Furniture Row Racing shutting down at end of 2018 NASCAR season
By Nick Tylwalk
The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion is about to become one heck of a coveted free agent.
Sometimes in professional sports, even winning championships isn’t enough to make the financial realities of competing at the top level work out. That’s certainly true in NASCAR circa 2018, a point driven home by today’s stunning and yet not altogether unexpected announcement by Furniture Row Racing.
The Denver-based team confirmed that it will shut down after the 2018 NASCAR season concludes, leaving Martin Truex Jr. to look for a new team for 2019. It’s a sad and rapid downfall from the pinnacle of success after Truex and his team took the No. 78 Toyota all the way to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship last year.
The team’s official statement made it clear that money was the biggest issue:
"Due to a lack of necessary funding to field a competitive team, Furniture Row Racing has been left with no reasonable option but to cease operations following the completion of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season."
That funding has had a gaping hole since major sponsor 5-hour Energy revealed earlier this summer that it would not return for 2019. At the time of that revelation, the plan was still to find a company willing to step up and fill the void, as team owner Barney Visser stated all along his desire was to keep the team intact.
In recent weeks, though, it became increasingly more likely that the organization would need a Hail Mary to keep racing. The possibility of selling the operation to GMS Racing made it clear the situation was getting desperate.
Saying he was unwilling to borrow money just to keep the 78 in the Cup Series, Visser finally admitted defeat.
“We’ve been aggressively seeking sponsorship to replace 5-hour ENERGY and to offset the rising costs of continuing a team alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing but haven’t had any success,” Visser said in the official team statement. “I feel that it’s only proper to make the decision at this time to allow all team members to start seeking employment for next year. I strongly believe that all of our people have enhanced their careers by working at Furniture Row Racing.”
Truex also expressed his sadness, but he still has a lot to race for this year. As part of the Big 3 along with Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, he and the 78 team are one of the few groups with a legitimate shot at the Cup Series championship once the playoffs begin a few weeks from now.
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And while he knows this is the end of the Furniture Row Racing story, Truex can also take some solace that he (and probably crew chief Cole Pearn too) will be in high demand from any number of other teams. In fact, the entire NASCAR Silly Season has been waiting for this domino to fall, and while it is truly unfortunate that it did so in this fashion, the next few months should be fascinating to watch as the shockwaves from today’s announcement reverberate throughout the Cup Series garage.