Front Row Motorsports 2020 Cup Series season preview

By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer

With this year’s NASCAR Cup Series season approaching, we take a look at Front Row Motorsports driver lineup for 2020 season.

The Bob Jenkins owned organization will scale back from three full-time entries to two with Michael McDowell in the No. 34 Ford and Rookie John-Hunter Nemechek in the No. 38 Ford.

Michael McDowell will embark on his third-full time season behind the wheel of the No. 34 and his 13th season overall in the Cup Series.

In 2019, McDowell showed great qualifying speed throughout the year as he qualified for many events within the Top-12. His best qualifying effort of the season was a fifth-place spot on the starting grid at Martinsville Speedway last fall.

McDowell wrapped up his 2019 campaign with two top-five and two top-10 finishes with a season best finish of fifth twice. Those finishes came in the season opener Daytona 500 as well as Talladega in October.

A Phoenix, Arizona native, McDowell is still looking for his first career win at NASCAR’s highest level and it very well could come at a Superspeedway race in 2020.

McDowell will make his 18^th Cup start at the 2.5-mile Superspeedway next month and it’s the site of two top-five and six top-10 finishes for the driver.

In addition, look for McDowell to be a good veteran presence for his teammate John-Hunter Nemechek who makes the move to the NASCAR Cup Series full-time.

22-year old John-Hunter Nemechek isn’t new to the Front Row Motorsports organization. The son of long-time racer, Joe Nemechek ran three races for the team at the end of last season when he filled in for Matt Tifft in the No. 36.

Nemechek made his Cup Series debut at Texas Motor Speedway, a race in which he finished with a solid Top-25 finish in 21^st.

The young driver went on to make starts at both Phoenix and the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway finishing 27^th and 23^rd, respectively.

Nemechek makes the full-time move to the NASCAR Cup Series this season after racing full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2019 and a partial part-time schedule the previous season.

In 51 NXS starts, he has one win, 12 top-five and 30 top-10 finishes. He also has one pole award and has led 225 laps.

Nemechek will make his first start in the Great American Race next month. However, in NXS competition at Daytona, he has two starts under his belt with finishes of 8^th and 22^nd.

In the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, he has made three career starts at the famed superspeedway between 2016 and 2018, capturing finishes of 17^th, 4^th and 25^th.