Front Row Motorsports is adding a third car again for 2025.
The team announced Wednesday that it had purchased a third contract to expand it to three cars next season. While the team statement did not say where the contract came from, it is almost a guarantee that the contract is one of four that Stewart-Haas Racing is selling. Stewart-Haas announced Tuesday that it would close at the end of the 2024 season and FRM had been mentioned as a buyer of one of the leases.
“We have a very positive outlook on the future of NASCAR and as the sport plans for success, so do we,” Front Row owner Bob Jenkins said in a statement. “Today that means having a plan to return to having three cars in the NASCAR Cup Series. I always have a vision to continue to grow and improve our team and that commitment and desire never changes. I am committed to the sport and its passionate fans. and partners.”
Front Row currently fields two cars in the Cup Series for Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland. McDowell already announced that he will head to Spire Motorsports in 2025. That would leave Front Row with two openings heading into next season if Gilliland returns to the team.
Gilliland is currently 22nd in the Cup Series points standings and three points ahead of McDowell in 23rd.
Front Row has slowly improved in recent seasons after making its first start in the Cup Series in 2005. A Front Row driver had never finished in the top 25 of the points standings until Chris Buescher won a shortened race in Pocono in 2016 and made the playoffs. . Since then, McDowell has won two races, including the 2021 Daytona 500, and the team’s drivers have finished in the top 25 on five different occasions.
The team had three full-time cars in 2019, but was reduced to two full-time efforts in 2020. With four Stewart-Haas drivers needing rides for the 2025 season, the team will not be short of options in the coming months.