Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is just days away and Furniture Row Racing had their media day on Monday, February 1, 2010. The outlook is very upbeat and excited to start the season running full time with new faces and alliances.
Regan Smith will be starting his second year with the team. Regan is looking forward to running the full season after attempting just 20 races last year. The challenge will be great. Regan hopes to keep his DNF streak of 53 consecutive races running at the finish alive.
Ryan “Canada” Coniam is the new Crew Chief replacing Jay Guy. The Chemistry between driver and crew chief is already there. Ryan joined the team late last season and things have just kept going without missing a beat since he moved into his new position of Crew Chief. Ryan said, he’s “been so busy getting the cars ready for these first races that he hasn’t had time to really think about that his first race as Crew Chief. It is the biggest race of the year, that will come as I sit on the plane heading to Daytona Beach.”
Lucky for the team they have formed a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing. They see the benefits with being a single team. NASCAR has made some changes on the COT and having someone to share information with will help from being so far behind the curve. This also allows Furniture Row for the first time in their history to be locked into the first 5 races with the points from the 07. The pit crew will be “rented” from Kevin Harvick Inc.’s Nationwide team.
Furniture Row will still have Hendrick horse power under the car.
Other new faces behind the scenes are Mark McArdle Director of Competition. Pete Rondeau Car Chief, engineers Cole Pearn and Josh Browne.
Goals for the team at this point are to maintain the 21st spot in Owners points if not improve upon it. Things may be a little slow at the start of the season as they get back in the swing of going racing every weekend again. But watch out mid season when this team hits its stride. Sponsorship is still being sought, so that when the 78 is going strong they can attempt to field a second car.
It was great to see all the buzz and hustle of the shop guys getting the finishing touches on the car as it left Denver this afternoon for Daytona. Rumor has it general manager Joe Garone might even get some sleep this year.
I asked if I needed to keep up my qualifying day ritual and was told YES don’t mess up the mojo.
It’s nice to see that this team is going forward and improving. Best of luck to them in 2010!