Jack Roush (Pictured) is the co-owner and founder of Roush Fenway Racing. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
UPDATED: 5:01 pm ET
Only two days after failing to win the Sprint Cup championship in a tight race with Tony Stewart, Roush Fenway Racing has been rocked by the layoffs of more than 100 workers, according to multiple sources.
RFR spokesman Kevin Woods would confirm only that layoffs took place and would not discuss the number of employees impacted.
“We’ll have probably three Cup teams and one and one-half Nationwide teams (one full-time, one part-time) next season,” Woods said. “Do the math. We had to right-size the organization to get to that number.
“It’s an ongoing process that’s not complete.”
According to sources, more than 100 workers were released by the team Monday and Tuesday. One source put the number at 125. Prior to Tuesday, the team employed about 440 people.
Roush Fenway is expected to reduce its NASCAR Sprint Cup car count from four cars to three next season, with the No. 6 driven by David Ragan almost certain to be shuttered. At last report, the team is also without sponsors for the No. 17 of Matt Kenseth, and there was no news on that front Tuesday.
Carl Edwards and the RFR No. 99 Cup team tied for the Sprint Cup championship with Stewart, but Stewart won the title based on seasonal victories (five to one). Edwards and Kenseth made the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Kenseth finishing in fourth place.
Greg Biffle drives the other Roush Cup entry.
The team has struggled to renew sponsors and sign new sponsors for next season despite its success.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the Nationwide Series title for Roush and said at Homestead he expects to run the series full-time again next season, along with a few Sprint Cup races.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
