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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Roush Fenway Working To Improve In 2010
Roush Fenway Racing is using the offseason to improve for the upcoming year...
Rea White  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted December 20, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth battles teammate David Ragan during the NASCAR Sprint Cup AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway in September of 2009. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

After a 2009 season in which the organization snared only three wins and put just two drivers in NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup, everyone at Roush Fenway Racing agrees that things need to improve a little for the 2010 season.

While some organizations would be pleased with those numbers, they're obviously not what this group is accustomed to. And everyone involved with the teams of Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle , Carl Edwards and David Ragan is working to make sure that the 2010 season nets better overall results.

It should be noted that Roush Fenway did win the Daytona 500 with Kenseth in 2009 and that both Edwards and Biffle did make the Chase, with Biffle finishing seventh and Edwards 11th in the standings.

But that's not enough to satisfy the organization, so they're working diligently for improved results in 2010.

The group has shifted from five teams - Jamie McMurray also competed for Roush Fenway in 2009 - to four to meet the requirements of NASCAR's ownership cap and has shifted some personnel around as part of both that transition and an effort to improve.

Long-time crew chief Jimmy Fennig has moved to a role with the research and development team. Donnie Wingo, formerly the crew chief for McMurray, will help Ragan's team. That group has undergone a series of changes in personnel, from engineers to the pit crew as it tries to return to the form of 2008, where it finished 13th in the standings, after a 2009 season in which it fell to 27th.

Others have undergone changes as well, though all the other crew chiefs remain in their positions. But pit crews and others are moving around within the organization in an effort to strengthen all four teams.

General manager Robbie Reiser says it is all part of trying to build the organization back to top form.

"We made quite a few changes over the four, then we've done a lot of restructuring internally to get our performances back where we can win races and win championships," he says.

"I think we've got a direction to work in. We just got so far behind in a lot of different areas in some ways we've had to go back and start over and try to get this thing pointed in the right direction. We went back and restructured our engineering department. It's gotten so large over the years … so we went back and did some work there."

Edwards, as he assesses his season, says it's just small changes that need to be made to help the team gain that needed edge.

That appears to be the philosophy within the organization. There's been no major realignment of Cup crew chiefs or anything of that nature. Instead, there seems to be an overall study of the entire organization and a fine-tuning of the one-team approach that has worked well for Roush Fenway in the past.

The group appears to be heading for a more efficient approach to the season - and is clearly committed to improving as much and as quickly as possible.

And they plan to do so together.


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Rea White

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