NASCAR Cup Series

Edwards, Roush need surge fast

Published Sep. 13, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

Jeff Hammond

Under the circumstances, such as not making NASCAR's Chase for this Sprint Cup, now is the time when Carl Edwards needs to figure out what his team lacks.

The sad part about it, at this point in time, is that Edwards has gotten one Cup race win in the past 18 months. It’s time to figure out what is missing in this equation.

It’s time for team owner Jack Roush, it’s time for Edwards, to say we have 10 races to fix this No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing team and not sit around until the end of the year and then make a change.

They need to get this kid back on track and get him back to Victory Lane.

Mentally, each race that goes by that he can’t be competitive and that he can’t win, does damage. We’re looking at the same type of scenario that Denny Hamlin went through after finishing as the runner-up in the Chase in 2010 then struggling in 2011.

You have to put yourself in Edwards’ position to understand what I’m saying.

You go out, you run a smart season, you do everything right and yet you lose, and it’s because you didn’t win enough races.

That’s not what you call an easy solution to find for any race team, because they’re all trying to get wins and if yours is not winning — a lot — you’re in trouble.

Across the board, Roush Fenway has three wins this year. Two by Greg Biffle, one by Matt Kenseth and none by Edwards. And they weren’t much better in 2011. Edwards had one win, Kenseth had three and David Ragan had one; they had five total wins because Biffle didn’t win.

I know Roush has two cars in the Chase this year and you have to keep doing what you can there, but there is definitely not the strength, not the consistency that we are used to seeing at Roush Fenway.

With the talent they have, the fact they have no more wins than what they do tells me that there is work to be done.
 

share

Get more from NASCAR Cup Series Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

NASCAR Cup Series