Roush Fenway Racing has fallen on hard times over the last few years. The former leaders of Ford Racing have also fallen behind other Ford teams including Team Penske and to a lesser extinct, Richard Petty Motorsports. RFR feels that they are on the right track now. Time will tell.
The team now consists of Sprint Cup drivers veteran Greg Biffle, Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The XFINITY crew includes Darrell Wallace Jr. and Ryan Reed. Chris Buescher moves on to Front Row Motorsports for 2016.
“I think last year we were setting up to get better,” Bayne said. “I think we are at the point where we saw some progress last season and we saw with the 2016 package that we were better at Kentucky and Darlington, two of our strongest races. We look forward to that this season and will hopefully have made even more improvements.”
Bayne pointed to engineering changes and a difference in attitude.
Stenhouse pointed to the fact that there are no changes on his team for 2016.
“We hung together over the off-season to make sure our communication was correct,” Stenhouse said. “It’s going to be an important this year. I think it has the potential to the best season we’ve even had.”
Biffle also looked at the changes at RFR and how they lead to optimism for this year.
“We’re really excited for the changes as a whole,” Biffle said. “I’ve worked well with Brian Pattie, and we’ve won a couple of races together. He gives us an outside look on how we can better build a car. I think it will be a great season for us.”
Owner Jack Roush showed a lot of optimism for 2016 and made no bones about his outlook for the 2016 season.
“I think we’re in a good place for 2016,” Roush said. “We’ve had a lot of change and at the same time, a lot of continuity, too, We promote from within as NASCAR becomes less crew chief oriented and more engineer oriented. Our driver group has won five of our eight championships. That’s a good sign.”
As important as success is to RFR, it means as much to NASCAR that the organization does well.
“I have never felt more enthusiasm while walking through the shop,” Roush said. “Ford has been with us for 28 years in NASCAR and many more years in other endeavors. We appreciate the Ford partnership and look forward to 2016.”
