Front Row Motorsports, Doing It The Right Way.

When Daytona hit in 2009, there was one team most people thought were doomed. Front Row Motorsports. Yes, they were locked into the first five races, but they had been downright awful in the four years prior to 2009.

Even hardcore NASCAR fans thought little of Front Row Motorsports. They were given the nickname "Last Row Motorsports", and have been laughed at numerous times when their qualifying speed was two seconds off the pace.

Plus, how could a small operation like FRM, compete with the Hendricks, Roushs, and Childresses of the world? They are a single car operation, and that is unheard of now days.

Most fans and the media thought that after Bristol they wouldn't be around anymore.

But here we are, going to the Brickyard 400, and John Andretti and his Front Row Motorsports team are still in the top 35. Not only that, they are 190 points ahead of Scott Speed's #82 team, putting them in great shape for 2010.

The question is, why? Why is this little team with little sponsorship beating Scott Speed and his multi-million dollar team in Red Bull Racing?

The answer is simple; smart ownership.

The first thing that Front Row Motorsports did which was really smart was out-spend Red Bull Racing. The #01 team, for the now defunct Dale Earnhardt Inc. team, was selling off its points.

The two teams who people thought would buy those points were the #44 team of the newly formed Richard Petty Motorsports team, or the #84 (82 now) team, the afore mentioned Red Bull Racing team.

However, one afternoon in January a surprise team bought those points and formed an engine alliance with Earnhardt Ganassi/Richard Childress Engines; Front Row Motorsports.

There still wasn't even a driver named for that ride, and for a team who couldn't qualify for a race the previous four seasons, who could they hire that would be any good?

Then we heard the name John Andretti surface as the driver. John Andretti...Why? He hasn't done didaly poo in six years. Why would you try and start your organization with a driver who is shot?

Not only that, Andretti isn't going to run the full year, since he's running in the Indy 500, so who are you going to hire to replace him?

Why wouldn't they go with a young talented kid, I mean, someone like a Landon Cassil or Steven Leicht has to be better then Andretti, right?

Then the season started and we realized something: Front Row Motorsports was right about John Andretti. He does have something left. Tony Raines did a great job when he filled in as well.  

No, Andretti haven't set the world on fire, or gotten a top ten this year, but Andretti has done one thing that Scott Speed isn't doing and that is keeping his car off the wall. Andretti has one DNF (did not finish) this year, compared to Speed's six.

This does two things for Front Row Motorsports.

One, it has kept the team in the top 35, which is huge. Without that, they would not make these races. They can't qualify, and have shown that this season.

Secondly, it has kept them in the races. That's overly important without testing. They can learn from staying in these races. They can understand things about the car that they just couldn't understand if they had six DNF's.

It has been a surprise year from this team. They keep on chugging every race, and show a little bit of improvement each and every week. But who cares about a team this small right? What difference would it make if they were in the race or they weren't in the race?

Fans who have that opinion need to realize something. Little teams like Andretti's #34 bring some good sponsorship to the sport of NASCAR. This season alone they have introduced four new companies that haven't really been in the sport all that much before this. Window World, Myautoloan.com, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's, and Gander Mountain.

Taco Bell, Long John Silver's, and Gander Mountain are three big companies who can help NASCAR grow. Without little teams like Front Row Motorsports, how could they find out about NASCAR?

It has been a crazy year for a lot of little teams, and Front Row Motorsports is doing the best out of all of them. They have solid veteran drivers and smart owners, which could help make this team grow. They could have gone with a young kid who would have tore up their equipment and put them out of business, but they didn't.

I applaud them for doing things right, and fighting an almost impossible battle to fight.