Drivers unable to find Victory Lane
Good news for Roush Fenway Racing: NASCAR drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne have finished an average of 4.5 positions higher than they did in the first four races of the 2016 Cup season.
Bad news for Roush Fenway Racing: The team hasn’t won a Cup race since June 22, 2014, at Sonoma — back when Carl Edwards was still in the mix. He’s gone now as the conversation continues to grow about the team’s ability to stay competitive in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
It’s no secret that it is struggling. A lot of variables come into play: The team has lost some fine drivers over the years, including Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Edwards. They all moved onto other teams.
And with the retirement of Greg Biffle after the 2016 season, the team is down to two drivers. Stenhouse has yet to win a Cup race in 152 starts. Bayne, then driving for Woods Brothers, won the Daytona 500 in 2011. The dramatic finish included Edwards — then racing for owner Jack Roush — pushing him to victory in the last lap. It was a feel-good story about a good guy, but he is now one for 134.
“I don’t even think about Roush Racing winning a race,” Fox Sports analyst Larry McReynolds told me during Speedweeks. “I don’t think about them being a championship contender. Just be competitive.”
Further complicating the narrative is that outside of Roush Fenway Racing, Fords are doing well in the Cup Series. Ford Performance and Roush Yates Engines have been to Victory Lane three times already.
If you want the glass to be half full, the team’s average finish this season is 16.88, better than the 20.39 average of the entire 2016 season. Stenhouse finished fourth in Phoenix last weekend.
If you want the glass to be half empty, there are goose eggs in each season’s victory column since 2014.
In an effort to shake up things, the team announced organizational changes last November, moving Kevin Kidd, the Cup team manager, to competition director. Tommy Wheeler, who oversaw the production of the team’s Cup and Xfinity cars, became the team’s operations director. Robbie Reiser, the team’s general manager, was reassigned.
“I see a lot of different press releases from the organization giving someone a different title, but it’s like they keep moving the same apples around in their basket,” McReynolds said.
Draw your own comparisons and conclusions. To suggest the team is struggling is not apples and oranges.
Crossing paths
You feel for Joey Logano and Kyle Busch, just trying to move along without getting in each other’s way.
A week after Logano wrecked Busch in Las Vegas, setting up a brief but wild melee, Logano undercut Busch’s chances of winning in Phoenix. This time it was simply car trouble, causing a caution that brought the field back to Busch.
And then in a roll-thedice strategy, Ryan Newman’s crew chose not to pit with the leaders. He stayed out in front to win for the first time in 127 starts. All together now: Thanks, Logano! “We just blew a right front,” Logano said. “There is not much you can do when the right front blows out.” Busch finished third. “My guys gave me an awesome Skittles Camry and there’s nothing else I could ask for from them,” Busch said. “We were in the right position and we were in a great spot to win the race today, but unfortunately it just didn’t happen for us and that’s racing.”