Front Row Motorsports’ Kevin Conway enters Sprint Cup Series with limited experience
DAYTONA BEACH – Kevin Conway has only 25 career Nationwide Series starts and a career-best finish of 15th, but he’s going to find himself on the starting grid of the Daytona 500.
The 31-year-old North Carolina native will drive for Front Row Motorsports in 2010, and he said Saturday that his team is locked into the first five races of the season thanks to the points earned by John Andretti last year. Conway’s teammate, Travis Kvapil, is also expected to be locked in to the first five races after obtaining owner points from another top-35 team.
Conway will bring sponsor Extenze to the team and also will have other sponsors to announce Tuesday. Peter Sospenzo will be his crew chief.
Conway said the deal with Front Row came along in the last four or five months. He was going to run a partial Cup schedule and a full Nationwide schedule before the package for a full Cup deal was solidified.
“I don’t think we’ve really underestimated what we’re trying to take on,” Conway said. “I think that we’re fully aware just how difficult the Sprint Cup Series really truly is, and my coming in with limited experience in the stock cars and things like that. I think we’re fully aware of what we’re getting into, but just trying to set realistic goals and go out there.
“But it’s definitely been a little bit like, ‘Man, pinch me, is this really real?’ As you come up through the different ranks, you have so many times where you have deals come together and they fall through at the last minute or whatever, so to actually be here and have it be happening is unbelievable.”
Conway hopes manufacturers support from Ford and having Kvapil as a teammate will help him drive well enough to crack the top 35 in owners points and not have to qualify for races on speed. Conway, how has been racing since he was 6 years old, comes from a racing background as his uncle was an engineer at Robert Yates Racing and Penske Racing.
“I’ve done a tremendous amount of testing with various Cup teams over the years, doing things at [the] desert proving grounds, doing brake tests, short-track tests, doing different things like that for different organizations, and then being in the Nationwide Series off and on for the last few years,” Conway said. “I feel like certain tracks we’re definitely more ready than we are at other tracks.
“But at the end of the day … [I have] very, very limited experience in the Cup cars, so it’s something that we certainly have a huge learning curve.”
Conway’s goals are to remain in the top 35, don’t make stupid mistakes and finish races.
“There’s only 43 guys each week that get to do it, and timing is everything,” Conway said. “Right now, I do feel like we’re ready for what we have just because everybody that we surround ourselves with is realistic about our goals and our expectations, and I think that’s the biggest thing is managing expectations.”
