Richmond, Va. – Denver-based Furniture Row Racing didn’t make the Chase for the Nextel Cup, but the rookie team will continue chasing its dream.
Just ask truck driver Chuck Lemay. He began a 27-hour journey back to Denver after Saturday night’s race at Richmond International Raceway, where Furniture Row driver Kenny Wallace finished 42nd.
Lemay is scheduled to arrive in Denver on Monday morning, then hit the road again with two race cars and all of the team’s equipment on Wednesday to make an even longer trip to this weekend’s race in Loudon, N.H. He will then return to Denver for two days before heading to Dover, Del., for the third event in the 10-race Chase on Sept. 24.
“Living the dream,” Lemay said before Saturday’s regular-season finale.
Lemay, who resides in Jefferson County, doesn’t have many duties at the racetrack, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t play a big role for the only Nextel Cup team based west of the Mississippi River. He must make good time on the road after races so the team can begin preparing for the next event.
The Richmond-Loudon-Dover short-track stretch is particularly important because the two cars that Wallace drove at .75-mile Richmond will likely be used at the next two 1-mile ovals.
“Assuming Kenny likes the car tonight,” crew chief Joe Garone said before the race, “the transport needs to be back at the shop Monday morning to give us two full days to turn the car around, to clean it, to re-brake it, pack the wheel bearings, change the hubs, change the engine, dyno it, set it up, and be back on the road headed for Loudon on Wednesday morning.”
Lemay was one of 11 Furniture Row crew members at Richmond, and one of two who aren’t returning home on one of two Lear jets owned by team owner Barney Visser of Cherry Hills.
Seven newcomers
Only three drivers that made last year’s Chase qualified again this year: Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth. Among the seven newcomers are Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who both made the inaugural Chase in 2004 but didn’t qualify last year.
“I couldn’t say enough about the people I’ve been surrounded by this year,” Earnhardt said. “We’re going forward.”
Gordon, a four-time series champion, can sympathize with Tony Stewart, the defending champion who missed this year’s cut.
“We experienced what that was like last year,” Gordon said. “It was a tremendous amount of pressure (and) it only made it tougher when we didn’t make it.”
Footnote
RIR, which seats more than 107,000, was sold out for the 30th consecutive Nextel Cup race. The track is a beautiful motorsports facility, particularly under the lights. But getting to the track is a drag. In addition to all the fans that squeeze into the football stadium-like venue that is surrounded by suburban streets, a major construction project is underway behind the front-stretch grandstands.
