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Sprint Cup
CUP: Roush Fenway Red Hot
Carl Edwards is looking for a sweep at Charlotte Motor Speedway...
Carl Edwards talks with the media after his qualifying run putting his Ford Fusion in the 3rd position for the 2011 Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Suddenly, it looks like Jack Roush has set the Wayback Machine to 2003-05.
During that period, Roush Fenway Racing was the dominant team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, winning championships with Matt Kenseth in 2003 and Kurt Busch in ’04, and following that up with an incredible 2005 season, when the team won 15 of 36 races and placed all five of its drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
It’s still relatively early in the 2011 season, but already Roush and his minions have turned in some stellar performances: Carl Edwards has one points-race victory, leads the points standings and is coming off a weekend when he drubbed the competition in the NASCAR Sprint-All-Star race. In that event, the team won all four segments of the race and all four Roush drivers finished in the top eight.
Kenseth has two race victories already in 2011 and may be on track to have his best season since his championship year.
After a slow start, Greg Biffle has climbed from 31st in points to 12th in the last eight weeks, and David Ragan has one pole and three finishes of eighth or better in the last six races.
Right now, all the Roush Fords are fast and four drivers are running well in what could turn out to be a memorable year.
With the Coca-Cola 600 on tap at Charlotte tomorrow night, the Roush squad comes in as favorites, maybe even prohibitive favorites.
“It could be a huge night,” Edwards said. “I think one of the things that’s hard about this place is it’s so competitive and I think that the pit strategy is gonna play such a huge role in the outcome that it’s hard to just go into it and say we’re going to be dominant and we’re gonna have a shot at winning. I know we’ll have a shot.”
Regardless of tires, pit stops and track position, Edwards knows his cars are considerably faster this year than in 2008-09, when he had a 70-race winless streak.
“We’ve been really, really good,” said Edwards. “It kind of reminds me of 2005. Every time we went to a mile and a half (track) it seemed like all the Roush cars would be in the top 10. I hope that’s the case, but I still am a little hesitant. I don’t want to get too confident just because it’s a long race.”
The toughest competition for Edwards in the Coca-Cola 600 could well be his own teammates.
“I can promise you I’m gonna make it very hard on him. That’s for damn sure,” said Biffle. “I thought I had a car probably as good as he did last week and I didn’t capitalize on it, so I’m gonna take advantage of capitalizing on it this week and not make that same mistake.
“A lot of it is track position. He (Edwards) got out front and seemed to be the guy, but he’s got a fast car. They’ve got the setup that won and we know he’s gonna be tough. We know the 18 (Kyle Busch) is gonna be tough. There are about four or five cars that were fast in that All-Star Race. The 00 (David Reutimann) came on at the end, so we’re gonna have to beat those guys as well.”
Historically, as an organization Roush Fenway has focused the majority of its attention on the intermediate tracks of 1.5- to 2-miles in length. That’s certainly the case this year, with Edwards winning at Las Vegas and at the All-Star race, and Kenseth taking the Texas event.
“You want to be good at all the tracks,” said Kenseth, who will run his Texas-winning car in the Coke 600. “That’s the key, but, certainly, they’ve been pretty good tracks for us as an organization. Of course, that’s kind of the bread and butter of the series. We have the most mile-and-a-half and two-mile, high-banked, tracks, so I don’t know why it seems we’ve been a little better at those tracks.”
As for the boss, he’s happy, crediting better cars for better results.
“It's a testament to the hard work everybody's been doing,” said Roush. “There's a lot of discussion about hard work in this business. But the Roush Fenway guys have really, really suited up for it in the winter, and the manufacturing part is working well.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
During that period, Roush Fenway Racing was the dominant team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, winning championships with Matt Kenseth in 2003 and Kurt Busch in ’04, and following that up with an incredible 2005 season, when the team won 15 of 36 races and placed all five of its drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
It’s still relatively early in the 2011 season, but already Roush and his minions have turned in some stellar performances: Carl Edwards has one points-race victory, leads the points standings and is coming off a weekend when he drubbed the competition in the NASCAR Sprint-All-Star race. In that event, the team won all four segments of the race and all four Roush drivers finished in the top eight.
Kenseth has two race victories already in 2011 and may be on track to have his best season since his championship year.
After a slow start, Greg Biffle has climbed from 31st in points to 12th in the last eight weeks, and David Ragan has one pole and three finishes of eighth or better in the last six races.
Right now, all the Roush Fords are fast and four drivers are running well in what could turn out to be a memorable year.
With the Coca-Cola 600 on tap at Charlotte tomorrow night, the Roush squad comes in as favorites, maybe even prohibitive favorites.
“It could be a huge night,” Edwards said. “I think one of the things that’s hard about this place is it’s so competitive and I think that the pit strategy is gonna play such a huge role in the outcome that it’s hard to just go into it and say we’re going to be dominant and we’re gonna have a shot at winning. I know we’ll have a shot.”
Regardless of tires, pit stops and track position, Edwards knows his cars are considerably faster this year than in 2008-09, when he had a 70-race winless streak.
“We’ve been really, really good,” said Edwards. “It kind of reminds me of 2005. Every time we went to a mile and a half (track) it seemed like all the Roush cars would be in the top 10. I hope that’s the case, but I still am a little hesitant. I don’t want to get too confident just because it’s a long race.”
The toughest competition for Edwards in the Coca-Cola 600 could well be his own teammates.
“I can promise you I’m gonna make it very hard on him. That’s for damn sure,” said Biffle. “I thought I had a car probably as good as he did last week and I didn’t capitalize on it, so I’m gonna take advantage of capitalizing on it this week and not make that same mistake.
“A lot of it is track position. He (Edwards) got out front and seemed to be the guy, but he’s got a fast car. They’ve got the setup that won and we know he’s gonna be tough. We know the 18 (Kyle Busch) is gonna be tough. There are about four or five cars that were fast in that All-Star Race. The 00 (David Reutimann) came on at the end, so we’re gonna have to beat those guys as well.”
Historically, as an organization Roush Fenway has focused the majority of its attention on the intermediate tracks of 1.5- to 2-miles in length. That’s certainly the case this year, with Edwards winning at Las Vegas and at the All-Star race, and Kenseth taking the Texas event.
“You want to be good at all the tracks,” said Kenseth, who will run his Texas-winning car in the Coke 600. “That’s the key, but, certainly, they’ve been pretty good tracks for us as an organization. Of course, that’s kind of the bread and butter of the series. We have the most mile-and-a-half and two-mile, high-banked, tracks, so I don’t know why it seems we’ve been a little better at those tracks.”
As for the boss, he’s happy, crediting better cars for better results.
“It's a testament to the hard work everybody's been doing,” said Roush. “There's a lot of discussion about hard work in this business. But the Roush Fenway guys have really, really suited up for it in the winter, and the manufacturing part is working well.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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