Much of the Nascar world has been surprised to learn that John Hunter Nemechek was replaced by Anthony Alfredo—a driver without a single full season in Cup, Xfinity, or Trucks—at Front Row Motorsports. Now certain fans on the fringes of the sport have put through a new explanation—that Alfredo doesn’t actually exist.
“Oh come on, everybody knows that ‘Anthony Alfredo’ is just a figment of (Front Row Motorsports team owner) Bob Jenkins’ imagination”, said “DiBurritoFan” in a post on Reddit. “They wanted to run a bunch of different drivers for cheap, but they wanted the attention that comes with a rookie (of the year) campaign, so they created a driver out of thin air.”
“Totally—this conspiracy goes back years”, said fellow Reddit user “HamlinSux” in reply to “DiBurritoFan”’s topic. “DGR-Crosley has been working on a robot driver for a long time, and they created this ‘Anthony Alfredo’ character to allow them to beta test it back in 2019. Once they realized it didn’t work, they sold it to RCR who put it in their Xfinity car last year. All the answers are out there if you know where to look.”
Certain fans have also found ways to rectify Alfredo’s robust online presence and success in the East Series.
“Oh come on, anybody can make up an online persona”, said Twitter user @Rowdy4Prez in a recent post. “Heck, I used to have an online relationship with a woman claiming to be Elliott Sadler’s ex-girlfriend.”
“Everybody’s almost got the truth—Anthony Alfredo is real, but he hasn’t raced since 2018”, said “JoshWiseMuchWinWow” in a comment on an NBCSports article on Alfredo’s hiring. “He quit to go back to land development, but to finance his latest project he sold the rights to his persona to a shady motorsports management organization. Its kinda like when Dale Jr. lost the rights to his name and likeness, only much, much, much less important.”
For their part, Front Row Motorsports made several team employees available to corroborate Alfredo’s existence. However, with Alfredo himself being unavailable for comment, it is Spade Racing’s belief that he doesn’t exist at all. I mean really, what kind of name is “Anthony Alfredo” anyways?