In the mid to late 2000s it looked as if Roush Racing, now Roush-Fenway Racing, was unstoppable. A stable of household name drivers, Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, champions Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch and later added Jamie McMurray and David Ragan. Five race winning and championship capable cars for more than a decade and sponsors were coming out of team owner Jack Roush’s ears.
Since their heyday Roush-Fenway Racing has decidedly lost their competitive edge losing both top tier drivers and sponsors. Some were beyond what The Cat in The Hat could control. Mark Martin “retired” then kept racing in multiple other organizations for another 10 years. Jamie McMurray was displaced by a rule change limiting teams to only four cars or less per team. He returned to Ganassi Racing where he has since flourished. David Ragan was lost due to poor performance and sponsorship woes and ended up with back marking Front Row Racing in the #34.
Kurt Busch was a little bit of a different situation. His poor attitude and bad behavior just wore Roush out and Busch was ultimately suspended and let go. He then moved through Penske, wearing out his welcome once again. He spent two years getting his attitude straight with the Phoenix Racing #51 and the Furniture Row #78 and has now seemed to find a more permanent home with Stewart/Haas Racing where he will once again be eligible and competing in the Chase for the Championship.
Roush lost one of his most successful drivers when 2003 Champion Matt Kenseth decided to leave for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013. It was last year where Kenseth had one of his biggest seasons yet winning seven races with his new team. While he fell short in winning the championship he showed how far behind Roush was by being able to win so easily with another organization.
Contractual obligations won’t let Edwards confirm where he is going, though the rumor is Joe Gibbs Racing, but he will say that his deal for 2015 is in place and he will not be returning to Roush-Fenway Racing. Edwards was a breakout star for Roush taking the #99 car over after it was vacated by Jeff Burton partway through the 2004 season. The car at the time was racing with blank white panels finishing with poor results until Edwards revitalized the team scoring multiple wins in his first full season behind the wheel in 2005.
Greg Biffle will be the only man left from the good ol’ days. As of now The Biff is lucky to score one win a season instead of fighting for championship. As of now he is sitting 12th in Sprint Cup points but hasn’t been a factor at the front of the field this year with only three top 5 finishes.
On top of all that Roush has been hemorrhaging sponsorship. Full-time sponsors that either left to take diminishing roles on other teams or scaled back from full-time to part-time. Dewalt Tools, and the National Guard are now involved with other organizations. Subway will be leaving with Edwards, UPS now sponsors one race per season instead of one car for the whole season, and recently announced 3M will be leaving Roush for Hendrick next year.
From five cars capable of winning each week Roush-Fenway Racing will be setting fourth into 2015 with Greg Biffle and a sponsor to be named later, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne. Stenhouse is now floundering through his second full Cup season who now has one top 5 and four top 10’s through 22 races and is 27th in the points. While he is a two time Nationwide Series Champion, his biggest accomplishment in the Cup series is dating Danica Patrick. Bayne is the only Daytona 500 winner in the 2015 Roush stable but has had a rather unremarkable career since then. Winning in 2011 in the famous Wood Brother’s #21 Bayne hasn’t been able recapture his winning ways since. He has raced eight times in the Cup Series this season with his highest finish being 19th twice, at Texas and Michigan. Bayne is running full time for points in the Nationwide Series for Jack Roush. He is currently sixth in the Nationwide points 48 points off the leader with zero wins.
So Martin, Edwards, Kenseth, Biffle, and Busch reduced to Biffle, Stenhouse and Bayne. That isn’t what I would call progress for an organization that used to be talked about in the same sentence with juggernauts Hendrick Motor Sports and Joe Gibbs Racing. I don’t know what Jack Roush has planned over the next few years but he has to make some changes soon before we start talking about him in the same sentence with other famous former teams Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Evernham Motorsports.
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