Furniture Row Racing will shut down operations

Furniture Row Racing will cease operations at the end of the season, one year after Martin Truex Jr. won the NASCAR Cup Series championship driving for the maverick team.

Furniture Row is an anomaly in NASCAR in that it is a single-car team based in Denver, far removed from the stock car series’ North Carolina hub. Team owner Barney Visser was a racing enthusiast with a vision when he launched the team in 2005, determined to do it his own way.

But a lack of sponsorship for next season led Visser to make the “painful decision” to close the team. Truex is in the thick of the championship hunt and the playoffs begin next week.

Visser said in a statement Tuesday “the numbers just don’t add up” and he would have to borrow money to field a competitive team in 2019.