For Coloradans, your homegrown NASCAR team has provided a regular rooting interest on the weekends.
Furniture Row Racing and driver Joe Nemechek have qualified for the past 11 Sprint Cup races, and 20 of 23 overall. The third-year team is on pace to shatter its single-season qualifying record of 21 races, set in its inaugural 2006 campaign.
“The first thing you have to do is qualify, and we definitely have improved and it feels good to make those gains,” said Furniture Row general manager Joe Garone, a North High School graduate. “The second part of the program is good finishes, and we’ve had our ups and downs. The last four races we’ve kind of gotten in the rut.
“But our job is clear cut, and that’s what we’re focusing on trying to do — qualify. For us and all the teams outside the top 35, you put so much effort on qualifying, you lose a little bit on the race setup.”
Garone was referring to the top 35 in owners points. The top 35 are guaranteed spots in the first five races next season, beginning with the prestigious Daytona 500.
Furniture Row owner Barney Visser of Cherry Hills is 41st in points, with 1,405 — 356 behind No. 35 Joe Custer, who fields the No. 66 for Scott Riggs.
“Getting into the top 35 is huge, because it guarantees you being in the first five races next year, when we can finally focus on our race effort instead of the qualifying effort,” Garone said. “It would also make us feel so much better going into the winter.”
Garone said Nemechek, who will turn 45 next month, is under contract through 2010, by which time the team could have a two-car effort.
“Joe is the veteran that we need, with the experience in Cup to get the car qualified,” Garone said. “He also opens the door that when we do get a second car we have a seasoned veteran as a mentor, to possibly get a less-experienced, up-and-coming guy in the other car.”
The “Schu” fits.
NHRA star Tony Schumacher won the top fuel title last month at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway and has yet to slip off the winner’s podium.
He has won four straight races since Bandimere, tying his own record of five, and will set a new standard by capturing the prestigious crown at in the finals of the Sept. 1 U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.
Schumacher is 20-0 in elimination rounds since tracks were shortened from 1,325 feet to 1,000 feet at Bandimere. If he wins at Indianapolis, Schumacher also will exceed his own record for victories in a season (10) and tie Joe Amato’s career class record of 52 wins.
“I could stand up here all day long and try to explain it, but it’s been a gift of a year,” Schumacher told reporters Sunday in Reading, Pa.
Under construction.
The proposed High Plains Raceway near Byers apparently is in the construction phase. The board of directors for the amateur road course — primarily backed by the Colorado Amateur Motorsports Association — said it has settled on a 2.55-mile configuration at a cost of $3.6 million.
CAMA considered going with a 2-mile course at $3.2 million. The organization’s goal is to raise $4 million.
“The consensus is that building the “best” circuit will catalyze future improvements and amenities, and that having configuration options will cater to a wide spectrum of uses and revenue opportunities,” CAMA board members wrote in a release.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
