Roush resurgence slowed as cars struggle at Chicago

JOLIET, Ill. -- His team has won two of the past four Nextel Cup races, and might have stolen a third had Jamie McMurray not run out of fuel. All five drivers finished in the top 12 last Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. After slugging through the first half of the season, Roush Fenway Racing seems to have found its footing in NASCAR's premier series.

Well, maybe until Friday, when four Roush drivers finished well down the speed chart in qualifying for Sunday's event at Chicagoland Speedway. One of them, Greg Biffle, was in no mood to talk about a turnaround.

"Walk over there and look at the [bleeping] sheet," he said after qualifying 33rd for the USG Sheetrock 400. "We're all slow. We went restrictor-plate racing [at Daytona], and anybody can restrictor-plate race. The restrictor-plate race showed we have five good drivers. This showed that the 36 car with Jeremy Mayfield out-qualified all of us. Ray Evernham fired the guy. I don't know what that means."

Not all of them. Matt Kenseth went out late in the session and posted the 10th-fastest lap, but Biffle, McMurray, David Ragan and Carl Edwards were all looking up at Mayfield, whose Toyota seized the 20th starting spot. Time will tell whether it was a true sign of struggle or an aberration for an organization trying to regain the form that saw it place all five cars in the Chase in 2005.

Friday aside, the past few weeks have revealed plenty of positives for a team that's won two series championships, but lagged behind the competition --particularly in Car of Tomorrow races -- earlier in the year. Edwards won June 17 at Michigan to snap a 52-race winless streak. The next week at Sonoma, McMurray led 30 laps before his gas tank ran dry late in the race. Edwards and McMurray each had strong cars July 1 at New Hampshire. Kenseth continues to embody consistency, finishing in the top 10 in 12 of 18 starts and standing third in points.

And last week at Daytona, McMurray edged Kyle Busch by .005 seconds to claim his first victory in five years. He led a Roush Fenway parade that also saw Edwards finish fourth, Biffle sixth, Kenseth eighth and Ragan 12th. With Kenseth and Edwards in position to make the Chase and McMurray and Biffle on the bubble, team co-owner Jack Roush at least has an outside chance of qualifying his four top drivers for NASCAR's 10-race playoff.

"We've been really strong at the last four races," McMurray said. "Jack's put a lot of emphasis on getting our Car of Tomorrow program stronger, and at Loudon and Sonoma, both Carl and I had a chance to win the race. So I think that shows we're heading in the right direction. Our mile-and-a-half program has always been strong. Even when things weren't great last year, or even this year, the mile-and-a-half program is strong. So if we can get our Car of Tomorrow program just a little bit better, I feel like we'll have everything down." (Continued)