Roush Fenway enters this weekend’s race at Daytona International Speedway looking for its third consecutive win in the Sprint Cup Series at the famed 2.5-mile superspeedway. A Roush Fenway driver has visited victory lane in the last three Sprint Cup events at DIS – dating back to the 2011 Daytona 500 – and the team will look to keep that streak in tact under the lights this Saturday night.
RFR’s Matt Kenseth scored the teams 300th NASCAR win earlier this year in the season opening Daytona 500, and David Ragan did the honors for RFR last July, driving the No. 6 Sprint Cup entry to victory lane in the 2011 Coke Zero 400. The team will look to make it three in a row when the green flag drops on Saturday night’s 400-mile Sprint Cup event.
“You have to have fast race cars and here (Daytona) the race cars obviously have more to do with your success or failure than some of the other race tracks,” said Kenseth, who will look to be the first driver
to sweep both Sprint Cup Daytona races since Bobbly Allison accomplished the feat in 1982. “We’ve been solid so far this year at the plate races. Hopefully, our car will run like it did the last two races and we’ll be fast enough to work our way toward the front and hopefully stay there.”
Roush Fenway has been nothing short of dominate in recent outings at Daytona. The team swept both spots on the front row in February’s Daytona 500 Pole day and went on to take the checkered flag in both the 500 and the Gatorade Duel qualifying race. In addition to the victory, RFR placed all three of its full-time Sprint Cup entries inside the top 10 of the 2012 Daytona 500.
“Jack and everyone at Roush Yates – Doug (Yates) and everyone – said, ‘Hey, let’s really put more effort into this,” said RFR’s Carl Edwards. “Let’s be the best we can be. It’s four races a year,’ and it’s paid off. We have fast race cars. We have better teamwork on the race track and I think we understand these races a lot better. All of the effort and hard work has paid off.”
Kenseth finished runner up to Ragan in last season’s July event and RFR’s Carl Edwards was runner up in the 2011 version of the Daytona 500, with Roush Fenway driver Trevor Bayne – piloting the Wood Brothers’ No 21 Ford – to one of the biggest upset wins in Daytona 500 history. Kenseth kicked off the recent rise with Roush Fenway’s first Daytona 500 win in 2009.
Roush Fenway has won four times in the summer at Daytona; Jeff Burton – 2000, Greg Biffle – 2003, Jamie McMurray – 2007 and Ragan 2011. RFR has won six times in the Sprint Cup Series at Daytona and eight times overall in NASCAR action at DIS.
RFR PR
