Furniture Row Racing weighs driver options
There's suddenly another open seat in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now that Joe Nemechek and Furniture Row Racing have parted ways.
Though the Denver-based team is planning only a limited schedule for 2009, the opportunity to pilot the organization's No. 78 car could be attractive to several Cup drivers who are currently without rides.
Those include sophomore drivers like Rookie-of-the-Year Regan Smith and Michael McDowell, as well as veterans such as Sterling Marlin and Scott Riggs.
"We've just literally talked, nothing more than finding out where they're at, what they're thinking, where they're going to land and how that fits into what we want to do," team President Joe Garone said Friday. "We're looking at all the available drivers and talking to them to see how they fit."
Garone said no decisions have been made and that the team is still regrouping after the announcement that it would scale back from a full-time effort next season. He said the organization’s intentions will become clearer next week.
Nemechek was released so that he would have the opportunity to find a full-time ride, but Garone would not rule out having Nemechek back in the car in some capacity next season.
On the matter of whether a young driver or a veteran would be a better fit for the team and its needs at this point (the team will enter 2009 outside the top 35 in owner points and thus face qualifying on speed for the season’s opening races), Garone said that was undetermined.
"Without the opportunity to go testing, at least on the tracks we're going to race on, maybe a veteran does bring a little bit more of the experience," he said. "But then you've got a couple drivers out there that do have some experience – it's not like they're completely green – that you can build a future with.
"We honestly have not decided where we're at there."
The team plans to do some testing in the month before NASCAR's testing ban goes into effect, but Garone said no test driver has been lined up yet.
He said the economy will dictate if and when the team returns to a full-time Cup program.
"We're not backing out of Cup by any means," he said. "It's just going to depend on the economy the next year, or even two. We're seeking sponsorship, and if we found some, we could [go back full time] real quick."
