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."
Jamie McMurray leaving Roush "Rumor" stories continue to be picked up by Jayski and run on his news stories page indicating there is still interest in the subject. So at the risk of running the story in the ground, as a Jamie fan I am continuing my series of posts on the matter. Just say uncle if you have had enough of them. If your interested in continuing to follow the story, just continue to leave positive (or at least neutral) feedback and I 'll keep posting them.
Dave Rodman at NASCAR.com has published the typical story regarding Jamie's denials. What surprises me is that Dave writes like he actually believes Jamie with very little appearance of "Doubt" in his story or even a little "tongue in cheek."
"Friday at Pocono Raceway, Jamie McMurray adamantly took himself out of the Silly Season mix -- at least for the rest of this season. Last weekend as the Sprint Cup Series competed at Dover International Speedway, published reports citing unidentified sources had McMurray, one of five Cup drivers at Roush Fenway Racing, either opting out of his contract or that it would be discontinued."
Adamant? The rest of the season? Say it ain't so Dave. Surely you are not 100% convinced.
In my book there is at least a 15% to 20% chance that Jamie is leaving Roush this year. If Greg Biffle signs with Roush again, make those odds 20% to 25%. And if Tony Stewart leaves Gibbs Racing, make them 25% to 33%. Those are getting to be pretty good odds. And if we talk 2010 the odds are at least 33% to 50%.
"McMurray wouldn't speculate about why the stories were written and that neither he nor anyone affiliated with him had made inquiries to other teams about driving opportunities. He didn't want to talk about any of it."
When your being asked to publicly discuss business deals that are better kept private it is a good idea not to want to talk about it. Doh!
When a story will not go away they say it has legs. Stories continue to run about Jamie McMurray potentially leaving Roush Fenway Racing. And why shouldn't they? The picture is about as clear as mud. If Greg Biffle signs for another round with Roush Fenway this week then Jamie is in a position where he almost has to go to Roush and say O.K., what are your plans not only for 2009 but also for 2010?
In the interim, here is what Jamie had to say in an interview at Pocono.
Q: What are you doing next year?
A: The same thing that I'm doing this year: the Crown Royal, No. 26, with Roush Fenway.
Q: Why do you think (Jim) Utter (Writer, Charlotte Observer) thinks otherwise?
A: I don't know. I'm not a speculator.
Q: There's plenty of silly speculating going on. Are you putting out any feelers?
A: No, I have not.
Q: Have your representatives?
A: Not that I am aware of.
But really folks, how else could Jamie have answered these questions? While I want to believe Jamie, is it not possible he might have really been thinking.
Q: What are you doing next year?
A: Too bad I can't tell him my manager tells me, unofficially of course, that if Tony Stewart leaves Joe Gibbs that Joe would like to talk to me.
Q: Why do you think (Jim) Utter (Writer, Charlotte Observer) thinks otherwise?
A: He has pretty good sources and if I find out who leaked this I'll kill them.
Q: There's plenty of silly speculating going on. Are you putting out any feelers?
A: Of course I am you imbecile, don't you know I am on the short end of the stick at Roush given my performance this year and that NASCAR is forcing Roush to cut a team by 2010?
Q: Have your representatives?
A. Well of course they have, while the directions I have given them are unofficial directions, they already knew that Jack needs to sign Crown Royal up for another deal and it isn't unreasonable to believe that if Greg signs with Roush again next week that another announcement will follow that Crown Royal will be moved over to the 16 as his sponsor in a multi-year deal.
So there you have it, the politically correct answers on one hand and on the other what really might have been going on inside the brain of one Jamie McMurray.
Mike Wallace moved into the Top 5 and ran in the 4th position on just Lap 9. As the race wore on, the caution flag would wave and allow the GEICO Racing pit crew to shine, when they completed a tremendous pit stop on Lap 64 and returned the #7 GEICO Camry to the race track in the 4th position. Wallace and the Gecko would narrowly avoid a major crash on Lap 71. While he took a slight hit as he slivered through the colossal crash, it would not be enough to slow the #7 GEICO Camry. Wallace would run in the Top 5 for the majority of the afternoon, and even lead briefly when he overtook Dale Earnhardt, Jr. late in the race.
“I felt I was a car to beat", said Wallace. "(Greg) Biffle helped me dramatically -- he got us to where I almost had (Tony) Stewart cleared and I was just half a car length from clearing him. I didn’t want to force the issue."
Following a late-race caution flag that would provide the fans with an exciting green/white/checkers finish, Wallace restarted the race in the 5th position. Wallace jumped out of line with the #7 GEICO Camry in an effort to win the race, however a commitment made from a fellow driver would not be honored and, consequently, Wallace was ‘hung out to dry’.
"On the final restart the 38 (Jason Leffler) said they would work with us and we had a run and we went. I should have been smarter than that, I’ve been through this rodeo before."
Falling back as far as 17th position on the final lap, Wallace would hustle back to the front and record a 10th place finish.
"We were fortunate to hang onto a top-10. We had a good car, it drove really good -- we had no problems all day long.A Top 10 finish is great, but we had a car to win the race and we put ourselves in position to win, but unfortunately we got hung out to dry there on the final lap,” Wallace said. “We picked up some ground in the point standings and we also got great coverage for GEICO and Sport Clips. It was a fun race and we were lucky enough to barely miss the big crash.”
He continued, “This week will be special because we head to Richmond which sits only about 90 miles from GEICO’s corporate office. We always have a lot of GEICO guests in Richmond, so we’re hoping to take them to Victory Lane with us.”
This week, the Germain Racing team heads to Richmond, Virginia, for a Friday night short track battle. Richmond International Raceway provides the Gecko a chance to visit home, as the ¾-mile race track sits less than a hundred miles removed from GEICO’s corporate office. The Lipton Tea 250 is on Friday, May 2nd, and it will be televised live on ESPN2 beginning at 7:00 PM (ET), while the Motor Racing Network (MRN) will carry the live radio broadcast.
There have been three Sprint Cup races so far in 2008. These races have shown Ford Motor Company’s potential for success and disaster in NASCAR’s top series. Ford drivers have the potential to win any race. They showed that at the end of 2007 when Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle combined to capture four victories in the final 13 races. However, the problem with the three top Ford drivers is that there are only three of them. Ford has found itself in a position of being out gunned every time the green flag drops.
By Richard Allen
Roush Fenway Racing maintains five Sprint Cup teams, a number that will soon have to be reduced to four. Of those five teams only the three of Kenseth, Edwards and Biffle appear to have the ability to contend on a weekly basis. David Ragan has never seemed comfortable in the Sprint Cup series. Jamie McMurray has shown flashes of brilliance, like his win last July in Daytona, but has been far from a model of consistency.
Once powerful Yates Racing, which has brought Ford a championship and numerous victories, is currently campaigning two cars, one of which is partially sponsored and the other is not sponsored at all. The organization’s last win was in 2005 at Talladega when Dale Jarrett was ruled to be in the lead after a late race caution fell.
Another former powerhouse for the blue oval brand, Wood Brothers Racing, has brought itself to the brink of extinction by holding on to its glorious past for too long. The company remained in its Stuart, Virginia shop long after all other competitive teams had based themselves in the Charlotte area. Also, the Woods have stuck to the single car approach rather than go the multi car route with virtually everyone else.
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