An Ode To Front Row Motorsports
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Every sport needs its underdogs. For every dominant team, player, or organization, there needs to be a challenger waiting in the wings for their shot at glory. A David for every Golitah, sort of speak. And in NASCAR, Front Row Motorsports has long been a lovable underdog team for fans to pull for on Sundays. Having been around the Cup Series for nearly two decades, the outfit has spent most of their time at the back of the pack, fighting it out to score top 20 finishes. But as of late, the organization has begun to find its footing, and they now find themselves in the playoffs for the second time in three years. FRM has gone from a perennial backmarker to a team that can straight up beat Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing on track. So, how did this all happen?
While the real emergence of Front Row didn’t start to take place until a few years ago, their first taste of success in the top division of NASCAR came back in 2013, at the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega. The team came into the weekend winless in almost a decade of Cup Series competition, and nobody was expecting them to change that any time soon. But after a lengthy rain delay, huge crashes and a mixed-up field, their drivers David Gilliland and David Ragan found themselves in prime position to pounce on the last lap. With help from Gilliand, Ragan powered past superstars Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards to take the lead off of turn three, a lead he would never relinquish. Gilliand stayed committed to his teammate’s back bumper the entire way home, and pushed David Ragan to FRM’s first ever win as a team, and secure a miraculous 1-2 finish. Team owner Bob Jenkins was ecstatic, and the NASCAR world couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed. It was a true David versus Goliath story; or in this case, two Davids versus Goliath.
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It took the small organization three more years to taste victory once again, this time doing it at Pocono in 2016. Their rookie Chris Buescher employed a unique strategy to cycle to the front for a few laps during mid-race pit stops, and held the lead as Brad Keselowki beared down on him. But right before Buescher was due to come in for his service, a dense bank of fog rolled in, and covered over half the track. The spotters up on the roof couldn’t see their drivers for almost half the distance of the lap, so due to safety concerns, NASCAR was forced to stop the race and try to wait out the fog. Sadly for them, rain quickly followed, and when it became evident that the race couldn’t be restarted in a timely fashion, race control called the event official, and declared Chris Buescher the winner. Again, the NASCAR world was beside themselves; little old Front Row Motorsports had once again snuck their way into victory lane, and with the new points format, this win also locked them into the playoffs at the end of the year. While they didn’t make much of any noise in the postseason, the victory marked a monumental moment in the team’s history, and still stands as one of the most improbable underdogs wins in the history of the Cup Series.
Despite these two flashes of glory, Front Row was still running no better than 20th place most weeks. Other than the occasional superspeedway race, they were usually nonfactors in the battle for the win. But their fortunes began to change when they signed Michael McDowell to take over their #34 car for the 2018 season and onwards. McDowell had spent most of his career driving equipment ranging below-average to downright terrible, from the start-and-park Phil Parsons Racing team to the respectable yet extremely underfunded Leavine Family Racing. On paper, the pairing made sense; a career underdog driver racing for an underdog team. But nobody saw the imminent success of Front Row Motorsports and Michael McDowell coming down the pipeline.
A fifth place finish in the 2019 Daytona 500 and the 2019 fall Talladega race showed that the team had what it took to get back to victory lane at a superspeedway, just as they had done with David Ragan all those years ago. While no top fives followed in 2020, McDowell did record a career-best four top tens, with three of them coming at non-superspeedways. FRM was beginning to show speed at all tracks, and McDowell was squeezing the best possible result out more often than not. They also began a Truck Series program that year, and fielded Todd Gilliand, the son of their former driver David Gilliland, full time in that division. Slowly but surely, FRM was building the foundation of a promising race team.
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And in 2021, the path of Front Row Motorsports would change forever. After years and years of being agonizingly close to scoring another win on a superspeedway, the stars finally aligned for the small team, and it happened in the biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500. Heading down the backstretch on the final lap, McDowell was pushing Brad Keselowski towards Joey Logano, the leader of the race. Keselowki looked to the inside, but Logano threw a late block that caused both of them to wreck, and the seas parted for McDowell. As a fiery crash ensued behind him and the caution flag was thrown, Michael McDowell came back around the track to win the 63rd running of the Daytona 500. He, his crew chief Drew Blickensderfer, car owner Bob Jenkins, and the entire Front Row team were champions of the Great American Race. It was yet another all-time upset, except this one took place on the biggest stage in the sport. It landed the team a long-term contract with their sponsor Love’s, locked them into the playoffs, and gave them national attention the likes of which they had never received before. McDowell and FRM had finally achieved the glory they had both been chasing for so many years.
Despite the entire fanbase loving the fact that McDowell and Front Row had won the Daytona 500, most people did not expect the organization to show much of any speed the rest of the season. After all, they were still a small, underfunded team in a series of financial giants such as Rick Hendrick and Joe Gibbs. However, FRM continued to prove the doubters wrong. One more top five and four more top tens would come over the rest of the season, and while McDowell finished last amongst playoff drivers in the standings, it was clear that Front Row were far from the backmarkers they had been years ago. Heading into 2022 and the start of the NextGen era, there was optimism that the team could take yet another step forward.
And take a step forward they did, as Michael McDowell produced the best all-around season of both his and FRM’s career. While he wasn’t able to find victory lane again, he posted two more top fives and a staggering 12 top-tens, with an impressive 16.7 average finish. All of a sudden, Front Row Motorsports were frequent occupants of a top ten running position, and fans finally began to give the team a little much-deserved respect. This was also the year they elevated Todd Gilland from their Truck Series team to their second Cup Series car, and he showed flashes of promise throughout the season. To replace him in their #38 truck, they brought in Zane Smith, who not only won at Daytona in his first race for FRM, but also delivered a championship to the team in the season finale at Phoenix. This marked Front Row’s first championship in any division, and showed that they had a promising young prospect on their hands for the future.
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As the 2023 campaign began, McDowell picked up where he left off, scoring his usual top 20s and top 15s with the occasional top ten in there. With just a few races left in the regular season, he held the 16th and final spot in the Cup Series playoffs, with superstars like Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman behind him in the standings. Front Row was on the cusp of pointing their way into the postseason for the first time in team history, which would be an impressive achievement considering where they were just a few short years ago. Heading into the Indianapolis road course race, Michael McDowell was yet again in position to shock the world.
But again, very few people foresaw what was about to happen. McDowell and FRM were fast right off the truck, topping the practice charts and qualifying fourth for the race. Early on in the running on Sunday, McDowell took the lead, and from there drove a near flawless race. He battled Daniel Suarez and Chase Elliott all day long, two drivers who come from teams with much bigger budgets than Front Row. Despite constant pressure from both of them, the 38 year old from Phoenix, Arizona never put a foot wrong, and his team was perfect on pit road. After a grueling 77 lap green flag run, Michael McDowell held off Elliott to take his second career win, and officially secure a spot in the postseason for both himself and Front Row Motorsports. It was a dominant performance for McDowell and team, and it marked the first time that FRM had ever led the most laps in a Cup Series race. As McDowell and his crew kissed the bricks at Indy, the entire NASCAR world had no choice but to bow their heads in respect, and appreciate how far Front Row Motorsports has come in just a few short years.
For an organization that started out back in the 2000s with little to no prospect of ever winning anything, Front Row’s journey to the top has been nothing short of remarkable. From their early days of running at the back, to their wins with Ragan and Buescher, to their recent success with Michael McDowell, the team has had to fight and claw for everything they’ve been given. They receive nowhere near the support from Ford that Team Penske and Stewart-Haas Racing get, they have a fraction of the budget of Hendrick and Gibbs, and their drivers have always been young, unproven talents or career journeymen. FRM battles on an uneven playing field week-in and week-out, fighting to get their brief moment in the sun. And now that they have reached the highest point in their history, they are finally getting the appreciation and recognition they have been deserving of for so long. Front Row Motorsports truly are the underdogs of NASCAR, and as long as they continue building on their positive momentum, they’ll be pulling off upsets and delighting race fans for many years to come.
