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CUP: Roush Peaking At Right Time?
Carl Edwards has an average finish of 4.6 over the past five Sprint Cup races...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted August 13, 2010   Brooklyn, MI
Carl Edwards will travel to Dusseldorf, Germany to compete in the 2010 Race of Champions. (Photo: Getty Images)
It’s been a strange and challenging year for Roush Fenway Racing, but at long last the team may be finding its way.

For most of the first half of the NASCAR Sprint Cup campaign, the four Roush Fenway Ford drivers were all having disappointing seasons. DavId Ragan has still not cracked the top 12 in points, and Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle have been in the bottom half of the top 12, rarely contending for victories.

But over the past month or so, things are starting to come together. Biffle followed up his third-place finish at the Brickyard 400 with a victory at Pocono, and Edwards has been one of the hottest drivers in the sport of late, with an average finish of 4.6 over the past five races.

And this weekend has the potential to be special: Michigan International Speedway, where the Carfax 400 will be run on Sunday, is one of Roush’s best tracks. In the opening round of practice Friday, Edwards was fourth fastest, with Biffle right behind him in fifth. That bodes well for the team’s odds on Sunday.

PDF > PRACTICE TWO: CARFAX 250 - MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
PDF > QUALIFYING ORDER: CARFAX 250 - MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
PDF > PRACTICE ONE: CARFAX 250 - MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

There’s even a chance that team co-owner Jack Roush, who was released from the Mayo Clinic on Wednesday, may make it to the track on Sunday, providing he continues to recuperate from injuries suffered in his July 27 airplane crash.

Roush Industries is based in Livonia, Mich., about an hour from the track, making this the team’s home race. This is a place where the entire Roush squad redoubles its efforts to run well and usually succeeds.

For his part, Edwards said he’s optimistic, despite going 58 races without a victory. He is ninth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings, best of any of the four Roush Fenway drivers.

“It’s wild how much things have changed in a short amount of time,” said Edwards. “I don’t want to jinx it, but it feels like it’s headed in the right direction. We’re fast. We’ve got four races until the Chase and if we can perform at the level we’ve performed the last four races, we can make the Chase and if we can get any better, we can win the championship. Two or three months ago, I was hopeful we’d be in this position, but I did not think we would be, so it feels good. It’s been a fun ride the last month or so.”

In Edwards’ mind, the team is very close to being championship ready.

“If you’re running 20th and you can pick up one tenth of a second, you run fifth sometimes,” said Edwards. “So I feel like we’ve just found that one-tenth that we’ve been looking for. If we can find one more, it would be on then.”

Biffle, who is 11th in points and a two-time MIS winner, is optimistic about his chances this weekend.
Teammates Matt Kenseth (Left) and Carl Edwards (Right) have scored no bonus points toward the Chase. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“We feel like we’ve got a front suspension geometry or model that’s running much better now, thanks to some help from the (Richard Petty Motorsports) guys and help from some of our Roush Fenway guys,” said Biffle. “They’re really working well together. That’s helped us. ... The engine is running good. We have a little history with it now. We know a little bit about it and our cars have gotten better and our simulation is getting better as far as how the cars are racing and driving, so I think you’re gonna see us run well, I really do. We ran well at a similar race track in Chicago, and then Indy is not so much the same, but we ran well there, so I think we’ll run well here.”

Kenseth, on the other hand, has not been as fast as his teammates lately. In his last 10 races, Kenseth has finished between 10th and 18th nine times.

Like his teammates, he’d love to win one for Roush on his home track. But mostly, he just wants to win, period.

“Honestly, it has been about a year-and-a-half, so any win would be a huge win for us,” said Kenseth. “We want to get back to victory lane and get back to being more competitive. It is maybe more special when it is closer to home or you have family or friends there or close to Jack’s house or with all the stuff that has happened to Jack. Any win would be huge for us.”

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 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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