Front Row is highest bidder for BK Racing charter and assets

Front Row Motorsports is set to expand back to three cars pending the approval of its purchase of the BK Racing charter and equipment.

FRM was the highest bidder in an auction on Monday, beating out a group headed by GMS Racing’s Mike Beam. BK Racing was up for auction after it had been in the control of a bank trustee. BK has been embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings for much of the 2018 season.

Approval of the sale will be Thursday. If and when approved, Front Row will take over immediate operation of a team with the BK Racing charter and run at Darlington on Sept. 2. According to ESPN, Front Row bid $2.08 million for the charter and GMS’ bid was $1.8 million.

Front Row currently fields teams for Michael McDowell and David Ragan. The team ran three cars full-time as recently as 2013 but has been a two-car team ever since. Ragan is 25th in the points standings and McDowell is 28th. A charter guarantees a car entry into all 36 Cup Series races a season and a team with a charter must show up for all of those races.

If the sale is approved, Front Row would own four charters including two that it’s purchased via BK Racing. Front Row purchased a charter from BK before the 2017 season and leased it to TriStar Motorsports. It’s currently leasing another charter to TriStar for 2018. Charters cannot be leased in consecutive seasons.

BK Racing and the trustees that took over the team after bankruptcy have fielded the 23 car all season. Per the ESPN report, creditors and the IRS have filed for claims totaling nearly $45 million against BK Racing and former owner Ron Devine.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter

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