On August 9th, I wrote about three changes which I felt were necessary for Roush-Fenway Racing to ever move forward. The changes I suggested were changing the mentality among RFR’s management team of Jack Roush, John Henry II and Robbie Reiser, addressing chronic personnel issues that always serve to distract the team from focusing on how to be competitive and securing long-term partnerships with sponsors so that speculation of who’s in and who’s out doesn’t become an annual event. I’ll stand by those observations and add one more change.
Find some drivers who can actually drive.
One of Tony Stewart’s post-race comments about the low-downforce rules package as broadcast on Periscope while he was driving to the Florence, SC airport to fly home to Indiana after the race was, “the guys that normally screw up and wreck – wrecked, and the guys that can drive race cars actually did a pretty good job driving tonight, so…. you actually had to drive the cars. The aero deal wasn’t such a big deal.”
All three of Jack’s drivers wrecked. Some of them more than once. I’ll go in numerical order:
Trevor Bayne fought the No. 6 all night long. He wrecked on Lap 166 on the back straightaway and again on Lap 247 for an accident in Turn 3. Bayne was the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, so one would think that he’s worthy of a Cup-level ride. I understand that this was his first visit to Darlington in a Cup car, but he didn’t just wreck this week. It’s becoming a regular event. The boyish looks and, “aw, shucks” excuses are running thin.
Greg Biffle clobbered the Turn 2 wall on Lap 208 in the No. 16 Ortho Ford. The former Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity Series champion was actually giddy on Friday with the speed he showed in practice. This rarely-seen pace must have scared him come race time, though. Greg isn’t a spring chicken anymore. Might be time to start planning the farewell tour.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun the No. 17 on Lap 199 exiting Turn 4 and hit the inside pit wall at the beginning of the main straightaway. He must have been eager to join his girlfriend Danica Patrick in the garage, because she had her troubles in the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet just nine laps earlier. Ricky is a two-time Xfinity Series champion, so this too is bewildering. Maybe he should just focus on being Danica’s cameraman during yoga time. Not a bad gig.
What this means is that the teams at RFR will have to now spend time and resources repairing cars in the weeks ahead instead of focusing on becoming more competitive. At some point, this is going to get expensive, and even those sponsors that have been loyal to Jack through the years are going to start asking what’s up, if they haven’t already.
Add it to the pile of reasons why this team needs to look at everyone and everything this off-season, which can’t come soon enough the way they continue to struggle.