Car number 78 has started 782 races and has 22 wins, 17 poles, 93 top 5s, and 174 top 10s in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Furniture Row Racing made their debut in 2005 with Kenny Wallace driving the #78 car at Dover. Later that year, Jerry Roberson drove the car Phoenix.
Wallace would return to the team in 2006. After failing to qualify for the Daytona 500, Wallace would compete in 17 events throughout the year. Jimmy Spencer piloted the #78 for both races at Pocono, and Travis Kvapil and Max Papis attempted the road-course events, but they DNQ’d for both.
Wallace returned to drive the #78 in 2007, but was released in August after qualifying for only 10 events. After Scott Wimmer and Sterling Marlin failed to qualify for any races, Joe Nemechek drove the car in the remaining 9 events of the season.
Nemecheck returned to the #78 car for 2008, qualifying for 32 of 36 events. After winning the pole at Talladega in the spring, Nemecheck was signed to a 3 year contract with Furniture Row Racing. However, late in the season the team announced that they would compete in a limited number of races for the 2009 season. Not willing to run a reduced schedule, Nemechek left the team. Kenny Wallace started 28 races in #78, and Front Row Joe started 41.
Regan Smith took over the wheel of the 2009, qualifying for all 18 races the team attempted. In 2010, the team became allied with Richard Childress Racing, and bought out the owner points of the former #07 RCR car. This allowed the team to run a full schedule again for the 2010 season, though Richard Childress ‘technically’ became the owner of the car for 5 races.
In 2011, Smith earned the team’s first top-10 finish with a 7th place finish in the Daytona 500. Smith followed up this success by scoring the first win for the team and his career at the 2011 Southern 500.
Despite this success, and his 2 top-10s in the 2012 season, Smith would be released in favor of Kurt Busch near the end of 2012. Smith started the #78 in 120 races.
For the final 6 races of the 2012 season Kurt Busch replaced Smith in the #78. In these 6 starts Busch earned 3 top-10s, besting Smith’s total for the rest of the season. In the 2013 season Busch would greatly improve the consistency of the team, earning 16 top-10 finishes in 36 race. Busch qualified for the Chase for the Spring Cup, finishing 10th in points. Busch would leave the #78 for Stewart-Haas racing’s #41 in 2014.
After the #56 MWR team folded due to lack of sponsorship , Martin Truex Jr. and many of his crew members were hired for the #78 team for 2014. He started off the season well, qualifying 2nd at Daytona. Unfortunately, a crash in his duel race would force the team to start in the back. His performance was slightly better than Regan Smith’s before him, earning 5 top 10 finishes through the season.
2015 showed a noticeable improvement in the team’s performance, due largely in part to new crew chief Cole Pearn. In first 10 races of the year, Truex scored 9 top-10 finishes and briefly lead the point standings. At the “Axalta: We Paint Winners 400” at Pocono, Truex finally found victory lane again. The win would be the 2nd for Furniture Row Racing and the first for Truex in 69 races. After a top-10 at the rain shortened Michigan race, Truex became the first driver since Richard Petty to score 14 top-10s in the first 15 races of the year.
The Pocono win would qualify Truex for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. His consistency would prove favorable, earning him a spot in the Final 4 for the Championship race at Homestead. After a fire in the pits, Truex finished 4th in the final championship standings behind Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch.
For 2016, Truex and the Furniture Row team switched to Toyotas due largely in part to a new alliance formed with Joe Gibbs Racing, and the #78 gained partial sponsorship from Bass Pro Shops. After narrowly losing the Daytona 500 by .010 seconds to psuedo-teammate Denny Hamlin, Truex would go on to dominate the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway by leading a record breaking 392 of 400 laps and winning the race.
Truex would also win the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, marking the first multi-win year in his career. After scoring 2 win the first 2 rounds of the Playoffs (Chicagoland & Dover), Truex seemed positioned to be a favorite for the Championship. However, after finishing outside the top-10 at both Charolette and Kansas, an engine failure at Talladega would end Truex’s contention for the title.
Truex started the 2017 season off by winning the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This was Toyota’s first win of the season with the new 2018 Camry and Truex’s first career win at Las Vegas. He also became the first driver to win all three stages of the new stage format that was introduced for 2017.
Truex would continue to pick up wins at Kansas, Kentucky, and Watkins Glen before ending the “regular season” as the points leader.
Truex started the playoffs on a high note, winning the first race of the playoffs, and his 5th win of the season at Chicagoland Speedway despite a pit road speeding penalty early in the race. With that win, this allowed Truex to secure a spot for the Round of 12. He later earned himself a 5th place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, although being involved in a 8-car pileup with minor damage midway through the race.
To start off the Round of 12, Truex scored his 6th win of the season at Charlotte after leading 91 out of 334 laps to secure a spot for the Round of 8. Just two weeks later, he scored another win at Kansas despite having a restart violation early in the race, that win extends his active win streak in 1.5 mile tracks to 4, a NASCAR record. The next week, Truex came second to Kevin Harvick in Texas Fall race. After the Texas chase race, Truex made the final four in the playoffs by points. He ultimately won the final race at Miami, becoming the 2017 champion, and won 20 of 108 stages, capping off one of the most dominant seasons in recent history.
Truex started off the 2018 season with an 18th-place finish at the 2018 Daytona 500, after being caught up in a late race wreck. For the next few weeks, Truex picked up top five finishes for the next five straight races, including two poles, and a win at California. He continued this consistency with wins at Pocono, Sonoma, and Kentucky and 15 top-fives during the regular season. Despite failing to win in close finishes at the Charolette Roval and Martinsville, Truex added four top-five finishes during the Playoffs and made the Championship 4 for the second year in a row.
A thrilling finish at Martinsville saw Joey Logano bump Truex out of the way for the win and automatic bid into the Championship 4. After the race Truex was critical of the way Logano raced him, saying “Yeah, he won the battle but he ain’t winning the damn war.” Ironically, Truex would indeed finish second at Homestead, and in the points standings, behind Joey Logano.
On September 4, 2018, It was announced that Furniture Row Racing would be folding the No. 78 team following the conclusion of the 2018 season. On November 7, 2018 it was announced Truex and crew chief Cole Pearn signed a deal with Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the No. 19 starting in the 2019 season, replacing Daniel Suárez and crew chief Dave Rogers.
Truex won 17 races and 1 Championship in his 180 starts in #78.
In 2020 B. J. McLeod started his own #78 car 13 times. McLeod ‘s entry was associated with Rick Ware Racing and their ever expanding efforts in the Cup Series. When B.J. wasn’t driving the RWR #52 car or the Spire #77 Car he would enter his own #78 to expand the scope of the team without violating NASCAR’s “4 cars per team” policy. McLeod also fields the #78 occasionally in the XFINITY Series. Garrett Smithley also started 2 races in the #78 entry.
In 2021, the team became more independent from RWR as former driver Matt Tifft became co-owner of the team along with BJ to form “Live Fast Motorsports.” BJ started 28 of the 36 races for the team, scoring a best finish of 9th at the Summer Daytona race. Scott Heckert, Kyle Tilley, Andy Lally, & Shane Golobic filled out the rest of the 2021 schedule in the #78
. In 2022, McLeod was behind the wheel for 29 races, including a 7th place finish at the summer Daytona Race. Tilley, Lally, and Heckert all returned to share the road coarse races, and Josh Williams started 3 races. For 2023, McLeod started 23 races, while Josh Bilicki started 10 races, Anthony Alfredo started 2 races, and Sheldon Creed made his Cup Series debut at Kansas.
Following the 2023 season, McLeod sold his charter to Spire Motorsports. He plans to continue to field the #78 in select races in 2024.
In 1955 Jim Paschal started 31 of the 36 races he entered that season in #78. He would win 3 races that season, his first multi-win year. He started the #78 in one race in 1959 for a grand total of 32 starts
Other notable names in #78
Buddy Arrington, 28 starts
Dick Passwater, 12 starts, 1 win