Joe Garone
- Joe Garone is General Manager for the Furniture Row Warehouse NASCAR Team. A native of Denver, Colorado, Joe Garone turned his first wrench in his father’s garage when he was only three-years old.Garone grew up in a racing family where both his parents raced around the local Colorado circuits. His dad raced for years in the Modified Series, and his mom took home several Powder Puff Championships over the years. He, too, raced around the local Colorado circuits for several years while running his father’s garage, before going full-time into professional motorsports in 1989.In 1989, Garone took over as the crew chief for driver Rick Carelli in NASCAR’s Southwest and Winston West Tours and the Craftsman Truck Series. After six years with Carelli and hundreds of victories, Garone joined Bill Elliott Racing in 1995 as a suspension specialist and moved up to crew chief for the 1998 season. During his four years with Elliott, the team had 35 top 10 finishes; in 1997, it won the Union 76 World Pit Crew Competition with a time of 20.870 seconds, beating out Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.In 1999, he helped form a new team with PPI Motorsports, where he worked as a program manager and crew chief for the team’s two-car Winston Cup effort, which included the No. 32 Tide Ford and the No. 96 McDonald’s Ford.
From 2001 through 2003, Garone worked directly for NASCAR. He initially was responsible for building, staffing and running NASCAR’s Research and Development Center in Hickory, North Carolina and then moved on to become NASCAR’s director of officiating.
After spending a year as the director of competition for Michael Waltrip in 2004, Garone moved to Denver, Colorado where he accepted the position as crew chief for Furniture Row Racing. For two years Garone has been juggling the dual role as both crew chief and manager. In 2007, he was promoted to general manager for Furniture Row Racing and will focus his efforts on overseeing team operations in the various departments, acting as the liaison between Furniture Row Racing and its partners, and continue to support the growth and development of the entire program.