2014 Team Spotlight Review: Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Racing 2014 Review

By Richard Tix

Season Preview

2014 Team Stats

Wins: 2

Top 5: 11

Top 10: 30

Pole: 0

In 2013 RFR had to watch former RFR driver Matt Kenseth dominate most of the year racking up 7 wins. In 2014 they had to think all season long about who was coming back in 2015. Was that a factor in why the team didn't quite perform up to expectations? We may never truly know, but in 2014 Roush Fenway just didn't have the speed that other teams did have (including another Ford team, Penske). 

In the end it may have also helped lose another one of RFR top drivers for the 2015 season, Carl Edwards. But lets stick to the season in review, 2014.

In 2014 all the major stats were down from 2013. All together RFR only had two wins (both Carl Edwards), 11 top 5's, and 30 top 10's. Most concerning is not one of the three drivers found a pole award in 2014, which is explained because of there lack of power. 

Still, in a disappointing season RFR manage to get two drivers into the 2014 Sprint Cup Chase (Edwards and Biffle). 

Carl Edwards

• 2014 marked Carl's last season with RFR, but lets focus on the season itself. Not many times during the season did I think to myself that Carl was one of the fastest cars on the track. Actually, it seemed like most of the year he hung out from 8-15th each race. Yet, he was still the best RFR driver in 2014 (statistically speaking). Carl ended up with his third straight season of 13+ average finish position (15.1). He had 2 wins, 7 top 5's, and 14 top 10's while finishing 9th in points (which was actually his highest finish since 2011).  

Greg Biffle

• 2014 was Biffle's worst season since his down year in 2011 when he also came up win-less. Even at tracks he normally runs well at he seemed to lack the speed he needed to run up front. He finished the 2014 season with 0 wins, 3 top 5's, and 11 top 10's while finishing the season 14th in points. However, he did make the Chase since it was expanded this season to 16 drivers.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr

• Was it the lack of RFR speed? Or was it a huge driver regression? Not sure what happened but the promise of Ricky's Rookie 2013 run is all but forgotten after 2014. He again didn't have a win, he had the same amount of top 5's (1), and 5 top 10's (up from 3), yet his average finish ended up being 22.4 (down from 18.9). 2015 will be a big season for Ricky and RFR.

Previous Team Spotlight Review: Michael Waltrip Racing