Roush is changing crew chiefs. Osborne is back

StandOnIt

StandOnIt

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Longtime Roush Fenway crew chief Bob Osborne, who last worked with former RFR driver Carl Edwards, will call the shots for Trevor Bayne's No. 6 team. Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 champion, is slated to run his first full Sprint Cup season for Roush Fenway after competing on a part-time basis in the Sprint Cup Series with Wood Brothers Racing since 2011.

Meanwhile, former RFR No. 99 team head engineer Nick Sandler has been promoted to the role of crew chief on Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s No. 17 team. Mike Kelley, who guided Stenhouse to two Nationwide Series championships and has been Stenhouse's crew chief in each of the driver's two Sprint Cup seasons, has been named Stenhouse's car chief for the upcoming season

As expected, Matt Puccia returns to lead Greg Biffle's No. 16 Sprint Cup team for a fourth consecutive year. Biffle has made the Chase for the Sprint Cup in each of his three seasons with Puccia atop his pit box.

http://www.racer.com/nascar/sprint-cup/item/112219-nascar-roush-fenway-shakes-up-crew-chief-roster
 
Good.

I notice teams are leaning towards engineers as the new CC's in Cup racing.
I think Nascar is heading in the direction of IRL and F1
 
I would like to see Osborne pull a rabbit out of the hat with Bayne. I think Bayne will have a decent car to race with. Last year I think their cars weren't the best, but I think some of Roush's drivers attitudes made it even worse.
 
StandOnIt said:
I would like to see Osborne pull a rabbit out of the hat with Bayne. I think Bayne will have a decent car to race with. Last year I think their cars weren't the best, but I think some of Roush's drivers attitudes made it even worse.
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I think Bayne will outperform Stenhouse, at least.
 
StandOnIt said:
I would like to see Osborne pull a rabbit out of the hat with Bayne. I think Bayne will have a decent car to race with. Last year I think their cars weren't the best, but I think some of Roush's drivers attitudes made it even worse.
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Crossing my fingers for both Trevor and Osborne....... ;)
 
I think roush has bigger problems. They have lost their good drivers to a large extent. The problem with that is. Is the car slow or is the driver not that great. At least with proven drivers like carl and matt you could get a good base line if the cars sucked or not. biffle is decent but he has never won a short track. He is a good on the big tracks. The other drivers stenhouse and bayne are unproven. so if your roush and your cars are slow on the short tracks, again is it car or driver?? the other problem is money. I think roush had had to discount their sponsorships heavily. This is slowly bleeding them out.
 
hidesert cowboy said:
I think roush has bigger problems. They have lost their good drivers to a large extent. The problem with that is. Is the car slow or is the driver not that great. At least with proven drivers like carl and matt you could get a good base line if the cars sucked or not. biffle is decent but he has never won a short track. He is a good on the big tracks. The other drivers stenhouse and bayne are unproven. so if your roush and your cars are slow on the short tracks, again is it car or driver?? the other problem is money. I think roush had had to discount their sponsorships heavily. This is slowly bleeding them out.
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Stenhouse had his best average start and best average finish on short tracks last year. Biffle had his best average start and second best average finish (behind road courses) on short tracks last year.
 
Team Penske said:
Bayne didn't do much in a Wood Bros car, other than that one race.
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wrecked 5 times out of 12 races and DNQ'd at Charlotte, but for some reason I think he will do better than Stenhouse. I'm so pissed at Stenhouse I can't see straight might be the reason. He would be driving for Barney's salvage somewhere in podunk if I had my way. Who knows maybe a new crew chief might help.
 
Team Penske said:
Bayne didn't do much in a Wood Bros car, other than that one race.
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Throwing out the restrictor plate races and DNFs last year he finished 20th, 19th, 20th, 19th, and 41st and those are the kinds of tracks that are the heart of the schedule. That was also with less support than he'll get in one of RFR's main rides this year so I would absolutely not be surprised to see him outperform Ricky (who finished 27th, 26th, 26th, 27th, and 15th in those races).
 
FLRacingFan said:
Throwing out the restrictor plate races and DNFs last year he finished 20th, 19th, 20th, 19th, and 41st and those are the kinds of tracks that are the heart of the schedule. That was also with less support than he'll get in one of RFR's main rides this year so I would absolutely not be surprised to see him outperform Ricky (who finished 27th, 26th, 26th, 27th, and 15th in those races).
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He sleeps with a different woman, could be the difference. :D
 
Team Penske said:
Bayne didn't do much in a Wood Bros car, other than that one race.
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I have to agree, but I hope for much better. I like the kid.

rousch and stenhouse on the other hand can sink to the bottom as far as i'm concerned. I have disliked stenhouse since the day he lost his last championship. I am convinced the only reason he is ever mentioned during a race is because of his relationship to Danica.

and as much as I think nascar needs rousch as a team, I don't like the budget way he does business (driver contracts). talent, sponsors, and ford can be found elsewhere.

JMO
 
klemmabyna said:
I have to agree, but I hope for much better. I like the kid.

rousch and stenhouse on the other hand can sink to the bottom as far as i'm concerned. I have disliked stenhouse since the day he lost his last championship. I am convinced the only reason he is ever mentioned during a race is because of his relationship to Danica.

and as much as I think nascar needs rousch as a team, I don't like the budget way he does business (driver contracts). talent, sponsors, and ford can be found elsewhere.

JMO
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He has to be feeling the heat with a two year Ford team with only two drivers kicking his tail, and one more in the chamber at the Woods brothers.
 
StandOnIt said:
He has to be feeling the heat with a two year Ford team with only two drivers kicking his tail, and one more in the chamber at the Woods brothers.
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What's the chances of Petty aligning with Penske as well? All RFR has to offer is the engine shop, their chassis are not winning.
I would like to know the deal that got Penske to close it's engine shop.
 
from what I can gather Penske still has his race engine/machine shop. He is making shocks and probably more than that.
cat2.jpg

I really don't think it is the engines that are the problem for Roush, Petty or the Woods brothers.
 
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His shop is a combination of IRL and Nascar and the engineers are not restricted, they can help anywhere.
I believe ( I could be wrong) that he closed the Nascar Dodge Engine shop and laid off some people (at seasons end)
and agreed to race Roush/Yates engines. Done pretty good with them I must say.
 
its not all that hard to understand penske closing his motor shop. They only built engines for 2 cars. They had to maintain all personal and all expenses just to build engines for 2 cars. Roush had an established motor shop that produced engines for pretty much the rest of the ford's teams. roush's motors have proven to be some of the best over the years. So it may have just been cheaper to get roush engines. I wonder if they are second guessing that move now though. I think Roush is in trouble and kinda a sinking ship.
 
you are giving Roush too much credit, it is Robert Yates/Robert Yates engines doing the heavy lifting. He supplies all the Nascar engines exclusively from Camping World Trucks on down including Canadian Tire Series.

http://www.ryr.com/
exclusive provider of the Nascar spec engine.
 
I tend to look at the entire racing effort instead of the individual race teams . I haven't seen anything encouraging from Roush in years . They don't keep valuable personnel , they don't keep valuable sponsors , they just aren't improving .Aside from the Biff , and possibly what they can gain from a Penske relationship , I'm just not feelin anything.
 
StandOnIt said:
you are giving Roush too much credit, it is Robert Yates/Robert Yates engines doing the heavy lifting. He supplies all the Nascar engines exclusively from Camping World Trucks on down including Canadian Tire Series.

http://www.ryr.com/
exclusive provider of the Nascar spec engine.
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Spec engine for the lower series. Notice the absence of Xfinity and Cup.
 
Here are some more behind the scenes changes at Roush

But neither of RFR's veteran drivers was a consistent front-runner or threat to win races, and the third car driven by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was never a factor. Edwards left the team at the end of the season.

The product of another disappointing campaign was perhaps the greatest changes in the Roush organization in the team's 28-year NASCAR history. The race shop in Mooresville, North Carolina, got a substantial makeover, procedures were changed and key people have moved within the company.

New hires include Mark McArdle, formerly of Richard Childress Racing, as engineering director, and former Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Xfinity Series crew chief Kevin Kidd, who has taken over as team manager for RFR's Sprint Cup effort.

Long article read: http://espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/noteb...otte-motor-speedway-media-tour-notebook-day-3
 
StandOnIt said:
New hires include Mark McArdle, formerly of Richard Childress Racing, as engineering director, and former Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Xfinity Series crew chief Kevin Kidd, who has taken over as team manager for RFR's Sprint Cup effort.
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RCR loses another body ? They seem to lose more people than Jack . Is there a pattern here ? Seems to me that keeping good players on your team is mandatory if you want to succeed. The driver and crew chief cannot do it all , any more than the quarterback and running back can win football games by themselves.
 
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