Stenhouse's win at Talladega was "wind in Roush's sails"

It had been 101 races since a Roush Fenway Racing car had visited victory lane in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.  It went back to Sunday, June 22, 2014 at Sonoma when Carl Edwards won the race at the road course out in California.

Jack Roush was all smiles on Sunday

So when Ricky Stenhouse won the Geico 500 on Sunday afternoon it really did throw wind to the sails in the organization at Roush Fenway Racing.  There are a lot of team members that have stuck through the grit and grind since that last win happened at Roush, they've heard all that talk that they were not capable of winning ever again; and the doors were ready to close on the organization.  Yet everyone of these guys that worked to get back to victory lane held through and have been able to see this organization turn around in just the last 9 months. 

It started from the top. 

Robbie Reiser was moved from being competition director after holding the position for almost ten seasons.  Kevin Kidd and Tommy Wheeler came in and have made swift changes into the organization that have seen much better results on the track this season than in the last few years in the MENCS. 

Jack Roush has hope that the win on Sunday is a solid impulse for even more victories this season.

"It gives us fresh wind in our sail," said the 75 year old car owner.  "We've got over 300 victories in NASCAR.  The number that I hold dear is 40 years of racing, drag racing, road racing and NASCAR.  I've won over 450 national events, and it puts another chapter in that record."

It was not long ago that Roush was the flagship organization for Ford Performance in NASCAR.  All around the board, they were a force in NASCAR's top tier division all the way down to the truck series and then something took a major change.  Around 2012, Roush Fenway Racing began to take a slide backwards and veteran drivers Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards parted ways with the organization within three years of one another to go to Joe Gibbs Racing. 

It was then late in the 2016 that a decision was made for Roush's last veteran driver Greg Biffle to part ways with the team.  Both Roush and Biffle mutually agreed that it was time for a change for both parties and it left the team with two cars and systematically in a position to improve. 

At the heals of the decision, it left the team in a position to do much needed work in their management department.  Robbie Reiser as I said was replaced with Kevin Kidd and Tommy Wheeler was put into a management role as well.  New roles were giving to younger members and the team freshened up the way that their cars were built within. 

Many questioned Bayne and Stenhouse when the decision
was made to go to two cars

Then there was one other little thing.  The team was left with two very young drivers that many people considered underachievers in the sport.  The only one to win a race was Trevor Bayne in his second start in the 2011 Daytona 500, so many were questioning how this would work out.  On Sunday when Stenhouse won, Bayne congratulated his long-time teammate on social media, even after being involved in the huge wreck late in the race. 

While it is only one victory for the organization, the team owner still believes that there a lot more to come for his drivers. 

"We'll win a race with Trevor before this year is over unless I miss my guess," Roush said.  "But honestly we can get ourselves ready for the last 10 races to make a championship run."