RELATED: New manufacturer for Furniture Row
As significant as Sunday's announcement that Furniture Row Racing would be fielding Toyota Camrys in 2016 was the fact the single-car Denver-based team would also be entering a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing – a relationship the likes of which JGR hasn't had since working with the Hall of Fame Racing team, a team which closed shop in 2009.
And everyone involved – from FRR driver Martin Truex Jr. to JGR founder Joe Gibbs – is hopeful this new partnership will be a game changer for both organizations and the manufacturer, which is still pursuing its first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.
"It's time for me to take my career to the next level and being able to use the tools and have the communication from JGR, which I feel like can take us to the next level, I know the guys are super excited about this,'' Truex said this weekend after the team's official announcement at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
This is a return to Toyota for Truex, who drove them while competing for Michael Waltrip Racing from 2010-13. But, he said, he expects the technical support and communication between FRR and JGR to be more substantive than with the Waltrip team, noting his experience at MWR was that the teams did not work together on a major level.
"When we were at MWR, we really didn't do much at all with JGR," Truex said. "So hopefully Toyota and TRD [Toyota Racing Development] helps knock that wall down and get that relationship similar to what we have with [Chevrolets] RCR this year. It was an open book.
"We need to figure out how to make it work with them. I know they want it to work, and we need to make sure we make that happen."
Team owner and namesake Joe Gibbs indicated this weekend he was excited about entering into a technical alliance, noting the compatibility, common goals and potential of the two organizations.
"I think it will strengthen Toyota, it brings another high quality car and a driver that's had a heckuva year and a quality crew chief,'' Gibbs said. "We're still working through all the different ways we can work together. For us, it's pretty much, we won't have to change much at all.
"We're still working through all the things we want to work together on. Some things we'll work together on and some will stand apart but in general we want to strengthen the Toyota family."
Gibbs added he genuinely believed it would be a two-way street, that he expects his four-car team – including current championship-leading driver Matt Kenseth – to benefit as well.
"What they bring is another crew chief [Cole Pearn] to help solve problems and he's obviously very good and then you've got a driver like Martin that's performing extremely well,'' Gibbs said. "Any time you get that, like in our situation, for example, having four cars. That fourth car is the one running the best right now. It's an example of working together and so by adding Martin and Cole it will strengthen us, too."
Forming a bond between teams is a major trend in the industry now. As Truex said, FRR is currently in a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing and among the two Chevy teams have three cars in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – including Truex.
"I think it was more about strengthening Toyota, and that had a big influence on us,'' Gibbs said. "We want to do everything we can to help them. And selfishly looking at it, the fact other people have already done this. Almost all the other teams we compete against in this sport are part of some kind of alliance and you're aware of it. That's part of our decision, too.
"I think [Furniture Row owner] Barney [Visser] and his team, they've been in this for 11 years and pretty solid. We're real comfortable working together and whatever we decide to share – that will be down the road – we realize in this sport, what we're doing most of the other teams have done before.
"It's not like we're pioneers. Everyone else has already been doing this. This is just our first serious step at trying to do it."