Jack has his answer

MRM

MRM

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When Jack Roush decided to put Matt Kenseth in the 6 car, he wanted to see if it was his team or his driver(s). I guess he knows his answer now. Kenseth isn't running that much better than Bayne did. Either his equipment isn't that good or his people working for him isn't that good, or a combination of the two.
 
That is only part of the equation. I believe it was said by Jack that Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth out of all the drivers he had were the two that could give the best feedback
 
Kenseth is out of race shape and is not the talent that Jeff Gordon is when it came to hopping back in a race car after a while.
 
The best way to determine if it is driver or the team he drives for is put Stenhouse in a #6 car
made to look like his own and see what he does with it.
This is not the same as when they put Kurt Bush in the #78 and they knew it was the team.
 
Kenseth has run 3 races. Finished 37th / 17th / 13th.

Team Penske said:
The best way to determine if it is driver or the team he drives for is put Stenhouse in a #6 car
made to look like his own and see what he does with it.
This is not the same as when they put Kurt Bush in the #78 and they knew it was the team.
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Other than setup preferences, the cars are the same.
 
aunty dive said:
Kenseth has run 3 races. Finished 37th / 17th / 13th.


Other than setup preferences, the cars are the same.
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Not really, almost impossible to built 2 cars exactly. Each weld makes a difference even with a robot doing it.
 
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Team Penske said:
Not really, almost impossible to built 2 cars exactly. Each weld makes a difference even with a robot doing it.
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I agree with that. They can't be exactly alike. I remember once Knaus saying he had first choice of the cars built in the shop. So, why have a pecking order if the cars are the same?
 
Team Penske said:
Not really, almost impossible to built 2 cars exactly. Each weld makes a difference even with a robot doing it.
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You're splitting hairs.

They're all built on a jig. The bodies are all mounted to fit the rule book. The drivetrain, braking, cooling and oiling systems are all the same and use the same componentry. Are there miniscule, subtle differences? Yes, there are and they don't amount to a hill of beans.

Significant differences in the fleets of cars assigned to each driver occur when older chassis that haven't been updated are used. In the past, Greg Biffle won a race for Roush with a 6 year old chassis.
 
I also suspect that part of bringing Kenseth on was to hopefully learn some of the things that JGR and Toyota had on them. (Setups, engineering tricks, etc).
So far all it has shown is what we knew already: Roush is a dumpster fire that has a decent (thanks to Ford) plate program.
 
Spotter22 said:
So that would mean Bayne has the horrible luck of getting the worst chassis each time?
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Yeah I think he's relying on the assumption that they never mismatch cars. Sometimes what was once the 48 car will be part of the 9 team, etc. If he hasn't already, Kenseth will drive one of Stenhouse's cars at some point in which case this point will be irrelevant.
 
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lolla79 said:
Yeah I think he's relying on the assumption that they never mismatch cars. Sometimes what was once the 48 car will be part of the 9 team, etc. If he hasn't already, Kenseth will drive one of Stenhouse's cars at some point in which case this point will be irrelevant.
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I'm talking straight off the jig. Poor Bayne has terrible luck. ;)
 
I'm not a fan of ANY of these three, but I don't think there is any question that Stenhouse is a good bit more talented than Bayne, and Kenseth puts them both to shame. I think there is real value in putting Kenseth in the car, and I think RFR will be better off for it, but it will take some time. Look how long it's taking HMS to turn around the mess they have with a seven time champion driver and crew chief on the roster.
 
The real question is if Jack does have the information he needs in regards to performance....... where do they go from here?
 
StandOnIt said:
Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth out of all the drivers he had were the two that could give the best feedback
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Probably because they harken back to the times that drivers actually had to know something about vehicle dynamics other than holding on to the steering wheel and mashing the gas.

That being said...
Kenseth is still getting his bearings about him and focusing more on giving feedback than performing.
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Believe this is the crux of the subject right now. Pocono was fairly interesting and need more proof, but followed each lap time from the start of the race until the end. Kenseth's lap times (fastest on new tires) dropped after four out of his six pit stops. He was almost a second faster at the end of the race than the beginning. He was barely bumping 170 average speed in the beginning and was just about 172 at the end (believe that was faster than he qualified at). At each pit stop changes were made...apparently some were better than others.

At Ricky's last pit stop, they made a Kenseth suggested change...Ricky picked up .3 tenths of a second on the last run.

Think Nature Boy is on to something here.

RFR still has a major balance issue though...similar to Johnson did earlier in the year. Do not think RFR has the talent resources in the back room yet though.
 
OldTimer said:
Probably because they harken back to the times that drivers actually had to know something about vehicle dynamics other than holding on to the steering wheel and mashing the gas.

That being said...

Believe this is the crux of the subject right now. Pocono was fairly interesting and need more proof, but followed each lap time from the start of the race until the end. Kenseth's lap times (fastest on new tires) dropped after four out of his six pit stops. He was almost a second faster at the end of the race than the beginning. He was barely bumping 170 average speed in the beginning and was just about 172 at the end (believe that was faster than he qualified at). At each pit stop changes were made...apparently some were better than others.

At Ricky's last pit stop, they made a Kenseth suggested change...Ricky picked up .3 tenths of a second on the last run.



RFR still has a major balance issue though...similar to Johnson did earlier in the year. Do not think RFR has the talent resources in the back room yet though.
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Thanks for this info, good stuff. :booya:
 
If you would’ve told younger me that both Roush and Hendrick would be garbage in 2018 I would’ve laughed. It’s really unbelievable
 
OldTimer said:
Kenseth's lap times (fastest on new tires) dropped after four out of his six pit stops. He was almost a second faster at the end of the race than the beginning. He was barely bumping 170 average speed in the beginning and was just about 172 at the end (believe that was faster than he qualified at). At each pit stop changes were made...apparently some were better than others.
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The changes were most noticeable after the stop between the second and third stages, and one of the stops in the third stage. Prior to the start of stage 3, he spend most of the day in the mid- to upper 20s.

Mispeedway15 said:
If you would’ve told younger me that both Roush and Hendrick would be garbage in 2018 I would’ve laughed. It’s really unbelievable
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Roush has been sub-par for several years. Hendrick's problems appear to me to be mostly due to the new Camaro.
 
why are people acting like this was such a surprise. Jack has been running discounted sponsorships way longer than most of the major teams. heck he even ran matt for half a season out of his pocket before he left for gibbs. Don't sit here and think RFR was able to command gibbs, penske or HMS money for sponsorships. this has an effect on what the team is able to do. They have to cut costs somewhere. Jacks age old tactic is simply hire a new driver. This worked in the past when they had a strong NXS program. They could bring up a young driver for cheap and pair them with 2-3 veteren drivers. could jack have kept kenseth and not ran sticky henhouse. YES but jack couldn't afford kenseth money. use the 3 million/season savings on the cars.
 
MRM said:
When Jack Roush decided to put Matt Kenseth in the 6 car, he wanted to see if it was his team or his driver(s). I guess he knows his answer now. Kenseth isn't running that much better than Bayne did. Either his equipment isn't that good or his people working for him isn't that good, or a combination of the two.
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Or Kennseth isn't that good like Bayne.
 
Mopardh9 said:
Or Kennseth isn't that good like Bayne.
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do not agree at all to this statement.

Bayne's knowledge of chassis dynamics is at best a smidgen of what Kenseth knows. Bayne probably struggles with what end of a lug wrench fits on the wheel lugs. For that matter, he probably thinks that all wheels on all cars for both the street and track have their lug nuts glued to the wheels.

As far as driving ability, which one is the most recent cup winner?
 
OldTimer said:
do not agree at all to this statement.

Bayne's knowledge of chassis dynamics is at best a smidgen of what Kenseth knows. Bayne probably struggles with what end of a lug wrench fits on the wheel lugs. For that matter, he probably thinks that all wheels on all cars for both the street and track have their lug nuts glued to the wheels.

As far as driving ability, which one is the most recent cup winner?
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I take matt all day long. he knows what a fast car is supposed to feel like. Another thing about matt, remember he is always the guy that comes on late in the race. That tells me he understands and asks for the right adjustments to the car. Not simply relying on being fast off the truck and by what the team has prepared for him at the track. probably why he has won a bunch of races. Matt is a quiet guy and I have never been a huge fan, but he is a character and sometimes gets in some pissing matches with other drivers. LOVE seeing matt come back and race in the car.
 
It has been interesting seeing Matt trying to get the car better at all of the various tracks, it isn't something that is going to happen over night.

Matt Kenseth — Finished 13th: “It was a struggle all day for us. I felt like we got fortunate at the end with some pit strategy by Matt (Puccia) and some cautions that got us back in position to finish 13th but we didn’t run that well. I feel like we made a small amount of headway today but we still have a bunch of work to do.”
 
OldTimer said:
do not agree at all to this statement.

Bayne's knowledge of chassis dynamics is at best a smidgen of what Kenseth knows. Bayne probably struggles with what end of a lug wrench fits on the wheel lugs. For that matter, he probably thinks that all wheels on all cars for both the street and track have their lug nuts glued to the wheels.

As far as driving ability, which one is the most recent cup winner?
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You know this for a fact about Bayne huh? Winning does not always equate to being better, how much better is Matt doing than Bayne did?
 
Snappy D said:
The real question is if Jack does have the information he needs in regards to performance....... where do they go from here?
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That was kind of my point. Now that he knows his teams need improvement, is he going to do what it takes to make those changes?
 
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