June 11, 2009

The House of Roush

Few owners have dominated a track like Jack Roush has done at Michigan International Speedway. This week, he could tie the legendary Wood Bros. with the most wins on this track at 10 and his drivers have at least one victory per season since 2002.

That makes selecting a roster this week very easy.

Michigan is one track where fantasy owners can literally load their roster with a single organization and then sit back in the easy chair and reap the rewards, because Roushketeers have been perfect on this track several times in the last half-decade. When they've missed, it's often by a very slim margin.

Last fall, Roush placed all five of his drivers in the top 10 and all but a single driver was in the top five. Led by Carl Edwards in first, David Ragan finished third, Greg Biffle was fourth and Matt Kenseth was fifth. By comparison, Jamie McMurray had a disappointing day in 10th, but he was happy to have that result in light of the generally miserable year he faced up till then.

In the spring race, all but Biffle finished in the top 10 as well, which gave Roush an average finish during the year of 7.1. That also means four of the five drivers swept the top 10 on this two-mile track last year—including the dark horses Ragan and McMurray.

As impressive as that was, however, it was not their best outing in recent years. In the two Cup races of 2005, Roush earned one victory, six top-fives and eight top-10s en route to an average finish of 6.2. This was no anomaly, since three of the five Roushketeers (Edwards, Kenseth and Biffle) were in the midst of top-10 streaks ranging from four to six consecutive races.
With Edwards riding a current four-race top-10 streak and Kenseth carrying three Michigan top-fives into the weekend, you could very well see the same thing this week.

Roush Racing, last five years

RaceDriverCarFinish




2008.2Carl Edwards991
2007.1Carl Edwards991
2006.2Matt Kenseth171
2005.1Greg Biffle 161
2004.2Greg Biffle 161




2006.1Carl Edwards992
2004.2Mark Martin 62
2008.2David Ragan63
2008.1Matt Kenseth173
2005.2Matt Kenseth173
2005.1Mark Martin 63
2008.2Greg Biffle164
2007.2Matt Kenseth174
2006.1Greg Biffle164
2005.2Carl Edwards994
2005.1Matt Kenseth 174
2008.2Matt Kenseth175
2006.2Mark Martin65
2005.1Carl Edwards 995




2005.2Greg Biffle166
2004.2Kurt Busch 976
2008.1Carl Edwards997
2007.2Carl Edwards997
2006.2Greg Biffle167
2005.2Kurt Busch977
2004.1Matt Kenseth 177
2008.1David Ragan68
2007.1Jamie McMurray268
2004.2Matt Kenseth 178
2008.2Jamie McMurray2610
2008.1Jamie McMurray2610
2004.2Carl Edwards 9910




2004.1Kurt Busch 9711
2005.1Kurt Busch 9712
2006.1Matt Kenseth1713
2004.1Jeff Burton 9913




2006.2Jamie McMurray2617
2005.2Mark Martin617
2007.2David Ragan618
2007.2Greg Biffle1619
2008.1Greg Biffle1620
2007.1David Ragan621
2006.2Carl Edwards9922
2006.1Jamie McMurray2623
2004.1Greg Biffle 1623
2006.1Mark Martin627
2007.2Jamie McMurray2630
2004.1Mark Martin 634
2007.1Greg Biffle1638
2007.1Matt Kenseth1742
2006.2Todd Kluever0643


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