As NASCAR makes its return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Greg Biffle's Roush Fenway team comes back for its third visit since John Henry and Red Sox ownership bought half of Jack Roush's race outfit, the organization comes to its quasi home looking stronger than it has on either of its two previous trips. After an inconsistent season in which its quintet of drivers didn't finish 12 percent of the races it started, and didn't put a driver in the top five during an average race, the Sprint Cup's best stable of Fords has reasserted itself this year.
Carl Edwards has placed among the top 10 more often than any other driver - doing so in 12 of 16 races - and his three wins are second, while Matt Kenseth is one of only five drivers with at least 10 top 10s. As a result, those two - Edwards fourth, Kenseth 12th - are in position to Chase for the Cup with 10 races remaining before the field of contenders is cut to a dozen. So is Biffle, who ranks seventh, while David Ragan is 14th, just 47 points from qualifying as well.
The drivers credited part of the improvement in performance to a simplified preparation process that now requires a team to ready one car rather than two because the so-called Car of Tomorrow has been fully incorporated to the Cup Series. But they also attributed a portion of their success to the work of Robbie Reiser, who was formerly Kenseth's crew chief, but moved into a role as Roush Fenway's general manager before the season.
There's still some room to go, especially with Jamie McMurray lagging behind the rest and currently running 20th. But even he is only 70 points behind his pace of a year ago, and as a whole the five drivers have already amassed nearly 700 more points than they had at this point a year ago.
The biggest leap belongs to Ragan, and if he can continue to improve, there's a legitimate chance Roush can put four cars in the Chase. Given McMurray's difficulties, it's unlikely they'll get five into NASCAR's version of the playoffs, as they did three years ago, but with a third of the contenders coming from their stable there would still be a decent shot of securing the team's third title of this decade.
"We know we've got to step it up," Biffle said, "and one of us has got to pull the title out."
On the last lap of the Daytona 500 David Ragan saw Kyle Busch run off the apron coming off of turn four. Busch’s car jumped sideways and prompted a nine-car demolition derby that took out contenders. The final incident of the race, perhaps the most spectacular, involved Clint Bowyer, Busch, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Matt Kenseth, David Gilliland, Sterling Marlin and Reed Sorenson. "I just kind of stood my ground and stayed straight and kept my eye on the start/finish line," said Ragan. That's where I was trying to get to."
Mears and Biffle then both spun. Behind the smoke Robby Gordon hit Reed Sorenson sliding him into the wall. Meanwhile Jeff Gordon who Mears had clipped in the left rear was turned into the wall and began spinning.
Gordon could hardly see anything as he was spinning. "I'm not sure I did want to see what was in front of me on that last lap," Gordon said. "I saw them going every which way. It was about survival, because it was so wild and crazy out there."
Sliding on down the track Mears hit Marlin.
"We escaped a lot of pileups today, including the last one,” offered Marlin, a veteran driver. “I was running 10th and looking down the frontstretch at the checkered flag, thinking I was clear of the wreck, when the 25 car ( Mears) hit the wall and shot back down the track into us.” Marlin added, “There was nothing we could do. I just took my foot off the brake and slid across the finish line.” Marlin’s yellow and green Chevy came to a stop in the infield grass where Marlin climbed out and walked to the garage.
Mears wasn't done yet. He then pinballed into Bowyer.
Bowyer took the wildest ride in his #07 Jack Daniel's Chevrolet when his car flipped over, slid on its roof across the finish line like a matchbox car and flopped back over on its wheels on the infield grass where a flash fire erupted in the engine compartment as Bowyer climbed out. Bowyer and all other drivers climbed from their wrecked machines unhurt. "It was quick," he said. "You know, I flipped over and then here comes the mud. I tell you, if much more mud would have come in, I wouldn't have gotten out.
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