Front Row Motorsports is cutting its NASCAR efforts for 2020, eliminating its #36 entry from its former three-car operation. Meanwhile, John Hunter Nemechek has been added to the driver stable to join the returning Michael McDowell.
"I'm thrilled for the opportunity to drive for Bob Jenkins and Front Row Motorsports,” Nemechek said. "Having driven the last three races with this team in 2019, I feel like we already have a foundation to start the 2020 season. I'm looking forward to continuing to build FRM."
Nemechek will drive the #38 FRM Ford. That car's former driver, David Ragan, retired from full-time Cup Series competition at the end of the 2019 season. Seth Barbour will be Nemechek's crew chief.
Nemechek, a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series driver in 2019, drove the #36 FRM entry as a substitute for Matt Tifft in the final three races of the 2019 Cup Series season. Tifft is stepping away from competition to focus on an ongoing health issue that resulted in him missing the final four races of last season, and FRM is discontinuing its #36 program.
Nemechek finished seventh in the 2019 Xfinity Series points standings after six top-fives and 19 top-10 finishes in the 33 races that made up the season. He has one-career Xfinity Series win, coming in 2018 at Kansas Speedway as a driver for Chip Ganassi Racing.
The 2020 season will be McDowell's third behind the wheel of the #38 FRM Ford. Drew Blickensderfer will continue as his crew chief.
"As an organization, we have made a lot of strides with the help of all our partners of our program,” McDowell said. "I'm ready to build on that momentum with Drew and the rest of our team. We've always had steady growth and I think we're going to continue to see that next season."
McDowell finished in the top-five in two races last season and ended 2019 in the 27th position in the Cup Series driver points standings.
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