Front Row Motorsports first appeared on the NASCAR Cup Series scene in 2004, when Brad Teague, Tony Raines, and Stanton Barrett all failed to qualify for races, before the latter finally made the cut the following season at Bristol Motor Speedway in the No. 92 Chevrolet.

Now with three full-time charters, FRM opted to join forces with Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing in shunning NASCAR’s new charter agreement, as of 2024, joining their antitrust lawsuit against the organization, which alleges “monopolistic” behavior on its part.

One year later, and with the trial in Charlotte, North Carolina, now into its third day, FRM owner Bob Jenkins took to the stand, directly following NASCAR executive vice president in charge of strategy, Scott Prime.

Jenkins’ testimony delivered some eyebrow-raising facts regarding his team’s rocky tenure in NASCAR’s top series, none perhaps more shocking than the fact that FRM has lost $16.3 million across the last three years, and approximately $70 million over the last 11 years, as per Bob Pockrass. With this in mind, he was asked perhaps the question on everyone’s lips: Why keep going?

“We are sitting on something special. I really feel like we’re making progress,” Jenkins insisted.

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Jenkins also revealed that his team has yet to turn a profit, and that he has not once taken a salary from his role with the team, via Jeff Gluck. But ever determined to make his venture a success, when faced with nine races in 2025 without sponsorship, he instead avoided any potential embarrassment of running blank liveries by using his existing companies.

Delving deeper into the team’s finances, Jenkins was quizzed on their decision to shell out $29.5 million on a third charter after Stewart-Haas Racing went defunct, ahead of the 2025 season – notable not only for its outright cost, but the fact that it proved the most costly of SHR’s three former charters, according to Pockrass. Asked if he felt the charter system was fair, and why spend so much on SHR’s former ride, he said, “It’s based on the belief that some time they will be fair.”

Responding to the two charters FRM was awarded in 2016 when the system was instated as it was already a full-time team, and the fact that, as far as NASCAR appears concerned, they were handed them at no cost, Jenkins replied, “They didn’t ask us to write a check for sure. The check’s already been written.”

These checks weren’t anything to snub your nose at either, with Jenkins explaining that prior to the current generation of cars, the NextGens, he would spend around $1.8 million annually on parts, via Gluck. Since the much-maligned NextGens were brought in back in 2022, this has risen to $4.7 million annually.

Adding to the frustration, even if his drivers, Noah Gragson, Zane Smith, and Todd Gilliland, avoid wrecks, their cars still cost FRM $30,000 each to be repaired, regardless, as both the tail and nose have to be returned to the vendor.

Jenkins’ testimony also took an unexpected turn on Wednesday when ANSCAR’s attorneys were warned of potential future “severe penalties” after Judge Kenneth Bell deemed the team to have gone against court orders on two occasions. One of which involved Jenkins, when, according to Toby Christie, they were “trying to reveal financial info for Bob Jenkins’ businesses outside of NASCAR.”