senor honda

[h=2]Pieces fall into place for Front Row Motorsports[/h] Wednesday, 05 April 2017


By Kelly Crandall / Images by LAT

Front Row Motorsports has found itself in a perfect storm.
Its two drivers, Landon Cassill and David Ragan, are a perfect fit for the organization. Young, hungry and fan favorites, a negative word is hardly said about either of the two. Then comes the business side, as Front Row is in the midst of its best year from a sponsorship perspective.
"We've been really fortunate," Front Row general manager Jerry Freeze told RACER. "The biggest thing is we've had three long-term partnerships. One is Love's Travel Stops, we're in our fifth year with them. With CSX transport company, we're in our sixth year. Then with Ford Motor Company,










"I think we do a good job for them, get them a good value for their investment. They understand where we're at as a team that's fighting our way against the big teams out there. We try to overdeliver as much as we can on all the ancillary stuff around the program. I think they appreciate it."
Freeze can remember the days where Front Row was fighting just to get the racetrack. Or wondering if they could afford to buy the necessary sets of tires. Today, because of the increase in partner support the organization is in a position to bring in additional manpower and up its technology.
"Bob (owner Bob Jenkins) is so devoted to this team, and we talk about it every fall of kind of what is his threshold for pain for putting into the team for next year," Freeze said. "Going into this year, there were things that we wanted to continue to do or add to the program: Continue the Roush [Fenway Racing] alliance, buy some new cars, update a lot of the parts and pieces that go with those cars."
Last October, Freeze and Jenkins broke down Front Row's sponsorship situation, with Jenkins committing to covering the difference. Then in December and January, Front Row was able to find partners to sign on the dotted line.
"To Bob's credit, he didn't look at it as an offset to what his contribution was, it's just an add-on," Freeze said. "We've gone back to where we were only going to update so many cars to the latest, let's call it Roush package, and we're now able to do that many more cars. [The additional sponsor support] goes directly into the race team."
Through the first six races of 2017, many might have noticed additional partners on both the No. 34 and No. 38 Fords.
Cassill has slotted in perfectly in the No. 34 after the departure of Chris Buescher. Freeze credited the easy transition to Cassill working well and getting to know those partners last year. Love's Travel Stops, CXS and FR8 Auctions are all back for more this year. In Phoenix, Cassill had Starkey Hearing Foundation on the car.
Ragan's car has had livery from Camping World (who signed on before the Daytona 500), Juice Batteries and construction and technology company Jacob Companies. While Freeze could not recall the exact number, he felt it was down to somewhere between six and eight races – on both cars – for which the organization had not yet filled out sponsorship.
"It hasn't been sudden," Freeze said. "Jacob Companies, in particular, we started talking to them in the middle of last year ... We've got a bit of a business angle with Jacob Companies outside the race team that also includes them investing in the race team. Others like Camping World, there's no outside [business-to-business], so in our case, we had to come up with the program that made sense for [them].
"FR8 Auctions, we did some races with them last year, and they signed up for [Martinsville]. They're great people, and they're not one that's ever looking to do 20 races, they're a small company but they're super enthusiastic about NASCAR. When we do have an opening that's in a market that makes sense for them, they're always interested in looking at some of those races."