Roush Fenway needs to go back to its roots

Burton(left) and Martin share a conversation
during the 2001 season

Racing has certainly changed in the last 18 years, however, success can certainly be something that burns a company when they aren't keeping themselves up.  Jack Roush has been around since 1988 and his Hall of Fame driver of the past Mark Martin and another driver shared something in the late 90s and early 2000s that helped provide the company with one of the strongest working cores in the sport but once Martin and teammate Jeff Burton were gone the working core at RFR was gone.

Back then the two believed in helping one another -- even if -- it meant in return the other driver would run better than the other.  Back then Martin and Burton was part of Roush's five car operation, however, they were housed in the same shop together. I do not see that these days with this organization.  Since these two drivers parted ways with Roush it went to "I have to beat my teammate system."  Martin and Burton had a system where all come together to make the organization better and that is what needs to happen with Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., even if Stenhouse is racing for playoff positions. 

The organization has to have two drivers willing to work with one another and two crew chiefs that

Bayne and Stenhouse need more of a working bond in the
Roush Fenway shop

have that same attitude.  I believe back in the day Jimmy Fennig and Buddy Parrott shared that same idea and the cars and success reflected it on the race track.  There has to be that will to want to be a successful pair of teammates in this sport.  Martin and Burton knew what it took to make that happen, so if there are notes that were left behind by these two drivers Roush's current drivers need to take a look at them and see how being a working pair in the garage can win you races. 

People speculated in 1998 that Martin was given better race cars than Burton, however, the teams kept working together to find more speed and were solid contenders all the way around .  I think that there is a missing piece at Roush Fenway Racing right now that they need to find to bring back some of their driver chemistry that they had in the late 90s with Martin/Burton and get the cars back up front.

Bayne is currently 21st in the standings and you can tell the 6 team is not getting the same equipment as the 17 throughout the playoff run.  It is just a disappointment to see the cars perform this terrible and know there are ways to get more out of a team and know that the team is missing that little tiny piece of the puzzle.

Stenhouse playoff run maybe good for RFR but has another effect on Bayne

While it is good for Roush Fenway to get into the playoffs, their moves to make sure Ricky Stenhouse moves forward has a totally different effect on Trevor Bayne and his season. 

Trevor Bayne and his team are struggling through the run of
playoffs as the focus is on teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr

You can argue that it is the Ford issue, the crew chief issue but fact is, right now Bayne and his No. 6 team are pretty much lab mice for the 17 team until they fall out.  The money is flowing into the 17 team and here is the major down fall that is having on Bayne and his team.  The sponsorship dollars that are suppose to be going into Bayne's car probably are going to Stenhouse to try and make it further and fans can clearly see it. 

As a former crew member I would have took it as a slap in the face if I was the 17  crew that got Stenhouse into the playoffs and then told I was being swapped to the 6 team because they were faster.  They got Stenhouse there, they should have had the chance to get him to the finish line.  I heard at the beginning of this year that the cars would be built equally and there would be only several differences in case one car was faster than the other, yet I just don't see that right now. 

Performance is an issue, plain and simple and you need both cars performing at their maximum and with the organization flushing it to the 17 team to try and move forward it is truly a bitter time.  I never seen this happen when Mark Martin and Jeff Burton were teammates, the two worked together to make sure each other performed as well as the other.  It was a partnership in the garage when these two were teammates.  Since then Roush Fenway Racing has turned into more of a competition between its teammates than a working partnership.

These finishes are not good on attracting sponsors that the 6 team needs for next season either.  It still remains to be seen how many races that they have left this season where the car will carry that dreaded 401k sponsorship from Ford and Roush Performance.  The fact of the matter is Bayne carried the team with full sponsorship for two seasons and AdvoCare backed off after last year to a part-time sponsorship but remained the major sponsor on the car.   Liberty National Life stepped up as well this season, along with Performance Plus Motor Oil, however,  you've still got to put money into a car that the sponsorship provides and make sure they perform to its fullest and right now its clear RFR isn't with the 6 team. 

This season seven races have gone with those 401K sponsors as we used to call them at the shop when I worked.  So that's a lot of money that needs to be found and RFR is hurting the 6 team by hindering their performance during the 17 team's Playoff run.