Downsizing, revamping Roush Fenway could help bring it back

Back in 2010, Roger Penske went through something very similar to what Jack Roush is doing right now.  They were running three cars in the Sprint Cup Series but were struggling to get more than one car going in the direction and Team Penske went to two-cars the following season with Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski.

There are some advantages to running just two cars in the shop and while people keep posting the organization is killing itself doing this, it just maybe the cure to their issues altogether.  Roush Fenway began at the end of the season making moves to reposition personnel for 2017.  They started first by moving Robbie Reiser out of the Competition Director position and was replaced by Kevin Kidd.  In my opinion this was something that needed to happen almost two seasons ago, the organization had become stale with Reiser as its CD.  The organization's communication stand point just wasn't where it needed to be at to go any further with Reiser as its lead man.

I have felt that Kevin Kidd since the first time he really began to speak up in 2015 was going to be the person to lead this team if he was given the chance.  I think there is a strong point to having someone who came from another organization see what has happened for the past two seasons and now he's taken over as the team's Competition Director.

To be the director I feel there are a lot of things that need to come into play for the entire organization.  He needs to have better communication with the entire team than Reiser did, he needs to be able to know the current rules package that keeps changing every time we turn around, and he has to be very open minded and keep a good relationship with his team in order for them to go forward in the future.  Then there is the factor of going to two drivers and their relationship.

There's a lot of people on social media that want to bad mouth the two drivers Roush Fenway Racing has on board but these two drivers can race.  There is a factor in the cars the past few years that fans aren't considering when they've seen Bayne and Stenhouse have incidents on the track.  Trevor Bayne is a very talented young driver, he showed it coming up through the NASCAR Xfinity Series and his first years with the Wood Brothers.  Trevor Bayne is one of the most positive people I've listened to in the garage area, but it's hard to remain that way when you are driving a car that hasn't been able to turn through the corner for the past few years.

He and Stenhouse both have been driving mid pack cars since the 2012 season at Roush Fenway Racing, some don't want to see that but the facts are there.  That is why there are so many changes going on in the off-season.  Take for instance the race at Dover earlier in 2016, Bayne was able to climb his way into the top-10 because the car began to get better and he started to have the drive off the corner.  However it will not stop with the cars, the drivers are going to have to do exactly what the duo at Team Penske has been able to do and work together with one another and not be a rival with  one another.

We all know that these two had a solid relationship with one another in their earlier days in the NASCAR XFINITY Series when Stenhouse won back to back titles.  There was the Ricky Vs Trevor YouTube videos that gave fans a good laugh, and their chemistry was very good with each other.  The drivers have to go back and find what they had years ago to help bring the organization back to what it was.

The two drivers finished neck and neck in the standings this past season in the NASCAR Cup Series.

With Matt Puccia and Roman Pemberton returning to work with Trevor Bayne next season on the No. 6 AdvoCare team, I think that it brings a little more confidence by having the same two voices on the radio next season that he was able to hear in 2016.

Bayne picks up some insurance sponsorship from Liberty National in 2017

On Wednesday morning, Roush Fenway Racing announced a partnership with Liberty National Life Insurance Company, that will will have the leading health and life insurance company serve as the primary team partner on Trevor Bayne's No. 6 Ford Fusion.  Liberty National will also serve as well  as major partner in multiple races during the 2017 season.

"We are excited to have Liberty National on board next season," said Bayne.  "They are an extremely well respected brand that has been providing valuable services since 1900.  It's the kind of brand that are proud to have an association with and I can't wait to see the No. 6 Liberty National Ford on track.  Our Goal is to put our car up front and compete for race wins."

The No. 6 Liberty National Ford Fusion will make its debut on the track at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March.

"Liberty National views this new partnership with Roush Fenway Racing as the opportunity of a life time," said Liberty National President Steve DiChiaro.  "We look forward to cheering on Trevor Bayne as he drives the Liberty National car to victory lane in 2017."

This will be the first time Trevor Bayne has had someone other than AdvoCare on his No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion in the Sprint Cup Series as they have been the only major sponsor in the series for the Knoxville, TN native.

Kevin Kidd, Tommy Wheeler take over as leaders at Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Racing has announced its lineup for the 2017 season with numerous changes made to its organization.

Kevin Kidd will take over as Competition Director

Kevin Kidd will resume his role as the Sprint Cup Series Competition Director and Tommy Wheeler will serve as the team's Operation Director in 2017.  The team announced that it will be leasing its charter from the 16 car and loaning driver Chris Buescher to JTG Racing in 2017.

"We have been able to shore up our plans for 2017 and we feel that this will continue to move us in a direction that will yield improved performance and results," said owner co-owner Jack Roush.  "We say improvement in our cars and made substantial gains in our performance at times last season, and we will continue to build on that by maintaining a robust engineering group in order  to take the next step by consistently running up front."

Matt Puccia who led Trevor Bayne last season on the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Racing team will return

Puccia will remain crew chief for Trevor Bayne in 2017

to duty as the leader of the team in 2017.  It will be the first time that Bayne will have the same crew chief for consecutive seasons while at Roush Fenway Racing in the Cup Series.  Brian Pattie, who was the crew chief Greg Biffle on the No. 16 Cup Series team, will take over as the crew chief of the No. 17 car and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., as Nick Sandler who was the crew chief of the team will be moved to the role of Director Of Engineering.

Robbie Reiser who was moved from his position last week, will remain with the organization in a yet to be determined position.

Kidd who moved to Roush Fenway Racing in 2015, served as the team manager of the Cup Series teams after coming from Joe Gibbs Racing where he worked as a crew chief for several seasons.

Wheeler has been on board Roush Fenway since 2009, he has 20-plus years of experience in the sport, he served in many positions for the team, including the team's production director since 2011, overseeing the building and production of all the organization's Cup and XFINITY cars.

This will be the first time since 1995 that Roush Fenway less than 3 cars in the Cup Series.

Reiser moved from general manager position at Roush

It's that time again.  The carousel of changes in the NASCAR world is happening once again right after the season has ended.  Once again Roush Fenway was in the news yesterday afternoon with a huge announcement.

Greg Biffle and Robbie Reiser both are out at RFR

Long-term Roush Fenway member Robbie Reiser has been relieved of his general manager duties after serving the role since the 2008 season when he stepped down from being the crew chief of Matt Kenseth.  Reiser won Roush Fenway's first Sprint Cup (then Winston Cup) with Kenseth in 2003.

Word is that Reiser was offered a position in car production but has yet to decide where his future will be in the sport.  This could be the first of many moves to move Roush Fenway Racing in a different direction since neither Trevor Bayne nor Ricky Stenhouse Jr finished in the top-20 in the points standings and failed to win a race in 2016.

Stenhouse and Bayne have been teammates
Since 2010 in the Xfinity Series

For the last two seasons the organization has made critical hires to try to help the improvement of its cars and the atmosphere of the shop.  While both Bayne and Stenhouse did show improvement on the track in their statistics, the struggles on track were still clear that there needed to be more changes made to the organization to help improve them for the future and possibly get back to 3 cars.

The two drivers finished 10 points apart in the final standings in 21st and 22nd and looked to be making improvements on the season until mid-August when the series left Bristol.  It appeared after Chris Buescher won the race at Pocono for Front Row Motorsports things slid backwards for both Bayne and Stenhouse.  The two drivers did make huge improvements on where they were

Bayne keeping solid deal with AdvoCare a plus for Roush

Yesterday in the midst of an announcement many were eased of some rumors that had been spreading around that Roush Fenway was trying to outs Trevor Bayne as a driver.  The team announced that AdvoCare and Bayne had renewed their deal with the organization for three more seasons, through the 2019 season.

There have been driver/sponsorship pairings that have blossomed throughout the years, look at how long STP stuck by Richard Petty, Miller with Rusty Wallace, Dupont with Jeff Gordon, Valvoline with Mark Martin, or Lowe's with Jimmie Johnson.  The fact is AdvoCare and Bayne have really had a good pairing together, even though they have yet to find their way into victory lane together in NASCAR.  They did win the ARCA race at Pocono in 2015 in a unique designed car.  Their relationship goes far more than just the sponsorship, Bayne is an avid user of their products and he is an Independent Distributor for the company, along with his wife Ashton.

What many fans hate to admit is NASCAR is a big a business in itself and it is driven by sponsorship.  When all these rumors came up there were fans that expected AdvoCare was going to ditch Bayne because of the performance, but what many don't understand is there is always another side to the story we're never told.  It's not always on track performance that gets a sponsorship out there, it takes a solid spokesman for that company to go to the meet and greets.  I don't think I've read a negative thing from an AdvoCare rep yet that has seen and met Trevor and Ashton, and now little Ellie at their meets during race weekends. 

There are just some sponsors that are made for the driver and vise versa.  The big thing is Roush Fenway really needed to push to keep this deal in their organization for a major reason, they are struggling to keep sponsorship on the other two cars and it's why the big rumor of switching to two cars is really the biggest rumor coming up now.  Like Trevor or not, he is solidly the only guy at Roush that can provide the team with major sponsorship for the entire season.