Over the next few days, we'll be looking at NASCAR's top teams and sizing up their 2009 seasons, based on both expectation and results. Next up: Roush Fenway Racing.
Drivers (rank): Carl Edwards (6), Matt Kenseth (12), Greg Biffle (13), Jamie McMurray (19), David Ragan (30)
Wins of 19 races: 2 -- Kenseth (Daytona 500, Fontana)
The story: It's been an almost-but-not-quite kind of year for Roush in 2009. While Matt Kenseth started as fast as humanly possible, winning the first two races of the season, he's cooled off considerably since then, and now sits in the last spot in the Chase. Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle have similarly performed below expectations, especially considering how well they had run at the end of the 2008 season. True, Edwards was one turn from winning at Talladega, but neither he nor Biffle have gotten into victory lane yet this year, and neither one has looked consistently capable of challenging the Big Four at the top of the standings. Further down the line, neither Jamie McMurray nor David Ragan has performed the way observers believed they would, and both need a strong second-half run to aid their chances for a 2010 ride.
Verdict: NASCAR has decreed that Roush must cut loose one of its drivers by the end of the season. So who's going to go? Conventional wisdom has held that McMurray would be the one to go, since Roush has high hopes for Ragan, but with Ragan barely cracking the top 30, would that convince Roush to go in another direction? In the shorter term, Roush will be pinning its hopes on its other three drivers, particularly Edwards.
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