Front Row Motorsports looking to make its mark - slowly

BRISTOL, Tenn. – In a world of speed – and led by a man who made his fortune in fast food to boot – one team in Sunday’s Food City 500 isn’t afraid to be taking things slow.

Front Row Motorsports is aiming to have a breakout year on the Sprint Cup scene without breaking the bank.

“If you look at the organizations in the sport that are successful, they’ve been here a long time,” said owner Bob Jenkins, a Dandridge, Tenn., resident. “Very few people walk in and take the sport by storm.”

Jenkins, who owns more than 120 Long John Silver’s and Taco Bell restaurants, formed Front Row Motorsports in 2005. After seizing the opportunity to partner with Yates Racing just before the start of the 2010 season, the team is now fielding three full-time cars in the Sprint Cup Series.

While wins would be welcome, the buzz word for now is progress.

“The team is just climbing,” said Travis Kvapil, who drives the No. 34 car. “We understand it’s going to be a big challenge, we’re going to have struggles along the way, but we’re progressing.”

By partnering with Yates, Front Row was able to claim owner points for the first five races of the year, allowing Kvapil and fellow drivers David Gilliland and Kevin Conway to focus on building the team instead of sweating over qualifying.

While that buffer ends after Bristol, pressure and stress aren’t what Jenkins provides.

“If we’re running 25th every week, we’re trying to find out a way to run 24th,” the owner said. “We’re all pretty competitive, but we don’t want to go out and make bold statements that we can’t back up. The key for us is to grow incrementally, build infrastructure and watch this thing progress.”

Kvapil and Conway, a Sprint Cup rookie, struggled in qualifying Friday with Kvapil getting only the 41st position and Conway making the field only with his exemption.

Gilliland, though, earned the 16th spot for Sunday with a strong run.

Jenkins said learning how to juggle the needs of three cars has been part of the learning process this year, but the drivers appear to have an all-for-one and one-for-all mindset as opposed to clawing each other for scarce resources.

“I told them from the beginning that the last people we need to race is ourselves,” Gilliland said.

While Conway gets acclimated to Sprint Cup-level racing, he said he’s enjoyed the opportunity to be an integral part of a smaller team as a rookie instead of getting lost in the shuffle of a larger operation.

As a veteran, Kvapil said he too values the input the drivers have with every aspect of Front Row.

“That’s what I really like about being here is I feel like I’m part of something,” he said. “I feel like I’m an important part of the race team. I feel like my voice is important. I just like being involved.”

Along with the boost from Yates, the team also has been helped this year by joining up with Ford.

Although they’ve only had a limited number of sessions in the wind tunnel and with the seven-post, Kvapil said the team will be able to establish a performance baseline that will allow for tweaks and improvements as the season continues.

Jenkins said competing with the established teams can be maddening, but that just makes the successes that much sweeter.

“I tell people it’s 99 percent misery and 1 percent exhilaration, but it’s something you keep coming back for,” he said.

And back is the operative word. Jenkins isn’t hoping to make a big splash and then fade away into the pool of mid-level contenders. The plan is to keep coming back and coming back a little better each time until Front Row is an established force.

But even a slow and steady blueprint doesn’t mean that Jenkins can’t dream about a glorious finish Sunday at his backyard track or elsewhere along the journey.

“I think there’s going to be some of those magical moments this year,” he said.