NASCAR

Roush drivers eye home-track advantage

By Steve Sampsell

After winning the first two races of the Sprint Cup Series season, one-time series champ Matt Kenseth sits eight in the standings, crafting another campaign based on consistency as he has not finished worse than 12th in any race this season.

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This weekend — with many painting Roush/Fenway Racing as the “home” team at Michigan International Speedway because of team co-owner Jack Roush’s roots in the area (Livonia, Mich.) and the proximity of the track to the headquarters of Ford Motor Company (Detroit) which provides the team’s cars— Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Ford, and his teammates hope to build on their overall consistency at the track.

During the last Cup Series race at the track in August, all five RFR drivers finished in the top 10, and a Roush driver has won a race at Michigan for seven consecutive years from 2002 to 2008.

In 144 career starts at Michigan, RFR drivers have 11 victories, 43 top-five finishes and 79 top-10s.

“We run really well at Michigan,” said Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford. “It was the site of my first Cup race in 2004. It’s right in Ford Motor Company’s backyard. It’s right in Roush Fenway’s backyard. Those wins at Michigan are special because of the looks on (owner Jack Roush’s) face and the Ford guys’ when you get out of the car in Victory Lane.”

Roush’s top drivers have all experienced success at the track. Greg Biffle, Edwards and Kenseth each have two victories at the track, and each has led more than 190 career laps on the two-mile oval. Along with that recent success, longtime Roush driver Mark Martin scored four victories and 28 top-10s when he was a driver for the team for 19 years.

The team owner believes the track’s characteristics match the strengths of his drivers — and his engine and fabrication departments.

“The race track is wide enough, and the traction at various lengths is good enough, that the fastest car is going to go to the front,” Roush said. “If you don’t have either the power or the handling that you need, it exposes itself. If you don’t have it, you’re going to have a bad day.”

Darling Danica

While Tony Stewart was enjoying another week atop the series standings, Michael Waltrip was strongly indicating he would limit his schedule next season and the drug that prompted Jeremy May-field’s suspension was reportedly revealed, some affiliated with NASCAR were more focused on an open-wheel driver this week.

The status of Danica Patrick remains undecided for 2010, and the possibility that she could move from open-wheel racing to stock cars has prompted reaction from all quarters.

So far, advertisers and sponsors have some of the strongest (or at least most public) opinions. One of them told AdAge.com this week about the expectations if Patrick were to move to the Cup Series:

“I guarantee this is what will happen if Danica Patrick jumps to NASCAR. One, every TV rating for every race will increase from the year before as new fans and old tune it to see if she wins, crashes or pitches a fit and gets into fights on pit road like she does now. Two, track attendance will go up.

“Three, even though NASCAR has a pretty loyal and wide-open fan base now among women, it will skyrocket if she's driving every week. And four, I guarantee it will bring in $50 million in new sponsors annually of marketers looking to activate around her, whether it's (sponsorship) on the car or off the track.”

Some of that makes sense on the surface, but it’s hard to imagine one driver (especially among 43 in a NASCAR race) making that much difference. If she were so compelling, it seems ratings for IndyCar Series ratings might already be higher, because she races there regularly already.

Noting NASCAR

• Teammates Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart have been the most productive Cup Series drivers during the past half-dozen races. Newman has six consecutive top-10 finishes in those races, and has amassed 977 points. Stewart, who leads the overall series standings, has compiled 905 points with four top-10 finishes.

• Kyle Busch has led more miles (914) than any other driver this season. He’s well ahead of Jimmie Johnson (766) and Jeff Gordon (598). Conversely, David Gilliland sits at the bottom of the miles-led list (1).

• As much as people annually, and almost eagerly, complain about the too-long and often uneventful races at Pocono Raceway, it’s a shame that the quality of last week’s race has not been lauded a bit more.

Steve Sampsell writes about racing for the Centre Daily Times. He may be contacted at cdtrace@hotmail.com with comments, results and story ideas.