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Bass Pro Shops Joins Furniture Row Racing, Martin Truex, Jr. for 2016

Unsurprisingly, people took notice of Furniture Row Racing’s breakout season with Martin Truex, Jr. in 2015.

One in particular: Bass Pro Shops, who announced during Tuesday’s NASCAR Media Tour that it will sponsor the No. 78 Toyota of Truex and Furniture Row Racing for nine races in the 2016 Sprint Cup Series season.

The outdoor recreation merchandise store will debut with Furniture Row in the 2016 Daytona 500 along with the year’s longest event, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.

“Were really excited about Bass Pro Shops recognizing the relationship with Martin and Furniture Row,” said Joe Garone, team president and general manager at FRR. “Were going to do everything we can to win some races. It’s been a long journey for Furniture Row Racing.”

For the 35-year-old Truex, he will reunite with the store chain, whose logos sat on the side of his No. 1 Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet from 2004 to 2009.

“The relationship I have built with [founder of Bass Pro Shops] Johnny Morris over the years and all the great folks that work at Bass Pro, it’s been an awesome relationship,” Truex said. “I’m going on 12 or 13 years now I’ve done something in some sort of way throughout the years with them.”

Like Bass Pro Shops, Truex has shown a sizeable passion for the outdoors.

“They’ve been a great supporter of mine over the years. Obviously, the outdoors is something close to my heart and something I really enjoy. It’s nice to have Bass Pro Shops back on my racecar again.”

With Furniture Row standing as the primary sponsor of the Colorado-based organization, the addition of Bass Pro Shops opens to door for a possible second car in the near future.

“As most people know, Furniture Row has sponsored the car for years,” Garone said. “I think we have been looking for sponsors for just about as many years. We’d like to get the [No.] 78 team fully funded or, say, three-quartered funded. That’s part of the pathway to a second car. We need to continue to get corporate sponsorship and partners onboard.

“There isn’t necessarily a plan in place for [a second car] but if you look at the capacity we have to expand to multi cars, I can certainly see something like that in our future.”

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