Roush-Fenway

[bob.p...@gmail.com]

Jack Roush has to be feeling somewhat snakebit long about now. At one time
he was pretty much king of the hill with five teams, most of which were
running up front consistently with top name drivers.

Now he's lost two championship caliber drivers in three years. Next year he'll
have just two young guys who are reasonably good drivers, but not championship
material yet, and one veteran who has a few wins, runs well on occasions, but
has never been a serious championship contender.

I'm thinking that guys like Kenseth and Edwards would not have left if they
thought they had a decent chance of winning a championship in Roush equipment.

Furthermore, it looks like Team Penske has taken over as Ford's flagship team.
The Wood Brothers just switched their technical alliance from Roush to Penske.

I know these things are cyclical. Teams have up and down years, but Jack seems
to be on an extended downward trend with not a whole lot of hope of things
getting better any time soon.

[John McCoy]

bob.p...@gmail.com wrote in
news:6a136e4c-2039-4c36...@googlegroups.com:

> one veteran who has a few wins,
> runs well on occasions, but has never been a serious championship
> contender.

You speak of Biffle, obviously. In his earlier days, Biffle was
a contender - career-wise, he's been as close as Edwards has. But
I agree that at this stage of his career, he's on the downward
slope and isn't likely to contend.

> I'm thinking that guys like Kenseth and Edwards would not have left if
> they thought they had a decent chance of winning a championship in
> Roush equipment.

100% agree. And I think the only reason Biffle didn't is that
he's got security at Roush, which other teams wouldn't offer him.

> Furthermore, it looks like Team Penske has taken over as Ford's
> flagship team. The Wood Brothers just switched their technical
> alliance from Roush to Penske.

It would be interesting to know what Ford thinks, behind the
scenes. Roush has been the Ford "factory" team for many years,
which is part of why guys like Yates got out of the sport. Is
Penske going to become the Ford factory team? Certainly Penske
himself has a much better record of running things than Roush
does, so one could see Ford being tempted.

> I know these things are cyclical. Teams have up and down years, but
> Jack seems to be on an extended downward trend with not a whole lot of
> hope of things getting better any time soon.

I disagree with you here. I think Roush started on the down
slope in 2004, when he refused to run Jeff Burton in an
unsponsored car, but then was willing to run Edwards without
sponsorship after Burton left. Ever since then Roush has
had a hard time getting sponsorship (did you realize Edwards
has never had a full-season sponsor?) and a hard time keeping
staff (at least, judging by all the team shakeups that get
reported on Jayski). I think the problem is right at the top,
and I don't think that's likely to be cyclical.

John

[bob.p...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, August 19, 2014 3:10:03 PM UTC-4, John McCoy wrote:

>
> I disagree with you here. I think Roush started on the down
> slope in 2004, when he refused to run Jeff Burton in an
> unsponsored car, but then was willing to run Edwards without
> sponsorship after Burton left. Ever since then Roush has
> had a hard time getting sponsorship (did you realize Edwards
> has never had a full-season sponsor?) and a hard time keeping
> staff (at least, judging by all the team shakeups that get
> reported on Jayski). I think the problem is right at the top,
> and I don't think that's likely to be cyclical.
>
>

So you're saying thing's aren't going to cycle back to the up side for RFR
until Jack is no longer the head honcho? I didn't really point at Jack, but
we seem to agree that there's no end in sight for RFR's slide.

I will note that Richard Petty Motorsports turned things around.
Just a couple years ago they had one foot in the grave and the other on a
banana peel. While they're far from being one of the sport's elite teams,
they're running better now and are not in danger of folding like they
once were.

Childress has been pretty cyclical. They have their down years, but it doesn't
seem to take them too long to bounce back. Childress seems to have a knack for
making the right moves to get back on top. Jack obviously doesn't.

Gibbs is down this year, but so is MWR, leading me to believe this is more a
manufacturer problem than a team problem. Gibbs still has one of the sport's
best driver lineups, so I don't think they'll be down for long.

[Pete Zahria]

In article bob.p...@gmail.com wrote:

>Jack Roush has to be feeling somewhat snakebit long about now.

>Now he's lost two championship caliber drivers in three years.

Not to mention 3M is bailing.....

When things were good, Jack could be Jack.
Now that things aren't so good, like now,
people are not as willing to deal with him.
Not the easiest guy to work with.Kind of a d^ck..

Good luck Jack.....



--
Dan

Confuscious say:
Man who run behind car get exhausted.

[John McCoy]

bob.p...@gmail.com wrote in
news:4cc3dcb4-bfa1-4d05...@googlegroups.com:

> On Tuesday, August 19, 2014 3:10:03 PM UTC-4, John McCoy wrote:
>
>>
>> I disagree with you here. I think Roush started on the down
>> slope in 2004, when he refused to run Jeff Burton in an
>> unsponsored car, but then was willing to run Edwards without
>> sponsorship after Burton left. Ever since then Roush has
>> had a hard time getting sponsorship (did you realize Edwards
>> has never had a full-season sponsor?) and a hard time keeping
>> staff (at least, judging by all the team shakeups that get
>> reported on Jayski). I think the problem is right at the top,
>> and I don't think that's likely to be cyclical.
>
> So you're saying thing's aren't going to cycle back to the up side for
> RFR until Jack is no longer the head honcho? I didn't really point at
> Jack, but we seem to agree that there's no end in sight for RFR's
> slide.

That's the way it appears to me. I think they've been having
increasing problems for many years, which have been masked by
the quality of their drivers. Something big will have to change
to reverse that course.

> I will note that Richard Petty Motorsports turned things around.

Yeah, they've been on a slow and steady uptrend for several
years. I think this year they're building some of their own
chassis (instead of taking them all from Roush). But mostly
I think they've just been together long enough now that they're
getting good at all the little details that make a difference.

> Childress has been pretty cyclical.

Yes, I don't dispute that cycles are a normal thing in NASCAR.
Even Hendrick has had cycles (Johnson excepted). Just not
seeing Roush's situation as a typical "down for a couple of
years" cycle.

> Gibbs is down this year, but so is MWR, leading me to believe this is
> more a manufacturer problem than a team problem. Gibbs still has one
> of the sport's best driver lineups, so I don't think they'll be down
> for long.

Everyone seems to think the Toyota engines are down on power
compared to Yates and Hendrick. Hamlin won at Talladega (so
totally different engine spec) and Kyle Busch won a weird GWC
at Fontana where everyone had to pit for fuel, so down on
power seems a reasonable thing. And as you say, that won't
last long - if they don't fix it themselves, a NASCAR rules
tweak will do it for them.

John