Pocono/Iowa/Nashville Driver/Sponsor Line up…
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series - Pocono
David Ragan - No. 6 UPS Ford
Greg Biffle - No. 16 3M Ford
Matt Kenseth - No. 17 DEWALT Ford
Jamie McMurray - No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Carl Edwards - No. 99 Aflac Ford
NASCAR Nationwide Series - Iowa
Erik Darnell - No. 6 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. - No. 16 3M Ford Carl Edwards - No. 60 CitiFinancial Ford
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series - Nashville Colin Braun - No. 6 Con-way Freight F-150
Roush Fenway Pocono Fast Facts…
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
œ2009 Pocono Lineup - David Ragan/No. 6 UPS Ford; Greg Biffle/No. 16 3M Ford; Matt Kenseth/No. 17 DEWALT Ford; Jamie McMurray/No. 26 Crown Royal Ford; Carl Edwards/No. 99 Aflac Ford.
œRoush Fenway Sprint Cup drivers have 147 starts at the 2.5-mile triangular track. The team has three wins, three poles, 40 top-five and
61 top-10 finishes.
œEarlier this spring, Carl Edwards was the highest finishing Roush Fenway Ford crossing the line second.
œLEADING THE WAY - All five Roush Fenway entries finished every lap in the spring and four of the five led laps. Carl Edwards led 103 laps making him the lap leader for the race.
œIn July of 2008, all five of the Roush Fenway Ford’s finished inside the top 13. Carl Edwards captured the victory (one of nine for the year) while David Ragan finished fifth, Jamie McMurray ninth, Matt Kenseth 11th and Greg Biffle 13th.
œOne driver has won all three poles for Roush Fenway…Mark Martin.
Martin won back-to-back poles in ’90 and ’91 then again in ’96.
œMAKING HISTORY - Carl Edwards won Roush Fenway’s first race at Pocono in 2005. Edwards had never laid eyes on the track until he entered the tunnel Friday morning for practice. That marked Edwards’
second-career Sprint Cup win. Edwards came from the 29th starting position to beat Brian Vickers, the furthest back anyone has started at Pocono before winning. He was only the second driver in history to win in his first visit to the track. Richard Petty was the first when he won the inaugural race there in 1974.
œKurt Busch captured Roush Fenway’s second win, also in 2005, marking a sweep by the Roush Fenway cars at Pocono.
œIt took Roush Fenway 102 starts before capturing a win at Pocono.
This is the most starts it’s taken Roush Fenway to capture a win at any track in the Sprint Cup Series. (Note: Roush Fenway has not won at Chicagoland or Indianapolis.)
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES
œ2009 Iowa line up - Erik Darnell/No. 6 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford; Ricky Stenhouse, Jr./No. 16 3M Ford; Carl Edwards/No. 60 CitiFinancial Ford.
œThis will be the first time the NASCAR Nationwide Series has raced at Iowa Speedway.
œIOWA VETERAN - Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. is the only Roush Fenway Racing driver who has raced at Iowa Speedway. He raced a USAC National Sprint and Midget car in 2007 (finishing 24th and 18th respectively). He also raced the No. 99 Ford in the ARCA Series last year finishing a disappointing 19th after racing from 33rd into the top 10 before being spun into the wall.
œBoth Erik Darnell and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. have tested ARCA and Nationwide cars at the .875-mile oval.
œCarl Edwards’ win at ORP last week marked his second victory of
2009 in the Nationwide Series and his 22nd career Nationwide win.
Edwards’ win also marks Nationwide win number 104 for Roush Fenway and NASCAR win 394 for the Ford team.
œIN SUMMARY - In 20 Nationwide races this year, Roush Fenway drivers have made 61 starts. Combined they have six wins, seven poles, 26 top-five and 42 top-10 finishes. By those numbers, a Roush Fenway Ford finishes inside the top 10/68.8 percent of the time.
NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES
œ2009 Nashville line up - Colin Braun/No. 6 Con-way Freight F-150.
œRoush Fenway F-150’s have 27 starts at Nashville Superspeedway.
The team has two wins, one pole, five top-five and 11 top-10 finishes.
œLOOKING FOR THIRD WIN - Carl Edwards garnered Roush Fenway’s first Truck Series victory at the track in 2003 and Travis Kvapil captured the team’s second win in 2007.
œErik Darnell is the team’s sole pole award winner. In 2006 he circled the track in 29.601 seconds.
œThe team’s average starting position at Nashville is 12.8 while their average finishing position is 14.
œTOP 10 - Colin Braun’s fifth-place finish at ORP last week launched him into the top 10 in the championship point standings. He now sits 10th, 119 points out of fifth.
Track History (current drivers)…
Sprint Cup Series - Pocono
PTS DRIVER STARTS WINS TOP-5 TOP-10 POLES LAPS
COMP LAPS LED
5th Carl Edwards 9 2 4 5 0 1,705 209
11th Greg Biffle
13 0 1 2 0 2,503 63
12th Matt Kenseth
19 0 3 8 0 3,634 38
20th Jamie
McMurray13 0 0 3 1 2,450 3
30th David Ragan
5 0 1 1 0 904 1
TOTALS:
59 2 9 19 1 11,196 314
Nationwide Series - Iowa
PTS DRIVER STARTS WINS TOP-5 TOP-10 POLES LAPS
COMP LAPS LED
2nd Carl Edwards
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
n/a Erik Darnell
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
n/a Ricky Stenhouse Jr.0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS:
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Camping World Truck Series - Nashville
PTS DRIVER STARTS WINS TOP-5 TOP-10 POLES LAPS
COMP LAPS LED
10th Colin Braun 1 0 0 1 0 150 0
TOTALS: 1 0 0 1 0 150 0
COMBINED TOTALS
ENTRIES SERIES STARTS WINS TOP-5 TOP-10 POLES LAPS
COMP LAPS LED
5 Sprint Cup 59 2 9 19 1 11,196 314
3 Nationwide 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 Camping World1 0 0 1 0 150 0
TOTALS: 60 2 9 20 1 11,346 31
In Their Words…
The Nationwide Series visits Iowa Speedway for the first time this year on Saturday. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. is the only Roush Fenway driver that has raced at the .875-mile oval so he answered a few questions about the track and what to expect from this week’s Nationwide race.
No. 16 3M driver RICKY STENHOUSE, JR. on Iowa:
Q: Talk about last year’s ARCA race and what you remember about the racing at Iowa Speedway.
A: At last year’s ARCA race there was lots of side-by-side racing.
The track is really wide down the straight-away’s and through the corners so a lot of people were running the second and third groove. I think the track will be really racy because of that. It should be a fun race.
Q: What are some of Iowa Speedway’s unique characteristics?
A: Everyone talks about the bump in one and two. It’s pretty big and it’s actually gotten worse since I raced there last year. That’s another reason you run up a groove, groove-and-a-half, because the bump isn’t as big when you get up into the second and third groove. If you can get through there, you’re in pretty good shape. I think that’s the most unique characteristic about the track.
Q: What does it take to win at Iowa?
A: It’s definitely going to be like all the other tracks we’ve been to. We can’t make any mistakes and I have to keep the fenders on it.
Even though it’s a .75-mile track it races like a 1.5-mile track so it races fast. I think aero will be pretty critical, we’ll need to stay on the lead lap and have no mistakes on pit road. The No. 16 3M Ford has been pretty fast so if we can do all those other things, we should be okay.
Q: How did your test go there earlier this year?
A: The test went really well. That was actually my first time in a Nationwide car. You definitely had to use less brakes and keep up your momentum compared to the ARCA car. I learned a lot and think it will definitely help this weekend.
Q: What do you think fans can expect from this weekend’s race at Iowa?
A: I think the racing will be exciting. No one has really raced there so it’s a pretty even playing field. All the cars should be close so it will come down to the driver I think. Thursday will be important along with Friday’s practice session to try and get the car right so you’re ready to race. I think the racing will be as good as last week’s race at ORP (O’Reilly Raceway Park) if not better.
Q: You have raced a Sprint, Midget and ARCA car at Iowa. Do you think this gives you a little bit of an advantage going into this Saturday’s race over Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and the others?
A: Well Kyle’s (Busch) raced there before and Carl (Edwards) hasn’t so I think I might have a slight advantage over guys like Carl who haven’t raced there. I’ve made quite a few laps there between the USAC and ARCA cars but there are several other’s who have too like Justin Allgaier and Kyle. I think I have a little advantage over some of the guys who haven’t been there, but not much.
Q: How would you sum up your year so far?
A: It started out rough and got better. We’ve definitely been more competitive and more consistent here lately. We had a little bad luck at the last race at Gateway. I think we had a top 10 car until we got wrecked there towards the end. Overall I’ve made a lot of laps and learned a lot.
I think it’s all starting to click for me. I’ve been able to gel with Eddie Pardue and all the guys on the team and it’s definitely getting easier. I think I’m about where I thought I’d be but of course I would like to have a win in there. Our goal was to run in the top 10 knowing that if we did that the top-five finishes would come. So far I have a top five and couple top 10’s. I would have liked to have more top 10’s so it’s a little disappointing from that perspective but overall I think it’s going okay.