Scott's Pit Box: Roush's problem isn't with driver talent

Trevor Bayne and Jack Roush

In the past few weeks I've read some columns and blogs where many writers are pointing to Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., being the main problem at Roush Fenway Racing.  I have to wonder about some of these writers and if they really do know a thing about what is really going on at Roush Fenway Racing right now.

Bayne and Stenhouse both have struggled but when you look at their teammate and veteran driver Greg Biffle he is right there with them through much of the season.  As the season has progressed both the younger drivers have began to run better than Biffle, so that has to make you wonder there; if the issue could be related to information that Biffle is providing the team since he is the senior driver of the company now.  Roush's struggles began before both of these drivers arrived on the scene in Sprint Cup full-time.

The problems began in 2012 and the issues haven't been pin-pointed.  At the end of last year Mark McArdle and Kevin Kidd were both hired for two major positions in hopes of bringing a new look to the organization and finding part of the issues.  I have read so much that if you were put Chris Buescher in one of these drivers cars he'd be running in the top-ten and as big of a fan as I am of Buescher, I think the results would be exactly the same for one major reason - the cars.  These cars are all having the same handling characteristics week in and week out.  I've been listening to the AdvoCare team radio each week and most weeks you hear 'Tight center, loose off' and that is a bad handling issue to have at almost every race track NASCAR visits.

Bayne talks to crew chief Bob Osborne at Richmond

Crew Chief Bob Osborne is in his first season back since 2012 and I have really liked how he and Trevor Bayne worked together along with spotter Freddie Kraft.  Also Stenhouse has a rookie crew chief with Nick Sandler and the two seem to finally be making some strides.  In my opinion that has been one of Stenhouse's problematic issues, he has not been able to work with a crew chief longer than one season before RFR has made a change to his team.

So we look at other issues.  At Kentucky earlier this season when NASCAR first introduced the lower down force rules package, Bayne and Stenhouse both performed well.  The two ran among the top-ten and were competitors for solid finishes.  Stenhouse pointed out this week to someone that he felt with this high down force package that NASCAR currently runs, their cars do turn as well as everyone else.  He said it was something that they were just missing their race car and maybe in their front suspension, so when the load was put on the car it didn't turn like it should.  If NASCAR does run the rules package in 2016, it might be a helping hand to RFR and its teams.

With Michael Waltrip Racing shutting down at the end of the season it might be a good time for Roush to go hunting for new engineers for their team.  I've read comments from fans that they think that Roush should purchase a chassis from Penske, here's your problem fans.  Penske likely isn't going to sell to a rival team like Roush and provide the same information that they have.