Some say there is no more difficult feat than winning a race at the NASCAR level. The weekend of February 24-26, 2004, Roush Fenway accomplished one of the rarest feats in NASCAR history, sweeping all three major series at the two-mile quad oval of California Speedway.
Former RFR driver Mark Martin got the party started with his victory in Friday’s NASCAR Truck Series event, leading 63 laps in the race and pulling away to the team’s second Truck Series win at California. A day later, it was RFR’s Greg Biffle who led 52 laps in route to Roush’s fifth Nationwide Series win at Fontana. On Sunday, Matt Kenseth scored the first of his three wins in the Sprint Cup Series at California, on a day where RFR Fords led 208 of 251 laps, to give Roush Fenway the historical sweep in all three NASCAR races at California.
“Jack (Roush) has done a great job with this organization and given us strong cars,” Kenseth said after the race. “It showed again today (Sunday). “We’ve got great people here (at Roush). We’ve got a lot of loyal people. We’ve got people that want to work hard and want to win. I’ve been very blessed to have such a great team that works so hard at it.”
“It’s just such a pleasure to come to California,” said team owner Jack Roush in the post-race press conference. “The idea of being able to win all three of these races with three different drivers has just been fantastic. I’m going put some of this in the bank. I’m not going use all of this equity up tonight and celebrate with it. This is really a great weekend to be able to have three of our different drivers win all three races.”
That weekend Roush Fenway Racing had seven different entries lead in a race, with the team leading an impressive 381 laps out of a total of 501 laps possible. To this day the weekend sweep goes down as one of the most impressive outings in Roush Fenway’s ’25 Winning Years’ history.
In 2006, Roush Fenway went on to accomplish the feat twice more at Bristol in August and in the season finale at Homestead.
RFR
- Talladega Superspeedway Weekend Schedule - April 14, 2024
- Odd Tony Stewart Talladega Post Race Q&A - May 7, 2012
- Team Chevy Post Talladega Race Rundown - May 7, 2012