between our own three teams. We don't have a larger team to lean on for some help -- but what's cool is Ford has stepped-in this year and helped us out.

"This team had never been to the wind tunnel or the seven-post machine until just the last couple months. With [Ford's] help we're able to do that now. It's going to take a little time for us to build our notebook and have a better understanding of what our equipment is -- but without Ford we wouldn't be able to do that. We'd still be where this team was a year ago, with little or no development.

"So probably the biggest thing is we're trying to find our setups and tune our cars pretty much on our own without having a big affiliation to lean on."

Finding a better way has Freeze upbeat.

"We've really got a lot higher expectations for Travis and David, than just making the top 35," Freeze said. "We think those cars are going to be [in the top 25] with the level of their ability, and the motor program -- the package we've got -- but for Kevin, the top 35 is definitely the goal for him, and the rookie of the year [award] so we're definitely off to a good start with that."