Offseason Analysis: Roush Fenway Racing

For just about any other race team, winning three races including the Daytona 500 and placing two cars in the Chase for the Championship would be considered a banner year. Those other organizations don’t have the expectations that Roush Fenway Racing has set for itself. By its own lofty standards, 2009 was a difficult and disappointing year for the organization.

Now the hard part comes this offseason for Roush Fenway as they must assess what they have to do to return to their customary perch atop the Sprint Cup pecking order.

2009 In the Rearview: In 2008 Roush Fenway won a combined 11 races and had two cars in championship contention, with a third also in the Chase. After Matt Kenseth swept the opening two races of 2009, it looked like the Roush Express was going to continue to chug along.

Somewhere along the way though, the train got derailed with only one more victory and only two of Roush’s cars making the Chase, with both really being non-factors.

To recap, Carl Edwards went from winning a series-best nine times in 2008 to being completely shutout in 2009.

Greg Biffle went winless for the first time since going fulltime in Sprint Cup.

Despite winning the first two races of the year, Matt Kenseth failed to make the Chase for the first time in his career.

In 2008, Ragan had 14 top-10s and finished the year 13th in points. Last year, he dropped completely off the map with only two top-10s and fell all the way to 27th in points.

Jamie McMurray, despite winning at Talladega in the fall, led only 33 laps on the year, and finished a substandard 22nd overall in the standings.

All in all, there wasn’t a whole lot to hang a Roush Fenway hat on in 2009. From top to bottom, expectations weren’t met, and as a result of a mediocre year, this is going to be a busy, busy offseason for everyone involved with Roush Fenway Racing.

2010 Drivers: No. 6 David Ragan, No. 16 Greg Biffle, No. 17 Matt Kenseth, No. 99 Carl Edwards

Key Changes: Per NASCAR’s new rule limiting how many teams one owner can have, the 26 team formerly piloted by Jamie McMurray has been disbanded. His former sponsor Crown Royal will move over to Matt Kenseth’s car and replace DeWalt as the fulltime sponsor on the 17.

Surprisingly, Jack Roush decided not to do what a lot of owners do when their teams are coming off a disappointing year, and that is to shuffle crew chiefs. The only crew chief change Roush made was moving Donnie Wingo over to the 6 car. He replaces Jimmy Fennig, who has been moved into an R&D role with Roush. Wingo will have his work cutout for him in attempting to jumpstart David Ragan’s uninspiring Sprint Cup career. We’ll see.

Offseason Analysis: Never should an owner focus all their resources and attention on one particular area of their operation. The exception however might be at Roush Fenway, where they need to desperately, desperately workout the kinks of Ford’s new engine, the FR9. Almost all of Roush’s struggles last year can be traced back to the lack of horsepower emanating from underneath the hood of Roush’s five cars.

The quicker Roush and his team of engineers, engine builders, and gearheads figure out and develop the FR9 to the point that they can race it fulltime, the quicker Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth will return to being winning drivers. Until this happens, everything else is inconsequential.

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