- Barney Visser
Barney Visser (born
1949 ) is the co-owner of Furniture Row as well as ownsFurniture Row Racing in theNASCAR Sprint Cup Series .cite web|url=http://www.denverpost.com/motorsports/ci_9482873|title=Furniture Row boss races into NASCAR|last=Chambers|first=Mike|date=2008-06-04|publisher=Denver Post |accessdate=2008-06-27] Furniture Row Racing, based inDenver, Colorado is one of a few Sprint Cup teams not based inCharlotte, North Carolina .Personal life
Visser graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. He volunteered in the
Vietnam War for 21 months after high school, and he served as a paratrouper for 11 months in the173rd Airborne Brigade between July 1968 and June 1969.cite book |last=Hartt |first=Joe |coauthors=Visser, Barney |title=Vietnam: Fresh Positive Insights For All Who Suffered Loss in the Vietnam War |publisher=Premiere Publishing Co. |date=November 2000 |isbn=978-0966404999 |url=http://vietnaminsights.com/page2.htm] Visser and his wife have Carolyn have seven children.Furniture
He started manufacturing big poof pillows. He owned eight stores called Pillow Kingdom in 1977, when he decided to start his first waterbed store called Big Sur Waterbeds. That company was so successful that he changed the whole company into waterbed stores. He estimates that the company held 85 stores in the mid 1980s. He has owned stores under the Denver Mattress, Sofa Mart, Oak Express and Bedroom Expressions names.
Racing
Visser decided to retire from his businesses, so he started racing at Colorado National Speedway at as a hobby. He met Jerry Robertson, and the two decided to form a NASCAR Busch Series (now
Nationwide Series ) team.Visser started his NASCAR team in 2005, and has raced 54 races in the Sprint Cup Series, and 19 races with
Jerry Robertson driving his Busch Series car (as ofJune 26 ,2008 ).cite web|url=http://www.racing-reference.info/owner?id=visseba01|title=Barney Visser NASCAR owner's statistics|publisher=Racing Reference.info|accessdate=2008-06-27]Joe Nemechek got his team's firstpole position at the springTalladega Superspeedway race in 2008.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.
Visser was the executive producer for the movie
Uncle Nino .cite web|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2005/01/24/daily8.html|title=Denver-backed movie gets distribution date|date=2005-01-24|publisher=Denver Business Journal|accessdate=2008-06-27]References
External links
* [http://www.furniturerowracing.com/ Furniture Row Racing official website]
* [http://www.furniturerow.com/ Furniture Row official website]
* [http://www.furniturerowlinens.com/ Furniture Row Linens official website]
* [http://www.denvermattress.com/ Denver Mattress official website]
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