It’s not easy establishing a major NASCAR team in Denver, Colorado. Furniture Row Racing is far from the Southeastern region of the sport’s longtime passionate enthusiasts. Although it was an incredible challenge, it has turned out to be a welcome revival.
Denver, Colorado’s Furniture Row Racing team continues to find success on the track. The little team that could has exceeded NASCAR expectations as a top notch Sprint Cup Series team. Because, of the upward trend, Furniture Row Racing is gaining momentum with it’s home town fans.
The racing company is the only Chase team outside of NASCAR’s Carolina/Virginia area. They have worked hard to gain respect from their southern competitors. Now, this entire region of the country considers Furniture Row Racing its very own. It took some vision and a little luck, but now it’s full speed ahead to a Sprint Cup championship.
Barney Visser was born in Denver, Colorado. The Furniture Row Racing owner has also thrived as a businessman in his home town. Visser is a father to seven children and a grandfather to seven grandchildren.
The whole family still remains in Denver to this day. Visser insisted that Denver would be the only place where his racing program would operate. The territorial challenges did not matter to the savvy business minded entrepreneur.
Barney Visser often shares lunch with the city’s mayor. The visionary is regularly seen on Denver’s television. In fact, the anchors are on a first-name basis with the entire racing team. Their popularity has grown to the point where even the city’s reigning Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos for the teams excellence.
“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. “When a team that’s having success like Furniture Row Racing, there are a lot of people who are willing to learn. They embrace it, especially a team they also see as the underdog. Here, especially so.”
“They like to pull for a team that may not be the favorite. We knew what it was like when the Broncos first started out. They also know all about when the Rockies first came to to be. Everybody wants to support a team that appreciates their support in return.” said Arakawa.
Furniture Row Racing and its star driver Martin Truex Jr. have won over NASCAR’s most hardcore fans with their success. They also have converted a lot of the Northwestern area of the country into NASCAR fans. As a result, they earned the distinction of Denver’s “hometown favorites”.
Martin Truex Jr. continues to impress NASCAR Nation as well. The veteran speedster dominated NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 in May. He also collected a win in the Southern 500 at Darlington on Labor Day weekend.
Let’s not forget that Truex Jr. fell a tenth of a second short of bringing a Daytona 500 trophy back to Denver. The gifted driver’s runner-up finish to Denny Hamlin by 0.010 seconds marked the closest contest in Daytona 500 history.
The support extends to the area’s hometown NFL favorite Denver Broncos. Free Safety T.J. Ward, wears Richard Petty’s iconic # 43 on his jersey. The aggressive defender is 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.
“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 Racing, the attention is a two way street. The team flies the Colorado state flag on its pit box every race. The 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins this week. The Furniture Row Racing team will savor the support of an entire region that considers the team their own.
