Roush Fenway still chases acceleration
Good news for Roush Fenway Racing:
and 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
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 Cup Series.
It’s no secret the Roush members are struggling. A lot of variables come into play: They’ve lost some fine drivers over the years, including
and Edwards. They all moved onto other teams. Martin did it later in his career, but Kenseth and Edwards left for Racing in their prime — auspicious moves for them, not so much for RFR.
And with the retirement of 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 the Woods Brothers, won the Daytona 500 in 2011. The dramatic finish included Edwards — then racing for owner — pushing him to victory in the last lap. It was a feelgood story about a good guy, but one that has taken on the decided theme of a one-hit wonder. He is now 1 for 134.
“I don’t even think about Roush Racing winning a race,” FOX Sports NASCAR analyst
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 —
in the Clash at Daytona, in the Daytona 500 and
in Atlanta. 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 COMMENTARY last weekend, the team’s best result in the short sample-size.
If you want the glass to be half empty, there are goose eggs in each season’s victory column since 2014, and to be clear, Martin, Edwards and Kenseth aren’t coming back.
In an effort to shake up things, the team announced a number of organizational changes last November, moving
the Cup team manager, to competition director.
who oversaw the production of the team’s Cup and Xfinity cars, became the team’s operations director.
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. “They don’t go out and get any new apples. Fresh apples.”
Draw your own comparisons and conclusions. To suggest the team is struggling is not apples and oranges.
Perhaps and should seek couples counseling.
You feel for them. Two crazy kids in this mixedup world of NASCAR, 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-ofthe-dice strategy,
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. “Probably just overheated the bead. I am sure that is what it was. There is not much you can do when the right front blows out. “
But the dismay evident from Kyle’s wife, in the pit box told the other side of the story. As soon as the caution came out, she dropped her head in frustration, knowing her man was in for a fight, this time in the car.
He lost the battle, finishing 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.” Yes it is. Onward to California this weekend.