NASCAR Cup Series

Roush Fenway leads pack midway

Published Jul. 13, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

How do the top NASCAR Sprint Cup organizations stack up at the halfway point of the season?

Not one team has distinguished itself as “the” championship contender in the garage yet. While each manufacturer has won races and led the points standings at some point during the first 18 races, there’s been plenty of parity to go around.

And that parity is apparent in the points standings as the top four drivers represent Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota. But there hasn’t been one dominant team that has lit a spark and pulled away from the pack entirely.

In the past three weeks, there have been different drivers at the top. Currently, the top four drivers - Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch - are separated by just 18 points with defending champion Jimmie Johnson lurking just one point behind in fifth place and former champ Matt Kenseth four points back in sixth place.

But how are their support systems?

Here’s a look at the top five organizations in Sprint Cup, with a grade for each. No doubt the 2011 Sprint Cup champion will come out of one of these uber operations.

Roush Fenway Racing, A-

There’s not another operation that has three winners under its roof this season or that has had a driver at the top of the points standings for 12 of 18 weeks. Roush has four wins this season, plus a victory with protégé Trevor Bayne in the Wood Brothers camp.

The Roush Yates engines have been strong and reliable. Although Edwards had a valve issue at Pocono Raceway, engine tuners fixed the problem and the No. 99 Ford finished the race. The RFR cars have not had the handling issues that other teams have complained about this season.

Jack Roush was the only owner to lock five drivers into the Chase for the Sprint Cup field before NASCAR set a four-car cap. And there’s a distinct possibility he could qualify all four teams this year.

Edwards and Kenseth appear to be comfortably in the Chase Zone. There’s a 49-point spread between Kenseth and seventh-place Jeff Gordon. Greg Biffle, who is currently 14th in the standings, has earned a berth in four of the seven previous Chases. Biffle says RFR’s decision to replace veteran crew chief Greg Erwin with Matt Puccia this week “proves a big sense of urgency” on the No. 16 team with just eight races remaining before the Chase. Biffle is 33 points outside of the top 10. But teammate David Ragan is two points behind Biffle and with momentum from his Daytona win could very easily leapfrog over the veteran and into one of the two Chase wild-card spots, the two positions available to drivers outside the top 10 in points and inside the top 20 that have a win.

Roush’s only weakness right now is the instability in the camp caused by Edwards’ indecision over his plans for 2012 and beyond. With sponsorship uncertainties, Edwards is not making the job easy for the RFR front office.

Hendrick Motorsports, B+

Hendrick Motorsports is the only organization that can claim three teams currently in the Chase Zone. Both Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have remained in the top 12 since Las Vegas, the third race of the season.

Despite an engine failure at Charlotte, and two finishes of 20th or worse after, Johnson remains fifth in the points standings. He’s led just one lap since his Dover win in early May. While crew chief Chad Knaus revamped the No. 48’s pit crew, Johnson has still experienced inconsistency in the pits.

Earnhardt has struggled over the last four races and dropped from third to seventh in the standings. He desperately needs a win to turn the team’s luck around and for added insurance in the postseason.

Jeff Gordon is pleased with the improvement HMS has made with its intermediate program, which should pay benefits with five 1.5-milers in the Chase. Gordon has only been in the top 10 for four of the first 18 races. However, he is one of just four drivers with multiple wins which should automatically lock into a wild-card position if misfortune hits over the next eight events.

As a lame duck at Hendrick, Mark Martin is not a priority. At 19th in the points standings, the No. 5 team’s greatest contribution can be as a test squad for the other three contenders.

Where Roush is struggling on the sponsorship side of the business, Hendrick Motorsports is solid for 2012 and beyond.

Joe Gibbs Racing, B

Kyle Busch has led a tremendous charge among the JGR drivers with three wins this season and has cycled back to the top of the points standings for the third time this season.

Busch is getting hot when it counts and has shown tremendous drive and focus this season. He’s led 1,060 laps, twice as many as the closest competitor, and nearly 20 percent of all circuits run this season. It’s not surprising that Busch has been able to convert his front-running position into victories.

Hamlin is holding on to 10th place in the Chase Zone by just two points over Tony Stewart. With a win, Hamlin should be a lock for the postseason, but the No. 11 team was plagued by struggles early in the year which led to rumors of a crew chief change. Hamlin had five wins at this juncture of the season in 2010 compared to just one this year.

JGR’s weakness this season has been the reliability of engines. Each of the three drivers has experienced engine failures and only Joey Logano has been able to post a pole-winning lap. Logano, like Hamlin, has had his own issue with his team earlier in the season. Despite three finishes of sixth or better in the last seven races, Logano has not been able to rise higher than 20th this season. He has led just seven laps.

Richard Childress Racing, B-

Kevin Harvick has set the tone for the RCR cars this season with three wins, but is the only car from the stable to break through to Victory Lane. Harvick battled back from an engine failure at Daytona to lead the points entering Kentucky, but that lasted just one week.

Although Harvick won the Coca-Cola 600, the organization as a whole has been mediocre at the last two, flatter intermediate tracks. Bowyer, who generally shines on slick tracks, could not get his handling dialed in Saturday night. His 35th-place finish, combined with a 36th-place run one week earlier at Daytona, knocked him out of the top 10 in the points standings for the first time since Talladega in April. Bowyer’s current contract situation is not helping the situation.

Paul Menard is enjoying the best season of his career and could be the next breakthrough winner. The first half of this year, he was well within striking distance of the Chase but like his fellow RCR teammates, experienced a bit of a rough patch before rebounding with two top-10 finishes in the last four races. While there’s room for improvement as the newest team acclimates to the program, the No. 27 team is showing a lot of promise.

While Jeff Burton re-signed earlier in the year, he’s only enjoyed six top-20 finishes this season and still hasn’t broken through with a top 10. Despite the strength of the Earnhardt Childress engine program, Burton has suffered through two engine failures this season. He is mired at 25th in the points standings and led just 32 laps this season. Compared to 2010, Burton was ranked eighth in points 18 races into the year and had led 379 laps. Don’t be surprised if there’s a crew chief change on the No. 31 team by the time the tour returns to Indy.

Penske Racing, B-

It’s been a while since Penske Racing has had both teams on the same page. Kurt Busch complained earlier in the season that he lacked a teammate that could contribute to the program but Brad Keselowski’s performance of late -- including capturing Penske’s first win of the season at Kansas Speedway -- made the veteran driver a believer.

Busch is the only driver who has been in the top 10 in points all season long, including 10 races in the top five. Busch's recent gains can be traced to an improvement in qualifying, bolstered by three consecutive pole positions and a breakthrough road-course win at Sonoma. The team’s biggest issue has been being able to adapt the car’s set-up to the changing conditions of the racetrack, which seems to bite the No. 22 car especially in night races. But the ability of the No. 22 crew to lean on the No. 2 car has paid dividends for the flagship program.

Although it took a while for Paul Wolfe to acclimate to the Cup program, his promotion to crew chief has been beneficial to Keselowski as well as Busch’s pit boss Steve Addington. Keselowski has already doubled his stats from last year with a win, two top-fives and four top 10s. He’s led 139 laps, three times the amount of 2010. Keselowski is just three points outside of the top 20, but he knows it will take him a second win to earn a wild-card spot in the Chase.