Remember that time Roush went 31 races without a win? Yeah I don’t really either. With memories of 2009 slowly fading away, Roush is proving, with this season and last, that it’s still very much a team on top.
The team currently has two of four cars inside the Chase and one knocking at the door, and three wins, 12 top-fives, and 21 top-tens. They are all weekly contenders. And though fellow organizations Hendrick, Childress and Stewart-Haas all also have two in the top-10, no one has the stats of the Roush teams.
Carl Edwards currently sits atop the driver points with a 24 point lead, and one win. Even though last season was an improvement for the #99 bunch, 2011 is shaping up to be a better year. Edwards is averaging a 7.3 place finish and he accounts for one of those two wins and 307 total laps led.
Matt Kenseth has been the other standout, becoming only the third repeat winner of the season. Though there has been some bad luck, he’s managed a 14.1 average finish and a sixth place position in the points. His laps led? 231. Apparently he and Jimmy Fennig are working well together.
As for Greg Biffle and David Ragan, while they only combine for 41 total laps led, both have had bright spots here and there. Ragan, if you’ll recall, almost won at Daytona and has had some solid top-five and top-10 runs recently. He too though has had some bad luck and generally bad weeks this season. As for Biffle, he had a rough start to the season, but has made up for it with top-15 runs six of the last eight weeks. That includes one top-five and four top-tens.
All of that’s not even including the three wins Roush and Edwards have in the Nationwide Series this season. Add to that the very promising talent of Trevor Bayne (who won the Daytona 500 for an RFR supported Wood Brothers Racing) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Organizationally Roush is looking good this season. And after a less than wonderful couple of years they’re cementing their perch. With the competition tight and two thirds of the season remaining we’ll see if Roush can continue this momentum. As always, it’ll be interesting to watch.
TheNASCARInsiders.com
Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!
