Roush Racing Team - Winning Again

In 2001 nothing seemed to go right for car owner Jack Roush or his four Winston Cup teams. How else would you describe the four Roush Racing drivers accounting for a mere two victories and 18 Top-5 finishes out of a combined 143 starts?

What a difference a year makes. In one of the most remarkable turnarounds in NASCAR Winston Cup history, Roush Racing roared back to the top in 2002, going from downright rotten to downright enviable. Success came in the form of more victories and strong finishes, and with veteran team leader Mark Martin in the hunt for a championship.

The about-face was even more remarkable considering that Roush nearly died in a plane crash early into the season, putting his organization to the test.

Don't expect anyone within Roush Racing to point to one magic pill that cured all of the team's ills. As is often the case in racing it was the small gains, mixed with a little good luck, that made the difference.

"Everybody wants to know what the difference has been and the answer is we have had more horsepower, better handling cars, faster pit stops, and better luck," says Martin, driver of the No. 6 Viagra Ford. "Everybody at Roush Racing works as hard as they can all the time, but sometimes you get better results for the effort. It's the same thing as playing golf, cards, or anything else. Sometimes you just get better results than you do at other times. It's all rather simple."

All amazing comebacks must start in the cellar, and that's exactly where Roush Racing found itself for much of 2001. Jeff Burton accounted for the team's two victories, and Martin suffered through his next-to-worst season since joining Roush in 1988. Martin didn't win, and he failed to finish in the Top 10 in points for the first time since 1988.

"Last year was an aberration when a bunch of things descended on us that we didn't anticipate and we weren't ready for, and we ended up not managing very well," Roush says. "I'm not mature enough or experienced enough to go through what we went through last year without it almost giving me a heart attack or an ulcer."

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford, says you can't single out any area that led to the lack of performance in 2001. "It was just a lot of little things because we have so many departments and people doing so many different things," Kenseth says. "If you get behind just a little bit in any one of those departments, the racing is so competitive now that instead of running up front you're racing for 20th."

Kenseth says the team improved in 2002 by reacting faster to changing technology, by figuring out the best bodies to use on the race cars, making the right set-up changes, and improving the engines.

"A year has seemed to make all the difference in the world, that's for sure," says Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 97 Rubbermaid Ford. "I can honestly say it's been a total team effort. We have had four cars that worked as one and that's been an important part of our turnaround. As drivers, we have had better horsepower and an improvement in downforce. Jack Roush put a lot of effort into the motor department. So all those things have turned our program around."