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Chili Bowl winner earns NASCAR K&N Pro Series East ride

MORE: Abreu inks deal for K&N Pro Series East ride | Home Tracks

Competing in NASCAR wasn’t on Rico Abreu’s radar a year ago, but that was before the youngster began racing and winning sprint car races all across the country.

Now, the 22-year-old, fresh off a huge win in Saturday night’s Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma, begins preparations for his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut next month at New Smyrna (Florida) Speedway.

He is one of five drivers scheduled to compete in the K&N Pro Series for HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks, joining William Byron, J.J. Haley, Scott Heckert and Dalton Sargeant.

"I’m on the same path as a lot of these NASCAR standouts were on." — Rico Abreu

"Last year it wasn’t," Abreu said of the roadmap to NASCAR, "until I had all my success. I set goals last year that I never thought I would achieve, and I achieved them."

Abreu, who began competing in sprint cars in 2011, competed in more than 100 open-wheel races across various series. He posted 26 victories across 410 winged and non-winged sprint cars, 360 winged sprints and USAC midget competition. He captured the 2014 USAC Honda Midget Series national title in November.

"At the end of last year the discussion came up," he said. "The opportunity was there and I said, ‘why don’t we give it a shot?’ Because I can always come back to sprint car racing if NASCAR doesn’t work out or (I’m) not competitive."

With triple-digit starts and much success during each of the past two seasons, Abreu said he believes he can be just as competitive in a stock car as he has proven to be in an open-wheel ride.

"I feel I will be competitive with all the experience I’ve already gained racing 100 times a year," he said. "I’m on the same path as a lot of these NASCAR standouts were on. I’m pretty confident about all of it; I’m just really excited to see what happens in the next few months."

Those "NASCAR standouts" are well known – Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Larson, each coming from the open-wheel ranks as well.

It was Larson, the 22-year-old phenom who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, that helped pave the way for Abreu in sprints.

"I always knew he’d probably end up in NASCAR," Larson said Tuesday. "I think he’s going to do a really great job. He’s winning every big race out there right now and I think he’ll take to stock cars well."

And Stewart, the three-time Sprint Cup champion, has already offered to help make sure that there are no snags as Abreu attempts to run the full 14-race K&N Pro Series East schedule while continuing to compete in open-wheel entries.

"I’m planning on racing 120 times this year and as many as I can get in," Abreu said. "I was talking to Tony at the Chili Bowl and I told him there was a conflict where the K&N guys are at Dover and there are three sprint car races at Williams Grove (Pennsylvania.). He said ‘don’t worry about that; I’ll get you there.’ So it’s pretty cool that I’ve got Tony behind me on all this and Kyle; it just allows me to race even more than I was already planning."

Crew chief Mardy Lindley, who helped guide Dylan Kwasniewski to six wins and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East title in ’13, will oversee Abreu’s No. 98 team.

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Can the JR Motorsports driver hold off teammate Chase Elliott this season?

RELATED: Complete schedule for driver previews

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Team: JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet

Rank in final 2014 standings: Second

Wins: 1 (Daytona in February)

Strides: In spite of a crew chief change that saw Ryan Pemberton take over for Greg Ives (who joined JRM teammate Chase Elliott) prior to the start of the season, Smith wasted no time in getting into Victory Lane, winning the series’ first race at Daytona. Although it was his lone win for the year, Smith reeled off 13 consecutive top-10s to open the season, led the points for 11 weeks and recorded a career-best second-place points finish.

"I thought that we got the speed where we needed it at the end of the year," Smith said. "We struggled a little bit with communication early on. Once we learned each other as a group and got those things figured out, the speed started coming back to us."

Setbacks: Smith had only two finishes outside the top 20 and his team appeared competitive in most areas and at most venues. However he was unable to close the gap on his teammate down the stretch, finishing ahead of Elliott in just two of the final 10 races.

"We had some opportunities that we missed to really make things tighter when it came down to the end and put some pressure on Chase at the end of the year," he said. "To his credit he didn’t falter anywhere. There were a lot of points in the season where people said ‘He’s a rookie; he’s going to make a mistake here or there or something’s going to happen’ and he didn’t.

"He drove like a veteran and it was great for him and great for JR Motorsports to see that. But I think for the No. 7 car, we’re going to think about the what-ifs. More importantly, what can we do going into (2015) take care of the what-ifs to make sure they don’t happen again."

Quoteworthy: "There were times when I was frustrated as a driver and I think it showed up on the track because of how I was driving. You’ve got to be careful not to let that happen."

What’s next: With Pemberton moving back into his role as director of competition for JRM, Smith will be working with Jason Burdett, his third crew chief in three years. Burdett previously worked at Hendrick Motorsports, and served as car chief for Jimmie Johnson (’02), Jeff Gordon (’08-10) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (’11-14).

"We can all work on a lot of areas, myself included," Smith said. "Restarts and qualifying for me have just been atrocious for the past two years. I can’t really highlight why. I think this offseason is going to be really important to highlight why and figure that out. Because in order to contend and get the track position and the clean air that we really need, those two things have to improve."

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With no private team testing, Las Vegas test takes on more importance

RELATED: NASCAR sets 2015 testing schedule

Goodyear officials put the finishing touches on its tire test for this year’s NASCAR race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Monday, while four Sprint Cup teams participating in the one-day event hit the track for the first time this season.

AJ Allmendinger (JTG Daugherty Racing No. 47 Chevrolet), Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet), Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota) and Brad Keselowski (Team Penske No. 2 Ford) took part in the test, one of 14 scheduled by the tire supplier for the upcoming season.

While Goodyear was focused on its product, the teams were eager to see how their intermediate track package would react with a 2015 rules package that features less horsepower and downforce.

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Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR premier series champion, said the test was an opportunity to "get the rust knocked off" as he and his JGR team head into the new year after a winless 2014 campaign.

"We’ve got a lot of new guys on the team, so just trying to get those guys to work together, try to get a decent balance (in the car), help Goodyear … figure out what they want to do," he said. "And hopefully have a little bit of time left over to work on some stuff ourselves."

How much of an advantage Monday’s track time will prove to be when the series returns in March remains to be seen.

"For us, we didn’t run particularly well last year, we’ve got a new nose on the Camry this year, new rules changes, aero package and all that stuff so we’re just trying to get it sorted out … trying to find a baseline and try to hopefully find something that drives good so we have something that’s decent when we come back here."

MORE: Horsepower reduction among 2015 rules package changes | Fast facts about new rules package

NASCAR banned private team testing for ’15, but collaborated with teams and Goodyear officials to develop the National Series Unified Testing Policy, a program that will provide track time for teams after the completion of Goodyear tire tests.

That limited track time has placed more emphasis on this year’s tests.

"Last year at this time I think we had three or four tests on our plate and here we are with one until we go to Daytona," Paul Wolfe, crew chief for Keselowski, said. "So yeah, (it’s) a very important test for us.

"We got some information. I feel like Goodyear felt like they got what they needed and hopefully we can come back there and have a good race."

All four of the teams testing made the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last season, with Kenseth and Keselowski, the 2012 champion, falling one round short of making it into the Championship Round.

The season, Keselowski said, "was pretty much everything you could ask for … other than winning the Sprint Cup championship.

"To know we were right there … it’s certainly something we’re proud of. But we can’t look back; we’ve got to look forward. We’ve got a massive challenge in front of us to try to have a year as successful as we did in 2014 and to be even more successful to run for a championship.

"In that light we have to keep looking forward and keep developing and that’s why we’re here today – to develop our cars, develop our team to hopefully be the best."

The NASCAR Sprint Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series seasons begin next month at Daytona International Speedway.

The first open team test for the Sprint Cup Series is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 26, prior to the race weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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2014 championship push sets veteran’s sights higher

RELATED: Full schedule of driver previews

Team: Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet

Rank in final 2014 standings: Sixth

Wins: Four (Kansas Speedway in May, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Michigan International Speedway in August, Dover International Speedway in September)

Year in photos: Recap Gordon’s 2014 season

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Strides: Gordon’s four wins marked his highest season total in seven years. As important as the quantity is the fact he was winning down the stretch in an impressive title run that fell just short — a contender all the way until the final elimination round. Gordon nearly doubled his top-five (14) output from 2013 (eight), and his 23 top-10 efforts were the most since 2009. His 1,083 laps led were the most for the 24 team since 2007 and only the second time in the last decade he topped the 1,000-laps led mark.

Setbacks: For the first time in years, the four-time Cup champion can honestly say the biggest disappointment was not hoisting the Sprint Cup champion’s trophy. Gordon had a series-best eight runner-up finishes in addition to his four wins. He said after the season that he feels a pit road speeding penalty at Martinsville Speedway ultimately cost him his shot in the final four at Homestead — an uncharacteristic mistake by the veteran and one of the fine details he plans to fine-tune for a 2015 run.

Quoteworthy: "If they were making fun of me and I wasn’t at the (Sprint Cup Series Award) Banquet, it would bother me. … But I have to be appreciative of the effort to get here. I am the oldest guy in the Chase and I’m proud of that," the good-natured Gordon said in response to jokes by emcee Jay Mohr during the banquet.

What’s next: Before the 2014 season, Gordon famously joked that if he won the championship he would consider retiring immediately — satisfied to go out on top. He reiterated after the season, however, that he was kidding. But he jokingly reserved the right to offer the same pledge in the days leading into the 2015 season (and ultimately did announce that 2015 would be his last full-time season). What’s clear is that Gordon and crew chief Alan Gustafson are in a championship groove boosting results and mojo that reminded longtime Gordon fans of his Hall of Fame-worthy title runs a decade ago. His well-publicized post-race tussle with Brad Keselowski at Texas should erase any notion that Gordon’s passion has waned one bit. He says the chronic back pain that has plagued him in recent years has become more controllable and shouldn’t be considered an issue presently. At 43, Gordon knows his shots at championship number five are decreasing, so there is an urgency he holds as extra motivation. In winning a record fifth Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and proving himself a force in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last year, he will arrive in Daytona Beach as confident as he ever has and a favorite for the 2015 championship.

"Week in and week out we were the strongest Hendrick team, which is not an easy thing to accomplish when you have Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne as your teammates,” Gordon said. "I was really excited about the year and how things went and it built a new confidence I have in myself as a driver and a new confidence in my team and we will definitely take that into 2015."

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Scott’s legacy a story of perseverance, excellence

(Note: This release is part of a series in advance of the 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Jan. 30, broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, Motor Racing Network Radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly and Rex White are the five 2015 inductees.)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 19, 2015) — During a 13-year premier series career, Wendell Scott likely never considered he was making NASCAR history. The Virginian’s sole concern was getting to the next race on a miniscule budget.

Scott wasn’t the only driver to struggle financially. The odds of making a good living racing stock cars were long in the 1960s and early 1970s when purses were small, large sponsors unheard of and manufacturer support came and went with the turning of the calendar’s pages.

But Scott faced a challenge not shared by his fellow competitors: that of an African-American battling to succeed in a still-segregated society.

Measured against that backdrop, Scott succeeded admirably. He became the first — and to date, only — black driver to win a premier series race, at Jacksonville, Florida, in 1963. He made 495 starts to rank 37th on the series’ all-time list, posting 147 top-10 finishes, more than 25 percent of the races he entered. Scott finished four times among the top 10 in driver championship standings including a sixth in 1966.

While most of Scott’s success came on shorter tracks, he logged superspeedway top 10s at Atlanta, Charlotte, Daytona Beach, Dover and Darlington. He twice finished seventh in Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Dixie 400 — in 1966 finishing ahead of NASCAR Hall of Famers Buck Baker, Bobby Allison and fellow 2015 inductee Rex White. Scott also finished seventh in a Daytona 500 qualifying race — which at the time carried premier series championship points.

Scott was singular of purpose, owning and preparing the cars which carried the No. 34. His Chevrolets and Fords were second hand. Without sponsorship, Scott couldn’t afford to hire a pit crew, which usually was comprised of his sons. Tires and spare parts were cast offs from other teams.

Scott, however, never used that as excuse to give less than 100 percent. He finished 321 of his 495 starts.

“We weren’t allowed to use the words ‘can’t’ and ‘never.’ He didn’t believe in those words,” said Franklin Scott, one of Scott’s seven children and a member of his father’s pit crew. “He instilled in everybody he met that if you’re willing to work and do the things necessary to be successful, you can be successful.”

“If he had had the proper equipment, I believe he would have been a winner a lot of times,” said 1960 premier series champion White, sentiments echoed by NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett, a two-time premier series champion.

“If he’d had the equipment or financial backing that I and others had, he would have won more races,” said Jarrett in a 2009 story published in the New York Times.

Former Charlotte Motor Speedway president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, quoted in the same article, said Scott “was obviously a much better driver than the record shows.”

Wendell Oliver Scott was born Aug. 29, 1921 in Danville, Virginia. His father was an expert mechanic, a trade the young Scott quickly learned. After serving in Europe during World War II, Scott returned home to become a taxi driver, who also transported illegal whiskey. He competed in his first race at the Danville fairgrounds winning $50. Over the next decade Scott won more than 100 sportsman and modified stock car races as well as the Virginia State Sportsman championship.

Scott made his NASCAR premier series debut at age 39 on March 4, 1961 at Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg, South Carolina, driving a year-old Chevrolet purchased from Baker. He continued as a series regular until 1973, his career ended by an accident at Talladega Superspeedway.

Scott’s signature victory in the Dec. 1, 1963 race at Jacksonville’s Speedway Park in the third event of the 1964 season was fraught with controversy. Scott, who started 15th, initially was listed as finishing third behind Baker, who took part in victory circle ceremonies and headed for home with the race trophy. A subsequent scoring re-check found Scott actually had finished two laps ahead of Baker.

“I knew I’d passed Buck … three times and only made one pit stop for gas and didn’t lose a lap,” said Scott, who led the final 27 laps after frontrunner Richard Petty slowed with steering problems. “I knew I had won.”

In 1990, Scott lost a battle to cancer at age 69. In January 2013 Scott was awarded his own historical marker in Danville, proclaiming in part, “Persevering over prejudice and discrimination, Scott broke racial barriers in NASCAR.”

Scott previously was inducted into the National Sports Hall of Fame, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Posted on by Staff Report

Get full lineup of NASCAR programming for the week

All times ET

Monday, January 19
6:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBC Sports Network

Tuesday, January 20
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FOX Sports 1
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FOX Sports 2
7 p.m., NASCAR America, NBC Sports Network

Wednesday, January 21
4 p.m., NASCAR America: 2014 Chase Spectacular (re-air), NBC Sports Network
4:30 p.m., NASCAR America: NASCAR "In the News" 2014 (re-air), NBC Sports Network
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FOX Sports 1
7 p.m., NASCAR America, NBC Sports Network

Thursday, January 22
5 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FOX Sports 1
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FOX Sports 1
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of the Year (re-air), FOX Sports 2
7 p.m., NASCAR America, NBC Sports Network

Friday, January 23
7 p.m., NASCAR America, NBC Sports Network

Saturday, January 24
2 p.m., TUDOR United SportsCar Championship: Rolex 24 at Daytona, FOX
4 p.m., TUDOR United SportsCar Championship: Rolex 24 at Daytona, FOX Sports 2
8 p.m., TUDOR United SportsCar Championship: Rolex 24 at Daytona, FOX Sports 1

Sunday, January 25
7 a.m., TUDOR United SportsCar Championship: Rolex 24 at Daytona, FOX Sports 1
3 p.m., 2014 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (re-air), FOX Sports 2
4 p.m., 100,000 Cameras: NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (re-air), FOX Sports 2
4:30 p.m., 2014 Daytona 500 (re-air), FOX Sports 2
6 p.m., NASCAR 2015: A New Era (re-air), FOX Sports 2
7 p.m., FOX Sports 1-on-1: Kevin Harvick (re-air), FOX Sports 2

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Four teams headed to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday

The first NASCAR test of the 2015 season is scheduled to take place Monday when four Sprint Cup Series teams participate in a one-day Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The teams of Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing) and AJ Allmendinger (JTG Daugherty Racing) will be on hand as representatives for Chevrolet; Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing) is the Toyota entry while Brad Keselowski (Team Penske) and his No. 2 Ford team will be on hand to round out the test teams and vehicles.

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According to a Team Penske representative, Keselowski’s teammate Joey Logano, crew chief Todd Gordon and several members of the No. 22 Team Penske group will be on hand as well to help and observe.

In previous years, tire tests haven’t generated a great deal of interest. Now that NASCAR no longer allows private team testing, however, track time is considered more valuable.

The NASCAR National Series Unified Testing Policy, announced last month, consists of three types of tests for 2015 — NASCAR-approved tire tests, NASCAR tests and open team tests.

Goodyear has scheduled 14 tests for the upcoming season; Monday’s trip to Las Vegas is the only one currently on the schedule that does not dovetail with a team test. Others will be either one- or two-day tires tests followed by a single-day team test.

For now, only a stop next month at Atlanta will see teams test prior to a Goodyear tire test at the facility. Teams will be given a four-hour window for testing one day before the start of that track’s race weekend. A two-day Goodyear tire test will be conducted at the track on March 2-3 after the completion of the Sprint Cup event. In all other cases, the team test will come after the Goodyear test is completed.

"We think the fact that they’re going to be testing on tracks they will actually be racing on … they’ll get a lot more value out of this," Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR Senior Vice President Innovation and Racing Development, said last month.

"They did get value out of what we did in the past, but this will just be more in line with where they’re going to be racing."

There is no team testing scheduled for the NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Teams in those series will be given extended practice time during race weekends.

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NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee’s winning percentage ranks fifth all-time

MORE: NASCAR Hall of Fame profile of Fred Lorenzen | His career in photos

(Note: This release is part of a series in advance of the 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Jan. 30, broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, Motor Racing Network Radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly and Rex White are the five 2015 inductees.)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Fred Lorenzen’s NASCAR career was brief, just 158 premier series starts over slightly more than a decade.

The Elmhurst, Illinois, native never ran a complete season, his Holman-Moody Ford team choosing only to compete in the schedule’s most prestigious events.

But when Lorenzen did buckle into his white, No. 28 Ford, it could be argued the rest of the field was running for second place. He was the "Golden Boy."

From 1961 through 1967 he won 26 times, posting more major victories than NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty (21) and David Pearson (eight). Lorenzen’s 16.46 career winning percentage ranks fifth all-time and highest among drivers without a NASCAR premier series championship.

Lorenzen retired after the 1967 season, made a brief return in 1970-72 but left many – including himself – wondering what could have been.

"I quit way too early," Lorenzen said in a 1985 interview with Circle Track magazine. "I was good for another five or six years. I was at my prime, but I’d won about everything there was to win and I had plenty of money.

"I was sick with stomach ulcers and I was tired of living out of a suitcase. Most of all the spark was gone; the candle was out."

How good was Lorenzen? His crew chief, Herb Nab, asked to name the best driver in NASCAR, pointed to Lorenzen’s picture on a poster. "People say Fireball Roberts is the best driver. That there is the best driver."

Petty, quoted in the same Insider Racing News.com article, said, "Fred Lorenzen was total concentration before, during and after the race."

Longtime friend and mechanic Jack Sullivan, quoted by Stock Car Racing in 1968, said, "Freddie ate, slept, breathed and dreamt racing, 24 hours a day."

Lorenzen also was among the first "outsiders" to capture the fancy of the partisan southeastern crowds following NASCAR premier series competition. Lorenzen was named the circuit’s Most Popular Driver in 1963 and 1965.

"Freddie was the first northerner I knew that all the people here liked," Charlie "Slick" Owens, a Charlotte auto parts manager told Chicagoland Auto Racing.com’s Stan Kawalsinski.

The Chicago Tribune’s David Condon wrote similarly in 1964. "If there is one athlete in America who is as wholesome as (baseball’s) Stan Musial, it has to be stock car racing’s Fred Lorenzen from Elmhurst, Illinois. Fred is the All-American hero."

"He was good-natured and got along with everybody," said fellow competitor and Daytona 500 winner Marvin Panch.

Lorenzen, born Dec. 30, 1934, followed racing from an early age once setting up a tent in his family’s backyard so as to listen to a broadcast of the Southern 500 without interruption. He built a miniature car out of spare parts at age 13, a washing machine motor-powered contraption that was confiscated by police for being too fast.

Lorenzen’s first races came on Chicago-area dirt tracks and drag strips. He won the 1958-59 U.S. Auto Club stock car championships and caught the eye of Ralph Moody, who with partner John Holman operated Ford’s preeminent NASCAR premier series program.

Moody called on Christmas Eve 1960 to offer a mechanic’s job – and the possibility of driving. Lorenzen accepted and couldn’t believe his good fortune.

"It was like walking into a diamond factory," he said of the team’s shop and resources in a 2009 interview with the broadcaster TNT. "I had the best of everything. When you’ve got it all, it’s easier to do."

Lorenzen won three times in 1961 including Darlington Raceway‘s Rebel 300 in which he out-foxed NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Curtis Turner with two laps remaining to earn the nickname "Fearless Freddie." Mirror driving the second-place Lorenzen, Turner repeatedly blocked the high side of the one-groove track. Lorenzen faked a high pass and shot under the not-pleased Turner.

"That race was extra special because the track is so very, very special and because I was able to beat Curtis Turner," said Lorenzen in an interview with the Charlotte Observer’s Tom Higgins. "You’ve got to remember that for a kid like me, names like Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly and Fireball Roberts were hero stuff."

His best season was 1963 when he finished with six wins, 21 top fives and 23 top 10s in 29 starts. Despite winning 26 races that season, he finished third in the standings.

Lorenzen started just 16 races in 1964 but won eight times including five consecutive starts. During that stretch, he led 1,679 of the possible 1,953 laps, one of the most dominant runs in NASCAR history. A year later he won two of NASCAR’s major events – the Daytona 500 and World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

In retirement, Lorenzen became a successful Chicago real estate developer. He was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998. He was previously enshrined in the National Motorsports Press Association and International Motorsports halls of fame and Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Team expands to three cars in Sprint Cup Series

RELATED: See all the changes for 2015

Front Row Motorsports announced Friday that Cole Whitt will drive for the team in 2015 as it expands its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series operation to three full-time cars.

Whitt will drive the No. 35 Ford for team owner Bob Jenkins, carrying sponsorship from Speed Stick deodorant for 10 races, including the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 22 (1 p.m ET, FOX). Whitt will also work with crew chief Randy Cox, who was atop the pit box for all of his Sprint Cup starts last season.

"I’m really excited and grateful for the opportunity to go racing with Front Row Motorsports and continue my relationship with Speed Stick," Whitt said. "Bob Jenkins is a smart businessman and has grown his team the right way over the years, and I’m really looking forward to being a part of that growth. The 2014 season was great for me as a driver. We had some important personal victories and some areas where we’ll want to improve."

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Whitt, 23, has 50 career starts in NASCAR’s top series. He drove in all 36 races last season, finishing the year with BK Racing after Swan Racing shut its doors in the spring. Whitt ended the season 31st in the Sprint Cup Series standings after his Sunoco Rookie of the Year campaign.

For his career, Whitt — a former sprint car champ in USAC competition — has four top-five finishes in what is now the NASCAR XFINITY Series and two top-fives and a pole position in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

The move is the second driver announcement for the Statesville, North Carolina-based team this week. Tuesday, Front Row said that David Gilliland would return to the organization’s No. 38 Ford. David Ragan also drove for Jenkins last year on a full-time basis, completing his third straight season in the No. 34 entry; he indicated in media reports last fall that he hoped to renew his contract with the team for 2015.

"This is an exciting time for Front Row Motorsports," Jenkins said. "Adding Cole Whitt to our program, along with the support of the Speed Stick team, is another big step in our growth as a young team. We’re going to have a diverse mix of experience with our drivers, which, I think, is going to be a big benefit for everyone."

Whitt’s move to the Front Row team was foreshadowed late last November with an early congratulatory tweet from Anthony Marlowe, a co-owner for BK Racing. In it, Marlowe said that Whitt was earmarked for the team’s No. 34 ride, replacing Ragan.

Representatives for Front Row Motorsports denied the rumor, and while Marlowe backed down from his initial tweet, he still indicated he was "98 percent certain" that Whitt would eventually land with Front Row.

Jenkins’ team fielded three cars in a handful of events last season, but the No. 35 Ford had as many starts — four — as it did failures to qualify. Veteran David Reutimann drove the car in three races and Blake Koch one.

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Joe Gibbs Racing driver looks to bounce back from winless season

RELATED: Full schedule of driver previews

Team: Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota

Rank in final 2014 standings: Seventh

Wins: None

Year in photos: Recap Kenseth’s 2014 season

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Strides: "Highlight of our season? That’s a tough one because we didn’t win any races," Kenseth said when asked about 2014 superlatives.

The winner of a career-best seven races after making the move to JGR in 2013, Kenseth and the No. 20 team couldn’t find their way to Victory Lane once the ’14 season got under way. But by the end of the year, Kenseth actually had more top-five (13) and top-10 (22) finishes than he managed the previous year.

He also qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the 10th time, advancing through two rounds before being eliminated in the Eliminator Round.

In addition to earning two pole positions, Kenseth posted a career-best second-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Actually, Kenseth wasn’t shut out of Victory Lane entirely — he did collect a checkered flag in the season-ending Nationwide (now XFINITY) Series event at Homestead, and won one of the two qualifying races prior to the Daytona 500.

"Winning the first (Duel) race at Daytona was probably the highlight, going out and feeling like we were going to be pretty competitive there; Denny (Hamlin) won the second one, we won the first one," Kenseth said. "At the time I didn’t think that would be our highlight, but that was probably one of them.

"We had a lot of solid races but none that really stand out, where I was like ‘Man, that was just an awesome day’ because we didn’t get any wins."

Setbacks: The lack of wins — it was his first shutout season since 2010 — and a lack of get-to-the-front speed proved to be the team’s undoing. But Kenseth said it wasn’t a single item that held the team back throughout the course of the 36-race season.

Down the stretch, he and his team remained in contention. A third-place finish at Phoenix in the Eliminator Round finale saw him finish just outside the cutoff for advancing to the Championship Round.

"Exceptionally fast" the previous year, Kenseth said "between the aero changes (in ’14) and getting the car down on the track, we just didn’t seem to have a handle on it the way we did the year before. Our balance was just way off and we could never get it fixed the way we wanted it."

Quoteworthy: "I feel like we did a really good job this year with what we had to work with. None of our cars were near as fast as they were last year."

What’s next: While expansion and a crew chief shuffle at JGR will have new faces in new places for ’15, Kenseth’s group will have a familiar look. Jason Ratcliff returns for a third season as crew chief, a non-change that Kenseth feels good about.

Kenseth said he’s also looking forward to the the latest changes to the rules package, moves that will take away a bit of horsepower and lessen downforce.

"Hopefully that will make it a little easier to pass in traffic; hopefully it will make the cars a little freer," he said. "They just had so much spoiler on them last year and were always so tight. I’m hoping that will help. It’s the same for everybody but hopefully it will help."