After 19 races, Roush Fenway occupies three of 12 Chase Spots
Concord, N.C. (July 16, 2010) – All will be quiet on the NASCAR front this Sunday, as the Sprint Cup Series and its teams take a rare weekend off before heading into one of the biggest events on the circuit, the Brickyard 400 at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Roush Fenway Racing will look to build on a strong effort last weekend at Chicagoland that saw Carl Edwards come up just one place and a few laps short of victory lane.
Roush Fenway Racing
“Second is bittersweet,” said Edwards after posting his top finish of the season. “You want to win, but we are obviously very happy with the result. If we run that well every week we will win plenty of races. The key is that we ran so well. If we can continue that every week we will be in good shape.”
The organization placed two more cars inside the top-13 and Edwards teammate Greg Biffle appeared to have the strongest car of the fold, before falling victim to a late race mechanical issue. Throw in the fact that Edwards was the leader of six Ford Fusions that occupied the top 14 in the race and there could be cause for added excitement in the Roush Fenway camp, as the Sprint Cup Series heads into one of the biggest races of the season and into a stretch that will decide the 12-car field that makes up the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Considering that after 19 races in 2010 no team in NASCAR has more cars inside the Chase cut-off point than Roush Fenway, a potential peak at the right time could bold well for the four-team organization that has twice before taken home NASCAR’s most coveted prize.
“We are definitely on the horizon,” said Edwards after Chicagoland. “We haven’t quite gone over, but I know we can run that well because we have done it and we did it tonight. We just have to figure out how to do it every week. I hope this is something we can go back on Monday and talk about why our car was so much different this week than it has been. We have some tracks like this coming up the rest of the season that will be really important tracks, so hopefully we can apply this to those races.”
Ragan, who posted his top non-restrictor-plate finish of the season, was also encouraged with what he saw from the cars at Chicagoland.
“We see it (the light at the end of the tunnel),” said Ragan. “I don’t know if everyone else sees it, but we do. Certainly our engineers and everybody back at the chassis shop and engine shop are working hard and we had the new Ford engine tonight. We’re making progress, but at the same time, everyone else is also making progress. It was good to see some Fords up there in the top 10. We’ll have the week off to think about this race and then we’ll head to Indy to try and get one.”
While everyone admits that there is still much work to be done before Roush Fenway returns to the type of dominance that saw the team win 11 races in 2008 alone – the organization appears to be on the right track, and with three teams currently occupying the coveted top-12 positions, Roush Fenway could find itself in a perfect position to peak at just the right time in 2010.
Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating eight motorsports teams. Four in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with drivers Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; and four in the Nationwide Series with Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Colin Braun, Brian Ickler, and Paul Menard. For more information on any of the Roush Fenway Racing teams, log onto www.RoushFenway.com. Become a fan of Roush Fenway Racing on Facebook by going to http://www.facebook.com/roushfenway and follow us on Twitter @roushfenway. For sponsorship inquiries please contact Robin Johnson at 704.720.4645.
For more information contact, Kevin Woods, kwoods@roushfenway.com or 704-957-1138.
- Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release
