Barney Visser

Barney Visser (born 1949) is an entrepreneur and author. He is the co-owner of Furniture Row and Visser Precision. Visser also ran Furniture Row Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2005 to 2018, winning the championship in 2017.[1] Furniture Row Racing, was based in Denver, Colorado and was one of a few NASCAR Cup Series teams not based in North Carolina.[1]

Barney Visser
Visser in 2017
Born1949 (age 73–74)
Denver, Colorado
NationalityAmerican
OccupationFurniture Row co-owner Furniture Row Racing owner 2005-2018

Personal life

After attending Denver Christian High School for three years, Visser graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver.[1][2] He volunteered in the Vietnam War for 21 months after high school, and he served as a paratrooper for 11 months in the 173rd Airborne Brigade between July 1968 and June 1969.[3] Visser and his wife Carolyn have seven children.[3] Visser enrolled at the University of Northern Colorado in the fall of 1969 or 1970, playing one season Division II football. He dropped out during the spring semester after losing his GI scholarship.[2][4][5]

Furniture

Visser began his business manufacturing big poof pillows in the 1970s.[1][2] He owned eight stores called Pillow Kingdom in 1977, when he decided to start his first waterbed store called Big Sur Waterbeds.[1][2] That company was so successful that he changed the whole company into waterbed stores.[1] He estimates that the company held 85 stores in the mid-1980s.[1] The Furniture Row company operates 330 stores in 31 states under the Denver Mattress and Furniture Row names.[1][6]

Racing

Visser decided to retire from his businesses, and began racing at Colorado National Speedway as a hobby.[1][2] He met local modified driver Jerry Robertson, and the two decided to form a NASCAR Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) team in 2004.[1][7]

Visser's NASCAR team began running in 2005,[1][2] currently running in the top-tier NASCAR Cup Series after 19 races with Robertson driving his Busch Series car.[8] Joe Nemechek earned the team's first pole position at the spring Talladega Superspeedway race in 2008.[8] Regan Smith scored the team's first win at the 2011 Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.[2] Kurt Busch earned the team's first berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2013.[6] Martin Truex Jr. won the team's first NASCAR Cup series title in 2017.[9] On September 4, 2018, Barney Visser announced that with the loss of major sponsor 5-hour Energy and the increasing cost to maintain a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing (300% Increase), he had no choice but to announce that the team would cease operation at the end of the 2018 season, one year after winning their first championship title.[10] This is also because Visser has been dealing with health problems.

After Racing

After shutting down the team, Visser had to sell his NASCAR charter, as per NASCAR rules. Visser went to motorsports/entertainment agency, Spire Sports + Entertainment seeking to sell his charter, and suggested to Spire president Ty Norris to buy the charter (the most expensive one in NASCAR history) and start a new Cup Series team. The agency accepted, purchasing the #78 charter. The team would be partnered with Premium Motorsports and would later win a shocking victory in their first season at Daytona with Justin Haley.

In 2020, the No. 78 was brought back into NASCAR by the rise of B. J. McLeod Motorsports. Later, McLeod and Matt Tifft started their own Cup Series team.

Media

He is the co-author of the book Vietnam: Fresh, Positive Insights for all who Suffered Loss in the Vietnam War (ISBN 978-0966404999) in November 2000.[3]

Visser was the executive producer for the movie Uncle Nino.[11]

References
  1. Chambers, Mike (2008-06-04). "Furniture Row boss races into NASCAR". Denver Post. Archived from the original on 8 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-27.
  2. Chambers, Mike (May 20, 2011). "Chambers: Furniture Row team owner Barney Visser now a self-made racin' man". The Denver Post. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  3. Hartt, Joe; Visser, Barney (November 2000). Vietnam: Fresh Positive Insights For All Who Suffered Loss in the Vietnam War. Premiere Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-9664049-9-9. Archived from the original on 2008-03-29. Retrieved 2008-06-27.
  4. Chambers, Mike (November 4, 2013). "Furniture Mogul Shifts Gears to Nascar Circuit". University of Northern Colorado. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  5. Menzer, Joe (November 11, 2011). "INSIDE NASCAR: VETERANS HONORED ON NO. 39 SHARE THEIR STORIES OF SERVICE". NASCAR. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  6. Peltz, Jim (March 22, 2014). "Furniture Row Racing team is a NASCAR solo act: Fielding only one car, Furniture Row Racing is at a disadvantage against multi-car outfits that can share data, strategy and economies of scale. Yet it was in NASCAR's Chase for the Cup last season". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  7. Spencer, Lee (September 19, 2013). "FRR: The little team that could: How Furniture Row Racing became NASCAR's little team that could". Fox Sports. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  8. "Barney Visser NASCAR owner's statistics". Racing Reference.info. Retrieved 2008-06-27.
  9. Staff Report (November 19, 2017). "Martin Truex Jr. wins 2017 NASCAR Cup Series title". NASCAR. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  10. Jayski.com staff (September 4, 2018). "Furniture Row Racing to cease operations after 2018 season". ESPN. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
  11. "Denver-backed movie gets distribution date". Denver Business Journal. 2005-01-24. Retrieved 2008-06-27.
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