Pinch yourself—Roush can do three in a row: Jack Roush isn't worried about getting a driver into the Chase this year. It's simply a matter of how many things of his five drivers make it

Sporting News, The, Jan 28, 2005 by Lee Spencer

So you think Jack Roush has been sitting around all offseason, analyzing this and analyzing that and trying to devise a plan to keep Kurt Busch, his champion driver, from slipping like Matt Kenseth, his champion driver the year before?

And do you figure because Roush has won consecutive championships that he's tossing and turning at night, obsessing about how to make it three in a row?

Then you don't know Jack.

"I'm more excited about this year than I've ever been and not the least bit worried about going into an after-championship doldrums like so many teams have," Roush says. "That doesn't concern me at all."

Still, Roush admits that winning back-to-back Nextel Cup titles with different drivers and teams has caused him to pinch himself a few times--a test of reality not to he confused with the occasional fraternal slaps on the rear from Carl Edwards, who is fired up about driving a full season for Roush in 2005.

It's not that Roush doubted his ability to build an organization that could win championships--the 62-year-old engineering whiz had won titles in the Craftsman Truck Series and Busch Series--but a pinch now and then serves as a reminder of the magnitude of his accomplishment in Nextel Cup.

Just two owners in the history of the sport have won three or more consecutive Cup titles: Rick Hendrick won four from 1995 through 1998, and Junior Johnson won three from 1976 through 1978.

Roush enters 2005 in a good position to join them. Three of his teams, more than from any other owner, made the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup last season. Busch won the championship, a resurgent Mark Martin finished fourth and Kenseth wound up eighth, not bad but certainly lower than he aimed after winning the title in 2003.

The two Roush teams that didn't make it to the Chase showed promise. Greg Biffle won two races in the second half of the season, and Edwards, after jumping into the No. 99 with 14 races remaining, posted five top 10s.

What else does Roush have going for him? His engineering program is second to none. His partnership with Robert Yates Racing last year in the Ford engine program provided horsepower unlike anything his drivers had experienced. He has solid sponsorship for four of his five teams and has a partial deal for Edwards.

Roush isn't worried about getting a driver into the Chase this year--it's simply a matter of how many of his drivers will make it.

Busch is confident he will be one of them. He says the keys to defending his title are starting the season with productive tests, structuring the team properly and having "everything fall into place." There won't be much tinkering with the No. 97 team because it returns in full, an advantage Busch has over many drivers.

Ultimately, he says, the key to winning the championship under the Chase format is to peak late in the season. "Just 10 races," Busch says. "That's all it takes."

First, Busch must get back into the Chase. Then comes the challenge to repeat. Jeff Gordon was the last to do it, winning in 1997 and 1998.

So has Roush implemented safeguards to keep Busch from running into the problems Kenseth experienced in 2004 as a defending champion?

"We haven't had that discussion yet," Roush says. "The thing that's different from what the 17 did and the 97 did was when the 17 won its championship, we were ready to get our new car--our new Taurus for last year. We didn't have a template for what that car should be. We didn't know what we should do for the new rules and the new tires.

"Last year, we looked at several different things: Mark Martin and the 6 car was the best car we had for the springs and shocks and the aero package. The 97 ran the Martin setup for part of the year but not the entire year. They were back and forth--old school, new school, old school, new school. Now they know what to do. They were a little bit behind by not staying with it all year, but they're ready to go full speed now."

About the only concern Roush has is how to replace a driver of Martin's caliber when Martin retires at the end of 2005. The No. 6 team has been the flagship of Roush Racing since Roush joined the sport in 1988, and Roush says Martin will have a hand in choosing his successor, as well as in the direction of Roush Racing in the future.

Edwards initially was named the heir apparent, but his unexpected opportunity with the No. 99 and crew chief Bob Osborne changed the landscape of the operation.

For now, the search for Martin's replacement is on the back burner. Roush is preparing his teams for a new year and a new Chase. As the season nears, it's not a question of whether a Roush driver can win the title. In fact, any of them can.

INSIDE DISH

Jeff Gordon put up the fastest speeds during the first day of testing at Daytona, more proof that Hendrick Motorsports can go head to head with Dale Earnhardt Inc. on the restrictor-plate backs. Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. won two races each on plate tracks last year, the first time DEI didn't win at least three of the season's four races on restricted tracks since 2000. Gordon says he's more focused on winning a fifth championship than how far his teams plate program has come, but it doesn't hurt to have confidence at Daytona. Gordon says his new Monte Carlo feels better than the car he won in last July at the track.