Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: An inside look at Furniture Row’s rise

Editor’s note: This story was published in September 2016.

DENVER — Establishing a major NASCAR team in Denver — far from the massive Southeastern hub of the sport’s longtime passionate fandom — may have seemed an incredible challenge. But it has turned out to be a welcome awakening.

As Denver’s own Furniture Row Racing team continues to succeed on the track and exceed expectations as championship-caliber organization, its hometown couldn’t be more supportive.

Team owner Barney Visser lunches with the mayor, Denver’s television news anchors are practically on a first-name basis with the entire team and even the city’s reigning Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos recognize there’s plenty of room for sports excellence in these parts.

The only playoff team located outside NASCAR’s Carolina-Virginia hub had to work as hard for its respect as it did for its success. But now this entire region of the country considers Furniture Row Racing its very own.

“I really feel like Denver and Colorado are sports-oriented, very outdoorsy minded people,” explained Adele Arakawa, the hugely popular news anchor of Denver’s NBC television affiliate and an amateur sports car racer who has attended multiple NASCAR races to film stories on the FRR team for her viewers.

“Whenever you have a team that’s having success like Furniture Row, there are a lot of people who are willing to learn about the sport and embrace, especially a team they see as the underdog.

“Here, especially so. They like to pull for a team that may not be the favorite. They know what it was like when the Broncos first started out and (baseball’s Colorado) Rockies first started out. They want to support a team that appreciates their support.”

And so the community has found its high-speed soul mate. The team has found its support and patronage.

Furniture Row Racing and its star driver Martin Truex Jr. have not only won over even NASCAR’s most hardcore longtime fans with their success, they also have converted a major area of the country into diehard race fans and earned the distinction of Denver’s “hometown favorites.”

In a sport where the majority of teams hail from one region in the Southeast, Furniture Row Racing has been the kind of westward expansion that’s earned new hearts and broadened the sport’s reach.

While the team has been building its base in Denver for a decade, its current driver certainly has made the organization an easy option for local fans. That’s especially true this season as the team has celebrated a coming of age.

Truex dominated NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 in May, just collected a win in the historic Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend. AND — all capital letters here — Truex came a split-second short of bringing a Daytona 500 trophy back to Denver in the famous season-opener. His runner-up finish to Denny Hamlin by 0.010 seconds marked the closest margin of victory in the history of the sport’s most celebrated race.

Visser was born, raised and for decades has thrived as a businessman in Denver. He has seven children (one has passed away) and seven grandchildren, and they are all here, too. Always, he has been firm that this locale was the only option where his team would operate, no matter the challenges.

“Our business is based here,” Visser explained. “I wouldn’t even think about doing it out East in North Carolina. Yes, there are transportation logistics and occasionally hiring is a little more difficult, but we don’t have to hire nearly as often because the guys just don’t want to leave. We try to provide a real good work atmosphere.

“No jerks,” he said smiling and explaining his team philosophy. “And it’s worked out very well for us.”

Arakawa smiles broadly when she thinks of what this team has meant to the area. She frequently stops by the shop on Denver’s industrial West side just to catch up over a cup of coffee and share the vibe.

“I like to go visit the shop just to breathe in the rubber and the oil,” she joked. “It’s David and Goliath in the sport, but with their kind of attitude, that’s why people even outside Colorado pull for this team. You see it everywhere.

“That pioneering spirit is what Barney embodies. And that’s a testament to anyone who has been a trailblazer. That is a cliché, but I don’t think he’d mind. He did it because of his passion to be here. And then, look at the opportunities he has given this state. Look at what he’s accomplished.”

The former mayor of nearby Englewood, Colorado, Randy Penn, lunches with Visser at least once a month. One cannot mistake the enthusiasm in his voice as he proudly talks about the Furniture Row team.

“It’s a city that, no matter what, supports winners,” said Penn, who is now the executive director of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. “I walk into a room of important business people and they’re talking about an article in the newspaper about the team and say, ‘Did you know we’re NASCAR fans too?’ And they start telling me about visiting other tracks.

“For us to have this team here is just a great privilege and for the Denver metro area, it’s another awakening.”

The support extends to the area’s hometown NFL favorite Denver Broncos, where safety TJ Ward — who happens to wear Richard Petty’s iconic No. 43 on his jersey — can be counted as a big fan of the city’s race team.

Furniture Row invited Ward to visit during the race at Auto Club Speedway earlier this year. He hung out with the team in the garage, in the pits and took a pace car ride at speed.

“First of all, it’s louder than any football game,” a smiling Ward said, recalling his time at the race track. “And I think it’s great as much as Denver is expanding to have another sport based here. And the more people learn about NASCAR, the more interest there is.”

For Furniture Row, the feeling of adoration is mutual. The team flies the Colorado state flag on its pit box every race. And as the 10-race postseason begins, this team will benefit not only from the goodwill of most fans, but the rabid support of an entire region that now considers the team their own.

“There’s a certain pride that’s there absolutely,” said Furniture Row Racing General Manager Joe Garone, who is a Colorado native. “We’re an oddity, we know, so a lot of times when you do run into a race fan, it’s the first thing they say, ‘Oh you’re the guys from Colorado. I can’t believe you’re able to do this.’ And it’s great.

“That makes a lot of the guys working so hard to get it done feel a sense a pride. That’s a sense of pride another team that’s working in North Carolina won’t get. It’s like the Wood Brothers who work out of Stuart, Virginia. They’re running their team all these years up there, outside of that bubble.

“But this is that on steroids.”

And it’s well-appreciated.

“I won’t even tell you who I was rooting for until Barney started this team,” Penn said with a laugh. “But I can tell you that’s the only car I root for now. All of a sudden you have this connection, and there’s nobody else we root for more.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Denver offers warm embrace

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Sept. 12, 2016.

DENVER — NASCAR’s most unique race shop sits across from a fabric-manufacturing warehouse on Denver’s industrial northeast side. Colorado’s “Favorite Meat Store” is down the street. Dull gray concrete walls dominate the addresses here.

The noisy and steady sounds of the nearby Interstate 70 freeway are interrupted at regular intervals by the heavy clunking and loud train whistles coming from the neighboring railroad tracks.

The street front of Furniture Row Racing’s shop blends in completely with the industrial look of its neighboring businesses. There are no signs to identify the gray building or to offer even a single clue of what lies behind the sturdy, always-locked front doors. Team members have parked their pick-up trucks in a small lot alongside the shop and many more line the street out front.

This is NASCAR’s version of Oz.

And it’s been quite the yellow-brick road.

“This building has been a lot of different things,” Furniture Row Racing team owner Barney Visser said, allowing a slight smile. “It was a warehouse for our company, then a waterbed factory, then an oak furniture factory then an upholstery plant.

“But we wanted to make sure the inside is real nice for the race team.”

And sure enough, behind the concrete facade and nondescript front doors of the building, is a comfortable home base to a busy, well-equipped, highly motivated NASCAR race shop — an inspired group of people who spend their Rocky Mountain days on East Coast time preparing the No. 78 Toyotas for driver Martin Truex Jr.’s path into the postseason.

No team based west of the Mississippi River has ever won NASCAR’s most celebrated trophy. And in fact, until Furniture Row Racing’s championship bid, no one had even considered it a realistic possibility.

It may be far removed from NASCAR’s traditional Carolina hallowed ground, but as Visser’s Denver-based team and two-time 2016 winner Truex have proven, this group is primed, ready and willing to expand conventional wisdom.

There is great pride for the team members and this community knowing that this company is doing things its own way and literally changing the landscape of the sport.

The team’s General Manager Joe Garone — a Colorado native — quickly discovered the team’s “way” absolutely meant operating out of Denver, not opening up another shop in NASCAR’s Southeastern backyard.

“In my mind when Barney said we’re going to race in Cup, I was like ‘OK, we’ll find a shop in Charlotte, we’ll get this thing going, not a problem,’ ” Garone recalled of his initial meetings with Visser.

“And Barney said immediately, ‘No Joe, not in Charlotte, in Denver.’ ”

“It’s what we need,” Garone said, looking around the facility with pride. “It’s more than what we need. It may not be a Taj Majal, but it’s all about building race cars that go fast.”

***** ***** *****

The 2016 Coca-Cola 600 win was one of the most dominant showings in NASCAR history.

It sounds like such a simple concept. And for this team, it’s been the overriding premise. Speed and skill trumps dash and flash.

And who could argue with three playoff berths in the last four seasons?

Furniture Row Racing is doing things its own way — part of the conventional wisdom that makes it one of NASCAR’s most celebrated story lines.

Team members here work on East Coast time so as to be in sync with the rest of their competition. That means an early wake-up call to arrive at the 35,000-square foot building long before sunrise lights up even the tips of the Rocky Mountains in the distance.

Inside the shop, flags from each of the U.S. Armed Forces branches hang prominently from the ceiling, an always-present reminder of hard work and sacrifice and also a nod to Visser, who is a proud Vietnam War veteran.

And although the Furniture Row Racing shop is filled with the most modern machinery and tools, it definitely feels a bit more like a “throwback” version of NASCAR’s early days.

It is a far cry from the Charlotte-area tour train of massive new complexes that feature gigantic race shops and flashy souvenir stores.

The small Furniture Row lobby — just inside those locked front doors — is crowded with significant team memorabilia. It includes — among other things — a framed No. 78 Denver Broncos jersey on the wall, used race-winning tires on the floor and the trophy from the team’s first victory, the historic five-foot-plus tall Southern 500 hardware won by Regan Smith at Darlington Raceway in 2011.

Smith and his wife Megan still have the home they bought outside Denver, where he spent four years (2009-2012) helping place FRR on the NASCAR map.

… And NASCAR on the Denver map.

“The interaction was great for the community,” Smith fondly recalled. “You’d watch the news at night and there would be Furniture Row Racing and then there’d be the rest of the NASCAR race. They’d have Furniture Row updates and then NASCAR updates. From a community standpoint, they really adopted the team as essentially their own franchise.”

A native New Yorker, Smith said he and his family loved living in the Denver area, “30 minutes from the city and 45 minutes from the ski slopes.”

“We don’t spend as much time there as we’d like, but we still envision that being our home again one day down the road,” Smith said. “When someone decides to move out there and move their family out there, there is a different level of commitment made, whether crew chief, mechanic or marketing person.

Furniture Row Racing operates on East Coast time, so as not to lose a step to its competitors. Past drivers and former crew members have all fallen in love with Denver.

“It’s a big decision to up and move there. Drivers can kind of live where they want, but for shop guys you aren’t going to push your toolbox down the road and start working somewhere else. A lot of people have moved out there and stayed even if not with the team anymore. It speaks volumes to that area and the city as a whole.”

It has admittedly been a draw for much of the FRR team, several of whom readily moved their families westward beyond the comfy, familiar stock-car scene. And several here say they plan to stay in Colorado, no matter what their NASCAR career may bring.

“I’d have never thought of moving here, I’d never been here before, never even been to Colorado,” said Chris “Cowboy” Moyher, who works on the cars’ rear suspensions.

“About five minutes off the plane, I decided I was going to stay here. They asked me if I wanted to work here, so I went back to Charlotte and took two weeks and then came out here. I’ve been here for six years.

“I feel more comfortable here than any place I’ve ever lived.”

***** ***** *****

Veteran driver Kenny Wallace gets it. The first racer ever asked to drive a Furniture Row car full time in the premier series, he can hardly believe how far this team has come. He qualified the team for 17 Cup races in 2006, failing to make another 14 but also leading the team’s first ever lap — at Indianapolis. He raced for the team again in 2007, making 15 races and leading laps at Talladega and Daytona.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Wallace said of the initial talks with Visser and Garone about him steering the No. 78.

And Wallace couldn’t be more proud of where the team sits today.

“It pleasantly shocks me; it doesn’t surprise me; it shocks me,” Wallace said, his voice full of emotion. “We went through brutal times to get that team up and going.

“Barney Visser doesn’t speak much. But that was the first thing he said to me before we got going, they made it clear they were staying in Denver. There’s a pride factor going on here. They’re trying to prove something. They made it clear, they are going to do it even if it costs more per year. I respect them for it.

“As smart as Barney is, this was one thing Barney was going to do his way.”

As unlikely the path, the team has proven Visser correct in his steadfast desire to operate far from NASCAR’s traditional homeland.

And while this is a feel-good story all around, the ultimate happy ending isn’t written quite yet. The team’s hope is that comes in November after the regular-season finale in Homestead.

“Basically, we are showing other people, it can be done without all the glitter,” said the team’s Director of Competition Pete Rondeau. “It’s a good solid group of guys, a few old-timers and some young guys. We keep building and building.”

Certainly part of Visser’s initial desire to keep this team in his hometown was a matter of convenience and perhaps a source of pride. And what he has created is a unique contribution to NASCAR, something the sport celebrates, too.

This is new frontier for both the race team and NASCAR.

“Ultimately a big reason why I wanted to work here, is because it’s here, out West,” said crew chief Cole Pearn, a Canada native.

“It’s a good place to live, it’s nice being away from everything and we have a really tight-knit group that is a product of that. It’s just really enjoyable to ‘get away from it’ every week. You stay more focused on the task to some degree, you’re not caught up in as many distractions as you might when you’re surrounded by all the hype (in Charlotte).

“It’s nice, quieter, and we’ve got a really tight-knit group which I think is a product of being out here on our own.”

***** ***** *****

Ultimately the product is one of NASCAR’s most successful teams, which claimed a historic Southern 500 victory on Labor Day and raised domination standards after a jaw-dropping win in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May.

Truex came up a record 0.010 seconds short — basically a hand-width shy — of winning the season-opening Daytona 500, too, the team leaving its mark on three of NASCAR’s biggest races.

All of Visser’s big dreams, Garone’s careful planning, the team’s unconventional work schedule and Truex’s inspired driving has resulted in one of the best stories in NASCAR.

And the team is likely going to have to make some more room for spectacular winning hardware in the small entryway.

“I don’t think I ever tried to convince Barney to do things differently,” Garone said. “It wasn’t an option. It was clear. Barney lives here and he wanted to be a part of the team. He’s not an owner that’s removed from it. He’s a gearhead. He’s involved in it. He likes the people part, the competitive part.

“And our sponsors until recently were 100 percent his companies. And as we’ve had success the company overall has gotten more involved and taken ownership of ‘its car’ out on the track. It’s been a really fun growth.”

“But,” Garone stressed, “You have to earn it out there. You have to perform. If you don’t perform, people don’t watch. We learned once you start having good performance you could go in the local Starbucks with a Furniture Row shirt on and every time you go in, somebody talks to you. And then it’s just grown. Go to a restaurant for lunch, and people ask, ‘Are you with the race team?’

“Denver is a huge sports town with a lot of fans passionate about all the sports. But you have to really earn your place.”

It would seem that work is clearly done.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Tifft undergoes surgery to remove brain tumor

After recovering from brain surgery and months of missed on-track action, Matt Tifft has been cleared by NASCAR to return to competition, a NASCAR spokesperson confirmed Monday afternoon. Tifft later confirmed the news and his actual on-track return on Twitter for this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series American Ethanol e15 225 (Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The 20-year-old wheelman underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor in July and has since been recovering.


Tifft made six NASCAR XFINITY Series starts this season with two top-10 finishes. He also earned the 21 Means 21 Pole Award at Talladega. The NASCAR Next product also made three Camping World Truck Series starts this season with one top-five finish. 


Last week, Tifft posted photos of himself in the cockpit of a late model at Hickory Motor Speedway. 

RELATED: Tifft logs first laps since surgery

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Watch the live stream here | Richmond results | Standings 


NASCAR.com will live stream post-race inspection Tuesday from 8-11:30 a.m. ET at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.


Tune in for a three-hour view of the inspection floor of the 61,000-square-foot shop, bringing you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials tear down and inspect Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.


The cars selected for further evaluation at the R&D Center this week are:


— The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of race winner Denny Hamlin
— The No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet of runner-up Kyle Larson
— The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of sixth-place finisher Kasey Kahne
— The No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of 23rd-place finisher Greg Biffle

For more details about the inspection process, click here.

Posted on by Nascar

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author.

 

RICHMOND, Va. — It began as a Toyota blowout and ended in pretty much the same fashion.

 

Not that there weren’t some bumps in the road — or in this case, Richmond International Raceway — along the way. But they were few and far between.

 

Denny Hamlin, the winner when the season began back in February in Daytona, closed the door on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular season with a victory in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400.

 

It was Hamlin’s third win of the season, the 11th for the Joe Gibbs Racing organization and the 13th for Toyota.

 

No need to pencil the Joe Gibbs gang in as favorites in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup. Write it in ink.

 

Joe Gibbs Racing. Chase favorites.

 

Doesn’t mean a JGR driver, or even a Toyota team — let’s not overlook Martin Truex Jr. and the Furniture Row Racing group — will waltz away with the title a little more than two months from now. NASCAR races are often strange affairs filled with strange occurrences. Such was the case Saturday night.

 

Toyota teams led 197 of the first 200 laps and 385 of the 407 that made up the extended 400-lap event.

 

But along the way, particularly in the second half of the race when the air was filled with yellow flags, the start-and-stop nature of the race threatened to turn the event into something completely different. Excessive pit stops meant more tires, but the allotment for each race is finite. Eventually you run out.

 

No one did, fortunately.

 

The racing was physical and no one seemed spared. For those with Chase hopes, however slim, still hanging in the balance, there was no packing it in for the night. Instead it was, fix it fast and get back out there.

 

But in the end, it was a race dominated by Toyotas and that’s been the case quite a number of times this year. With only 10 races remaining, can anyone derail the automaker’s efforts?

 

“I would say I feel pretty confident in our cars,” winning crew chief Mike Wheeler said afterward. “That’s a good feeling to have.”

 

His own team, he said, has gone into the Chase with the feeling that the No. 11 team could win some races and be competitive. “But you always had this feeling of you can get beat,” he said. “If you’re not at 100 percent you can get beat.

 

“I feel good now that if we hit 100 percent, we will win. That’s something you strive for.”

 

JGR fields four teams for drivers Hamlin, defending series champion Kyle Busch, 2003 champ Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. Toss in Truex and Furniture Row as well.

 

“We share notes. We work together,” Wheeler said. “We do the best we can for not only Joe Gibbs Racing but Toyota.”

 

But as JGR owner Joe Gibbs noted, Wheeler said, “All it takes is a flat tire or a crash and you’re out.”

 

That’s the new nature of the Chase, where elimination rounds trim the 16-team field by a quarter after every three races. One problem, and a season’s over.

 

Ten races from now, someone will be crowned 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. Someone who avoids the unavoidable and doesn’t beat themselves.

 

“I think the other cars that are out there, there’s so many … well‑prepared cars, I think this is going to be a battle,” Gibbs said. “I think …  there’s no way that you can I think pick a favorite right now because it’s really three‑race playoffs (to get to Homestead and the championship round).”

 

Hamlin has fallen by the wayside before, and so, too, has Busch.

 

“You can’t afford a bad race,” Gibbs said. “Our playoff is one where you got to be consistent, but also you got to be on your game and racing extremely hard. I don’t think there is a favorite right now. I think everybody that’s in there is going to have a shot.”

 

Folks thought that going into Richmond, too. Until Hamlin and Gibbs and Toyota proved ’em all wrong.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Full race results

 

RICHMOND, Va. — The No. 78 Toyota driven by Martin Truex Jr. failed post-race inspection Saturday night following a third-place finish in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

 

Truex Jr. led the most laps on the evening, 193 of 407, before his No. 78 Toyota failed its pass through the Laser Inspection Station (LIS) platform after the race.

 

The car will be taken back to NASCAR’s Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, and will be further evaluated. Any penalties and fines will be assessed this week and are typically announced on Wednesdays.

 

Last week, Ryan Newman and Kyle Larson both failed post-race inspection in the same manner. Both were later docked 15 points and their crew chiefs were fined.

 

Any potential midweek points penalty would count toward Truex’s regular-season points total, not his adjusted Chase total, according to a NASCAR official at Richmond.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Richmond results | Official Chase Grid

 

RICHMOND, Va. — A multicar accident triggered by hard racing between former teammates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman brought out a 20-minute red flag with 37 laps remaining in Saturday night’s regular season finale at Richmond International Raceway.

The incident ruined what chance Newman had of racing himself into a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup position after he entered the race 22 points behind Jamie McMurray for the final spot. That put Newman in a difficult position to advance, and a win appeared to be his best shot.

 

Newman would return to the race, but he finished 28th. Prior to his return, the Richard Childress Racing driver shared his frustration with the media after a mandatory visit to the infield car center.

“Didn’t want to control his anger,” Newman said of his former team owner Stewart, who is retiring at the end of the season. “(My team) will keep fighting like we always do. It’s unfortunate. Not the end we wanted.

“Just disappointing that you have somebody old like that that should be retired the way he drives. It’s just ridiculous.”

Newman, who drove for the Stewart-Haas Racing team for five years from 2009-2012, added, “I was clearly inside of him getting into Turn 1, he cut across my nose. I was on the brakes, on the apron and I hit him coming off of Turn 2 but only because I got loose, I was on the apron.

“The next thing I know he is driving across my nose on the back straightaway because he’s Tony Stewart. He thinks he owns everything. It’s unfortunate. But we shouldn’t expect anything less from him.”

Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet was unable to continue after the incident and the three-time champ stayed in his team hauler until the race was over. A winner at Sonoma Raceway earlier this year, he already had qualified for the Chase and was required to attend a post-race media session and photo shoot with the 16 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers.

Stewart took questions from reporters and defended his actions.

 

“It was a stressful night for (Newman), he was trying to make the Chase,” said Stewart, who finished 33rd. “But if you run into me three times you’re not going to get a free pass. It was the third time he had driven into me during the night. How many times does a guy get a free pass until you’ve had enough of it? He’s got to do his part racing for a championship and trying to get in there and if you’re going to run in there.

 

“I went into (Turn) 1 and he dive-bombs there and I’m already coming down. It’s not like I was trying to squeeze him into the infield or something. Ryan and I have been good friends I wouldn’t do that to him.

“But three times is two more times than I normally let someone run into me.”

 

When told that Newman suggested Stewart hurry his impending retirement plans, Stewart smiled slightly.

“He’ll get his wish in 10 weeks,” Stewart said. “Maybe next year without us here, he’ll get his spot in the Chase that way. He’s a guy that can get in here, and he’s going to win a championship before it’s all said and done. This night didn’t dictate it for him. There were 26 weeks to get you to the Chase, so tonight wasn’t a make-or-break for him. The 25 weeks before that set the tone for tonight and it made it stressful for him and he was trying to make it happen, but you can’t just plow through guys and knock guys out of the way to get there and expect to make it.”

Posted on by

NASCAR drivers, teams and personalities offered tributes and memorial messages on Sunday in remembrance of 9/11.


Posted on by Staff Report

It’s Fan Appreciation Weekend at Richmond International Raceway, and Clint Bowyer is doing his part.


The driver of the No. 15 HScott Motorsports Chevrolet surprised a fan, who is a cancer survivor, with two hot passes, which will provide her and a guest incredible access during Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The act of kindness brought her to tears. 


Way to go, Clint.