NASCAR’s legal team claims that one specific factor contributed to the closure of the fan favorite team, Furniture Row Racing, at the conclusion of the 2018 season.
Throughout the ongoing trial between 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and NASCAR, there has been a lot of talk of defunct race teams.
These include recently closed organizations like StarCom Racing and even Germain Racing, who, on the first day of the trial, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin alleged had closed its doors after NASCAR poached their long-time sponsor GEICO.
Though many teams have closed in recent seasons, two that stand out amongst the crowd are championship-winning organizations Stewart-Haas Racing and Furniture Row Racing.
While SHR had a slow decline, the latter of these two came to an abrupt end, with Furniture Row closing its doors one season after winning a title.
What’s Happening? During the first day of 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports and NASCAR’s antitrust trial, 23XI Racing co-owner and NASCAR veteran…
From the start, Furniture Row was unlike any team in NASCAR. The team, owned by Barney Visser, was located in Colorado and had one of the more unique looks in NASCAR.
Though it made its first start in 2005, the team’s primary No. 78 car would not make every race in a single season until the 2010 season with driver Regan Smith.
FRR first turned a corner with an unlikely win at Darlington with Smith in 2011, before Kurt Busch pieced together the team’s best season to date in 2013.
At the conclusion of the 2013 season, the team approached a crossroads at the end of the season. With Busch headed to SHR in 2014, they opted to bring on former Busch Series Champion Martin Truex Jr to pilot the No. 78.
After a drag in performance in 2014, the team picked it up, won a race, and finished fourth in points in 2015, after which they approached another crossroads, ditching long-time manufacturer Chevrolet for Toyota and a close technical alliance with JGR.
In 2016, now with JGR and Toyota, the team would ascend to yet another new level.
Before signing Truex, from 2005 to 2013, the No. 78 team had a 24.9 average finish and one win. After signing Truex, the No. 78 improved to a 13.3 average finish and 17 wins from 2014 to 2018.
But what specifically paid dividends in this data was the relationship with JGR and Toyota.
Truex, FRR, and Toyota scored an 11.3 average finish and 17 wins from 2016 to 2018. All of which culminated in a dominant 2017 campaign where the team won eight races and a Cup Series title.
Of course, this all came crashing down in 2018, just one season after the team entered two full-time cars, including one for then JGR prospect Erik Jones, and won a championship, the team announced it would close its doors at the end of the season.
Though this was abrupt, it seemed no secret that the reason for the closure was financial. Even though the relationship with JGR won FRR races and championships, it came with a hefty price tag, one that had allegedly increased over time.
Of course, the closure of FRR and its status as a top team in NASCAR at the time are noteworthy for the ongoing antitrust trial between 23XI/Front Row Motorsports and NASCAR, as a solid example that, despite success on track, teams may not be able to succeed financially.
In fact, the Furniture Row Racing came up during the examination of witness economist Edward Snyder, who supported the team’s antitrust claims and explained the math behind the damages the teams are pursuing. Snyder, a long-time professor, cited FRR’s closure as “concerning.”
Following this claim from Snyder, while conducting his examination, Lawrence Buterman, an attorney for NASCAR, said the reason that led to FRR’s closure was the long-rumored increased cost of the alliance with JGR.
As previously mentioned, this was no secret. Still, the specifics were somewhat unknown, that is, until Buterman specifically alleged that in this increase, JGR doubled the price of their alliance with FRR.
As Jeff Gluck of The Athletic claimed in the most recent episode of The Teardown:
“NASCAR claims that Furniture Row Racing left because JGR doubled the technical alliance price. We didn’t hear the exact numbers, but that the alliance they had doubled, and JGR ran them out of business.” — Jeff Gluck
Though this is just an allegation, with no data to back it up, it is a solid contrast to the allegations made by Hamlin about NASCAR and Germain Racing last week. It also supports NASCAR’s claims that the sport’s business model itself is not the only reason that teams (even those at the top of the sport) close their doors.
During the Tuesday morning examination of NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps, Phelps gave rough financial numbers on Furniture Row’s final seasons, saying that the team spent roughly $45 million on their championship season, and then alleged that JGR not only doubled, but tripled, the cost of their relationship from $3 million to around $10 million.
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