Is expansion on the horizon for Furniture Row Racing?

DOVER, Del. — Martin Truex Jr. doesn’t believe it’s too early for Furniture Row Racing to consider a second team. 

Although Truex is having a career season — and is one of just a handful of drivers able to contend with defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick — the driver of the No. 78 Chevy believes the additional feedback would be beneficial to the team. 

It’s just a matter of when is the time right.

Martin Truex Jr.

“I think that Barney (Visser, team owner) and Joe (Garone, general manager) have been thinking about it for a while,” Truex said. “It’s just a matter of when is the time right.  If the situation and everything works out the way they want it to, the way they want it to look I think it would be a good thing.  

“I really like what we have right now.  It’s working well and it’s hard to think about changing something.  I think it would be a good thing for the team and certainly they have the capabilities of making it work I believe.”  

One step at a time

Visser first dabbled in NASCAR in 2005. Three years later, he ran the full season, ran half of a season with Regan Smith in 2009 and then went full bore the following year. The addition of Kurt Busch with six races remaining in 2012, set the team up for its first Chase for the Sprint Cup berth in 2013. When Busch moved on to Stewart-Haas Racing, FRR enlisted Truex' services.

Furniture Row currently benefits from its technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing that pools data from its three Sprint Cup teams along with the Nos. 13, 33 and 47 teams. However, of the teams among that group, Furniture Row Racing has been the only organization in the group to consistently run up front on a weekly basis. 

We haven’t done anything drastic to our cars this year, it’s just been a consistent platform that we’ve had to work off of.

Martin Truex Jr. 

“We obviously get a lot of help from RCR,” Truex told Motorsport.com. “We share 100 percent of what we’re doing with them. I think it’s just all the details, for us. Last year we struggled with some things. This year, I think RCR really helped us last year just kind of get a consistent platform towards the end of the year and we were able to do that. 

“This year, we’ve just really been able to build on that and fine-tune on that. So, we haven’t done anything drastic to our cars this year, it’s just been a consistent platform that we’ve had to work off of. It’s something that our team understands and something that’s been consistent we’ve been able to fine-tune.”

Gaining speed

No, Truex has yet to win a race in his second season with FRR, but over the last two point races he has led the most laps. This season the No. 78 Chevy has posted three top fives, 11 top 10s - more than all of 2014 -- and has completed 99.8-percent of all laps raced. Truex has never been second in the point standings this late in the season. Perhaps the most stark contrast is his average finish of 8.7 this season is nine positions higher than his career average.

Still, Truex, 34, can’t explain why he’s the only Chevy able to compete against those of Stewart-Haas Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. He just doesn’t want that to change.

“I don’t know,” Truex said. “I hope that stays the same. I hope we can continue to run with those guys and continue to push them to work harder. But this sport changes so fast. It’s important for us to keep working hard on it and try to find more things and keep pushing the right buttons.”