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Special feature

Jack Roush takes a critical look at 2012 season

Jack Roush and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Jack Roush and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Getty Images

There are three races left in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, beginning with this weekend’s event at Texas Motor Speedway. Greg Biffle came away with the checkered flag in the first event at the 1.5-mile facility in April and Ford Racing leads all manufacturers with 11 TMS victories. Roush Fenway owner Jack Roush recently spoke about how this season has gone and his hopes for finishing on a high note.

Jack Roush and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Jack Roush and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Photo by: Getty Images

JACK ROUSH, Car Owner, Roush Fenway Racing -- “If we would have had a mediocre year and a great Chase, I would quickly discount or move my attention from the entire year to what’s happened lately. But in the case of the year that we’ve had, I choose to focus on the year, which has been more good than bad. We’ve underachieved with our crew chief issue and Bob Osborne’s health. We’ve underachieved on the 99 car this year, but for the first 26 races the 17 and the 16 led the point standings for three-fourths of that time between the two of them. That speaks to the average performance we’ve had. If Greg had not wrecked at Kansas, he was running fourth in points at the time and was within 27 or 28 points from the lead. He had a legitimate shot at it if you take that problem he had with the new track surface out of the way. Matt’s had some issues, but yet he’s won twice in the Chase. All in all, we will get our situation with the 99 straightened out. We will survive Matt Kenseth leaving the team and place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in that slot, and we’ll step forward with Greg and Carl next year with programs that will be very strong. So even though this year it doesn’t look like it can be a championship year for us, the glass has been definitely more than half full and you’d have to consider it better than average for our 25 years and we’ll take what we’ve got an move on.”

HOW PROUD ARE YOU OF THAT 17 TEAM WITH HOW THEY’VE PERFORMED OF LATE? “There was great disappointment on everybody’s mind when they realized what Matt had done, but they’re professionals. They had a legitimate shot at the championship and that was a primary drive for them. I think Matt also wanted to leave on a high note and make a credible effort to give the sponsor and the team and Ford Motor Company the result they deserved.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE LAST THREE TRACKS ON THE SCHEDULE IS THERE OPTIMISM FOR ANOTHER WIN OR TWO BECAUSE HISTORICALLY TEXAS, PHOENIX AND HOMESTEAD-MIAMI HAVE BEEN GOOD TO YOUR ORGANIZATION? “As short tracks go we’ve had better luck at Phoenix than we have at any of the others, but tracks like Texas and Homestead is clearly our meat. We think we’ve got the measure of NASCAR’s standards for the rear axle skew. We think we’ve got that where we’re competitive and not giving up anything. We weren’t the first to find that, but of the second wave through I think we have the best solution to the problem and haven’t met the opportunity as well as we might. So I think we’ll be back on track as we were at Kansas. I think we’ll be back on track at Texas and Homestead and we’ll finish the year on a high note.”

- Jack Roush leads all car owners in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins at Texas Motor Speedway with nine. The next closest are Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendrick with three apiece.

- Ford Racing leads all manufacturers with 11 wins at Texas Motor Speedway, compared to seven for Chevrolet, three for Dodge and two for Toyota.

- Carl Edwards leads the current roster of Ford drivers with three wins at TMS, including a season sweep in 2008. Greg Biffle, who won at the track earlier this year, and Matt Kenseth have two victories each.

- Texas Motor Speedway was the site of David Ragan’s first NSCS pole when he took the top spot in the 2011 Spring race.

DID YOU KNOW? Former Roush Fenway driver Jeff Burton won the first race of his NSCS career in the inaugural series race at TMS in 1997?

Source: Ford Racing

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