Sunday was historic for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, the far-flung, third-year team that will have at least one car in the Daytona 500.
Team owner Barney Visser of Cherry Hills, who also owns Furniture Row, has expanded to a two-car outfit, and he just might make his double Daytona debut in this Sunday’s 43-car field.
Drivers Joe Nemechek (No. 78 Chevrolet) was third and Kenny Wallace (No. 87 Chevy) 27th in Sunday’s time trials at Daytona International Speedway. Fifty-three cars entered the 50th anniversary event, and Nemechek was the second of three “star cars” to lock in an automatic starting spot.
The term “star cars” stems from the asterisks beside the name of drivers who are competing for a team that finished outside the top 35 in owner’s points last year.
Only the top two qualifiers — pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson and Michael Waltrip, who had the fastest star car — have been assigned starting positions. The rest of the field will be compiled from the top 35 cars from last year and rounded out by star cars and possibly previous series champions.
It’s a complicated process, but for both of Visser’s cars to secure a spot, Wallace would have to finish in the top third or better in Thursday’s Gatorade Duels. The first of the two 150-mile races begins at noon and will be televised live by Speed.
Sunday’s big race begins at noon on KDVR-31.
“We were sitting on the pole for half the qualifying,” Visser said Sunday from his home in Cherry Hills. “It feels a little like the first race we ever made, but now I know how difficult it is. In the first Cup race we entered, we made it, and I was like, ‘This isn’t so hard.’
“But now I realize how tough it is, especially now because Toyota is really putting on the pressure. Those guys are really fast.”
Furniture Row leases its Chevy engines from Hendrick Motorsports, which fields cars for Johnson, the two-time defending series champion, four-time champion Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“If we can get Kenny in this race, it could be a big advantage when we run,” Visser said. “Hopefully we can get some help from the Hendrick cars, but we don’t know that yet.”
PIONEERING BEHIND SCOTT
DU men’s basketball feeling the power.
It’s too bad the University of Denver men’s basketball team isn’t playing at home this week, because Front Range hoops fans need to check out the rebuilding job first- year coach Joe Scott is behind.
DU finished 4-25 last season and is no longer playing with the top two players Scott inherited from the previous regime. Tyler Bullock left school and David Kummer broke his leg, but the Pioneers continue to improve.
Denver (11-12, 7-5 Sun Belt Conference) is tied for first in the league’s West Division heading into Thursday’s game at North Texas.
TV GAME OF THE WEEK
Ducks at Avs, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Versus.
The Avs play on national television when they host Anaheim.Colorado hopes the game marks the return of center Paul Stastny, who has been out since Jan. 17 after having an appendectomy. The Avs are sixth in the Western Conference with 65 points. Anaheim is tied with San Jose for the No. 4 seed with 69.
WEEK IN PREVIEW
Denver concludes three-game trip Wednesday.
The Nuggets have dinnertime games early this week. They won 113-83 at Cleveland on Sunday and continue on to Miami (5:30 p.m., ALT) and Orlando (5 p.m., ALT) on back-to-back nights beginning Tuesday.
DU hockey heads north.
The University of Denver hockey team has two big games this weekend at North Dakota. The WCHA second- place Fighting Sioux lead the Pioneers by two points, but DU has played one more game.
Suspended North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol will not be on the bench this weekend because he’s serving a school-imposed, two-game suspension after making an obscene gesture to a WCHA referee in a game Feb. 2 at Minnesota. The Sioux were idle last weekend.
BAD BOY BERTUZZI COMING TO TOWN
Former Canuck now a Duck.
It will be interesting to see if Todd Bertuzzi has anything more to say than “It is what it is” Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center, where the Avalanche will host the Anaheim Ducks, who aren’t mighty anymore — in name only, anyway.
The defending Stanley Cup champions are loaded with talent and grit, and Bertuzzi is known for both. Problem is, he took the grit part too far in a March 2004 game at Vancouver, where the Avs were playing Bertuzzi and the Canucks.
Bertuzzi attacked former Colorado winger Steve Moore, breaking Moore’s neck, among other things, and in Bertuzzi’s ensuing visit to Denver, all he could say about the attack was, “It is what it is.”
No doubt Avs fans will give “Bert” an earful Tuesday.
