Phase 2 Of Rebuilding Roush Fenway Racing

I have followed the ups and downs of Roush Fenway Racing since their first race in NASCAR in 1988, and the last few years have definitely been some of the roughest and toughest years that I have witnessed.  But if you know Jack Roush he isn't giving up the ship anytime soon and he is working to get his team back in order.

People have probably already read all the announcements that took place a little bit before Christmas time about all the restructuring that has taken place at Roush Fenway Racing in the off-season.  There were a an estimated 25-30 people let go, however, quite a few new employees were brought in to replace them.

Last season Jack Roush began with the first phase of rebuilding his team.  He brought in Kevin Kidd from Joe Gibbs Racing as his Sprint Cup Series director and Mark McArdle as head of engineering in 2014.  It was early in 2015 that Kidd said that this was going to take more than one season to bring RFR back to its full potential and make it a championship contending race team once again.  He made the statement that "Rome wasn't built in a day and we're in the process of building Rome back"

Phase 2 happened a couple of weeks ago.  Roush Fenway announced the hiring of Kurt Romberg as the head of Aerodynamics, Dr. Kent Day as the Manager of Simulation, and Vojin Jaksic as the research and development/special projects manager.  

With these changes, Roush Fenway will go into 2015 with some newly added confidence and information.  As well there is a new alliance formed between Roush and Front Row Motorsports that has added Roush driver Chris Buescher to its lineup.  I compare that a lot to the deal that Roush had with the Wood Brothers except this seems like it might be heading to a full-time deal.  I've talked to several different guys that work at RFR and they believe the atmosphere at the organization has taken a complete turn for the better.

It was near the end of the 2007 season that Robbie Reiser took on the general manager position at Roush Fenway Racing and in my mind I wonder if it were too much for one man to handle.  Now with Kevin Kidd being the Sprint Cup director he has been able to bring in some newer faces with more experience and a know how to fix some of the issues that are part of this teams problems.

An insider told me that there was a lot of people let go because they felt they were there just for a job, not to get RFR back up to standards. Maybe it took Reiser having a second set of eyes with Kidd to see some of the main issues with Roush Fenway Racing's personnel and they let loose some people they felt were just dead weight with the organization.  Anytime you are able to hire people away from Hendrick that is a win in my opinion.

Bayne and Osborne remain paired for 2016

Roush Fenway Racing announced its crew chief line up for its 2016 drivers on Wednesday night when Brian Pattie was on Sirius Radio with Claire B Lang.  Pattie will take over as crew chief for Greg Biffle while for the second year in a row Trevor Bayne will work with veteran Bob Osborne and Ricky Stenhouse Stenhouse will once again be paired with engineer Nick Sandler.

This will be the second season for Bayne and Osborne to work together in the Sprint Cup Series after last season where they finished 29th in the standings with just 2 top-ten finishes on the season.  Instead of making a change at the crew chief lineup with Bayne and Stenhouse, it was probably best to let them work with their respectable crew chiefs for another season until the cars at Roush Fenway Racing were fixed.

Roush Fenway makes announcement of new employees

There are a lot of improvements needed for 2016

Roush Fenway Racing announced after the season ended about the restructuring of their outfit for the upcoming season.  Today the team announced where the three new hired positions will be placed for the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Kurt Romberg, Dr. Kent Day, and Vojin Jaksic will each take on high level positions within Roush Fenway Racing for 2016.

"It takes great talent to win in this sport and we are very pleased with the additions we have made on the competition front," said car owner Jack Roush.  "We recognize the importance of putting the appropriate personnel into place, as we continue our relentless pursuit to put the best and most competitive race teams on the track."

Kurt Romberg comes from Hendrick Motorsports where he spent 15 years as the head man of aerodynamics for the powerhouse organization.  He worked with General Motors and Petty Enterprises before taking on the role of chief aerodynamicist at HMS.

Dr. Kent Day will become the Manager of Simulation.  Day, who holds, a PH.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University, brings over two decades of experience to RFR.  He has held technical director positions with Team Penske and Richard Childress Racing, and most recently served in vehicle dynamics at Michael Waltrip Racing.

Jaksic will return to RFR as the research and development/special projects manager after serving in similar positions with MWR and Joe Gibbs Racing.  Jaksic previously had worked at RFR from 2005 until 2011.

The three additions to the organization are part of a strategic plan to expand organizational capabilities and follows the hiring of veterans Mark McArdle and Kevin Kidd from last season.

McArdle is the leader of engineering while Kevin Kidd remains the Sprint Cup Series director.  It was earlier in 2015 that Kevin Kidd made a statement to Motorsport.com that he felt this was going to be a multi-year plan to rebuild Roush Fenway Racing.

"Rome was not built in a day and we're in the process of building Rome back up," Kidd stated.  "It's going to take time.  That's the simple truth.  I had some perspective on it this week like when you look at other organizations that are down and trying to build back up - Ganassi comes to mind.  Penske, maybe less so but maybe a few years back.  It's a solid two to three year process of trying to get back to full form and ultimate competitive level.  I'll stop short of saying it will take two to three years, but it's going to take time.

"When you look at where we're trying to go with this, we're trying to change the culture of Roush Fenway Racing, how we've done business in the past and how we'll do business in the future.  Ultimately, that change, more so than nuts and bolts of race cars, but the change of our working philosophies, that's what will get us back to a competitive level -- and that takes time."

2015 Year In Review

Trevor Bayne and Bob Osborne will work together a 2nd season in 2016
Photo Credit:  Jerry Markland

Crew Chief:  Bob Osborne

Team:  Roush Fenway/AdvoCare No. 6 
Points:  29th
Wins:  0
Top-5s:  0
Top-10s:  2
Laps Led:  0

It was a very tough season altogether for Trevor Bayne and his No. 6 AdvoCare Ford team in 2015 as they only scored two top-ten finishes during the season.  The rough start began at Daytona and couldn't throughout the entire season as Roush Fenway Racing continued to struggle to find speed in its Fords during the season.

The bright spot came at Michigan in June when Bayne scored his first top-ten finish, a ninth place finish at team owner Jack Roush's home track.  Bayne would then score a top-ten at Daytona in July finishing 9th once again.  When NASCAR first brought in the low down-force package at Kentucky Speedway, Bayne and teammate Ricky Stenhouse were competitive on the 1.5 mile oval and Bayne finished 13th.  His best finish the remainder of the year came at Bristol when he finished 15th.
Biggest Race of the Year:  Michigan
Trevor Bayne ran his most competitive race of the season at the two-mile Michigan Speedway in June.  Bayne finished 9th in the rain shortened event and scored his first top-ten in the Sprint Cup Series since 2012.
What To Look Forward to in 2016:
Roush Fenway Racing completely restructured itself right after the season ended and there were a lot of new employees hired.  It appears that Bayne and crew chief Bob Osborne will work together for a second term next season in the Sprint Cup Series.  Osborne is the 6th winningest crew chief in the Sprint Cup Series garage so the outlook might be better in their second year together.  AdvoCare will be back on board for their second season with the No. 6 Roush Fenway team as well.

NASCAR will be running the low downforce package next season and that seemed to be one the strongest points of Bayne's season was when the series ran at Kentucky with its low downforce package at the 1.5 mile Kentucky Speedway.  Bayne ran in the top-ten for most of the night until he faded back to 13th later that night.  So the outlook is better for 2016.  Also Ford will have a new body on its 2016 Ford Fusion to compete in the Sprint Cup Series as well that should help with some of the issues that Roush Fenway has faced since the Gen-6 car was introduced.
Baby Bayne Was Born:  

Trevor and Ashton Bayne had a beautiful baby girl Elizabeth(Ellie) Kate Bayne who was born last Thursday.  You can't get a better Christmas than having your child born.  Little Ellie came close to sharing a birthday with her grandfather Rocky Bayne.

It appears that Trevor and Ashton haven't been getting much sleep since the arrival of their little daughter last week as Trevor posted this picture on instagram earlier this week.

We wish them nothing but the best in raising their daughter!

Trevor Bayne's Biggest Moments of 2015

Trevor and Ashton revealed on instagram they were having girl 

No. 1 Finding out he'll be a father.  There are very few moments that can top finding out you'll be a dad and having a little girl on the way.  Trevor and Ashton Bayne broke the news the public that they would be expecting a child in December on June 4th of this year on twitter and instagram.  Bayne later revealed how Ashton broke the news to him.

"I was shocked," Bayne said during the race week in June at Pocono.  "I was at the Richmond test, and normally if I'm gone she'll sleep in a little bit, but I got a call at 7 in the morning.

Bayne celebrates his win at Pocono in ARCA in June.

"I was like, 'What's going on?  Is the house on fire?'  And she says, 'Babe, I'm pregnant.'  It was hard to keep that a secret at the test that day, but I was just really excited and pacing around the hotel room on the phone with her, so it was cool."

No. 2 Winning ARCA Pocono Race.  Trevor Bayne dominated the June 6th ARCA race at Pocono Raceway.  He drove a No. 22 AdvoCare Ford Fusion owned by Cunningham Motorsports in the event and led 42 laps of the 80 lap event and won in his first start in the ARCA Series.  His margin of victory was 4.5 seconds over second place Grant Enfinger.

Trevor Bayne finished ninth at Michigan in June

No. 3 First Top-Ten at Michigan in June.
Trevor Bayne started 20th in June at Michigan and with a little bit of strategy and bad weather, crew chief Bob Osborne was able to to get Bayne up inside the top-ten late in the event before the rain finally set in on the track.

Bayne ended up finishing ninth in the event and it was the first top-ten for Bayne in almost 3 years in the Sprint Cup Series.  He was the highest finishing RFR driver that afternoon as well.

No. 4 Finishing Top-15 in front of the Home Crowd at Bristol.   Trevor Bayne surged late in
the Irwin Tools Night Race.  He started in 22nd
during the Saturday night event at Bristol.  He had to battle back late in the race for track position on the half mile mile venue.  Caught with a speeding penalty on lap 430, that sent him to the tail end of the longest line, it didn't stop him.  He battled back to finish 15th in front of his home town crowd at Bristol.

It was his best career finish on a short track in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.