Daytona Beach, Fla. – Furniture Row founder and Cherry Hills resident Barney Visser is at it again, trying to prove his competitive fire can burn bright in Florida’s northern sun.
Visser, owner of Denver- based Furniture Row Racing, believes his second-year team – Nextel Cup’s only Western- based brand – will today garner an elusive spot in Sunday’s Daytona 500.
“I think we’ll be real competitive and give it a good go,” Visser said of today’s twin 125-mile qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway.
It won’t be easy. The top 35 cars based on 2006 owner points are guaranteed spots in Sunday’s 43-car season opener. That originally left just eight spots available for the 26 or 27 other entries that finished outside the top 35 last year or are rookie teams.
But former series champion Dale Jarrett, now with a startup Toyota team, likely will get a champion’s provisional, taking another slot.
Visser’s driver, veteran Kenny Wallace, isn’t worried.
“Different from last year, all the tools are in place for us to succeed,” Wallace said.
Those new tools include:
Visser signed Wallace, 44, to a two-year contract that prevents the Missouri native from driving for anyone else in NASCAR. Last year, Wallace drove full-time in the Busch Series for another team and part-time for Furniture Row.
Visser is using Chevrolet engines from Hendrick Motorsports for the four restrictor- plate races at Daytona (two) and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The move allows Furniture Row to concentrate on building its regular motors in Denver.
Denver native Joe Garone replaced himself as crew chief and car chief to concentrate on managing the team. Garone filled his two old positions with experienced chiefs from North Carolina, and also added two full-time engineers from the Tar Heel state, where almost every other big-league NASCAR team is based.
Furniture Row qualified for 21-of-36 points races last year, impressive considering it was a startup, single-car team working far from where the best talent and technology is based. Wallace started 17 times in the No. 78, missing four because of his commitment with a Ford team in the Busch series.
“We think he was too busy,” Visser said of Wallace. “On companion weekends with Busch, he was literally running from car to car.”
Many of Cup’s top drivers and teams compete in both circuits, but for the same teams and equipment. Since Wallace drove a Ford on Saturday and a Chevy on Sundays, he was offering virtually no help in setting up Sunday’s car.
“It’s good for drivers if they’re on the same tires, same engine, same team and the same track,” Visser said.
Wallace concurs, and said his belief in Visser’s team persuaded him to walk away from his Busch deal.
“I like to think of Barney Visser as Frank Sinatra,” Wallace said. “He’s doing it his way. People might think he’s crazy, running a single-car team out of Denver. But the way he’s hired all the solid talent from North Carolina and really surrounded himself with good people, I think he might have something here and I want to be a part of it.”
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
