It appeared late in the summer and even entering the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup that Roush Fenway Racing was behind on its mile-and-a-half and 2-mile-type racetrack program.
None of the company’s drivers were a factor at Chicago, the first race of the Chase that was on a mile-and-a-half track. Now all the sudden, the past three weeks, the team’s drivers have sparked.
You look at Carl Edwards — he had good run at Charlotte Motor Speedway and a good run at Dover International Speedway. Matt Kenseth won at Kansas Speedway last Sunday.
I know for a fact that Roush Fenway showed up with a brand-new car for Kenseth and it showed up with a brand-new car for Edwards. Like Kenseth said, they just went to work and started really focusing on what they felt like the weaknesses were.
He truly felt like the two days of testing at Kansas helped them a ton. That’s pretty amazing when you think about them showing up with two brand-new race cars because these race cars are essentially obsolete soon. We get the brand-new body style next year.
That just goes to show that even though the group pretty much knows they are out of the championship picture, they know they are not out of the picture of still trying to win races.
I would not be surprised to see the Roush drivers win another race or two before the year is out. Greg Biffle won at Texas in the spring, and we know the drivers will run well at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It’s just a matter of the group finding their weakness and going to work. When you get off a little bit in our sport, it ends up being a lot. It’s not like you are off a ton.
When you’ve got the competition we’ve got today, a tenth or two off is the difference in top five, winning the race or barely finishing inside the top 20.
