Jack Roush Gives 30 Years of Experience to Roush Fenway Racing
- 29 Jun 2017
Born in Covington, Kentucky in 1942, Roush earned a mathematics degree and minored in physics at Berea College and a Master’s Degree in Scientific Mathematics from Eastern Michigan University. Soon after graduating Berea College in 1964, he moved to Detroit and was hired by Ford Motor Company. By 1966 he had been drawn to the company’s motorsports activities and had joined a group of fellow racing fans called, “The Fastbacks.” After leaving Ford in 1970, he partnered with Wayne Gapp and formed a team that raced Pro Stock racecars. It quickly gained national attention after the duo won several racing events and one championship each for major hot rod sanctioning groups including the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), International Hot Rod Association (IHRA), and the American Hot Rod Association (AHRA). Armed with a wealth of racing experience, he started Jack Roush Performance Engineering in 1976. Although he did not race during the late 1970s, he remained a part of the sport building engines for racing teams through the early 1980s. He returned to racing in 1984 and competed in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) road-racing series. He won 24 national championships and titles in the series including 12 manufacturer’s championships, and won 119 races while partnered with such acclaimed drivers as Tommy Kendall, Scott Pruett, and Willy T. Ribbs. He also won 10 consecutive sedan-class championships at the 24 Hours of Daytona, teaming with drivers Kendall, Pruett, Mark Martin, Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd and Kyle Petty as well as actor Paul Newman and Olympic star Bruce Jenner. In 1988, he partnered with driver Mark Martin and launched his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team, which was then known as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. In October 1989 the pair earned their first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory at North Carolina Motor Speedway. Over time the partnership became one of the most successful in NASCAR history. The Martin-Roush team earned 35 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories. In 2005, Roush joined Doug Yates and formed Roush Yates Engines. Based in Mooresville, North Carolina, the business manufactures engines for Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, and several other teams involved in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR XFINITY Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and ARCA Series. In 2007, Roush Racing and Fenway Sports Group (FSG) formed Roush Fenway Racing. Roush has won eight championships across NASCAR’s three premier series (2000 – Truck Series with Greg Biffie; 2002 – XFINITY Series with Greg Biffie; 2007 – XFINITY Series with Carl Edwards; 2011 XFINITY Series with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.; 2012 XFINITY Series with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.; 2015 XFINITY Series with Chris Buescher; 2003 – Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with Matt Kenseth, and 2004 – Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with Kurt Busch).
Located in Concord, North Carolina, Roush Fenway Racing employs about 250 people including four drivers –- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Trevor Bayne, Ryan Reed, and Ty Majeski. The team prides itself in developing its drivers from within. Stenhouse earned his experience racing in the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) Series before he graduated to the XFINITY Series. Bayne drove for Roush Fenway in XFINITY events before moving over to the No. 6 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series program. Reed and Majeski are young drivers who are competing for the team in XFINITY events. Stenhouse pilots the No. 17 Ford Fusion. Born in 1987 in Olive Branch, Mississippi, he now resides in Mooreville, North Carolina. He started racing go-karts at the tender age of 6 years old. By the time he was 15, he had 47 A-main karting victories and more than 90 podium finishes. He graduated into 360 winged sprint cars in 2003 and won the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Driver Poll and Dirt Winged Sprint Car Rookie of the Year. He was also tapped the Memphis (Tennessee) Motorsports Park Rookie of the Year. Stenhouse started racing the USAC National Sprint Car Series in 2004. He had a breakout year in 2006 when he was the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Driver Poll Wild Card title winner in both the 360 and 410 winged sprint car divisions. He won two of three races at the start of the 2007 racing season including the Copper on Dirt at Manzanita Speedway and both the USAC National Sprint Car and Silver Crown feature events. He joined Tony Stewart Racing and raced for that team in the USAC National Sprint and Midget cars division. He won his second start in the USAC National Midget Car Series at Tri-State Speedway. He won rookie of the year in both the USAC Midget and Sprint car divisions in 2007. Stenhouse joined Roush Fenway Racing in 2007. In his first season in the ARCA Series in 2008, he posted two wins, three poles, 10 top five and 14 top-10 finishes in 21 starts. He led the point standings for 13 weeks, before a late-race accident in the season finale ended his title hopes. In 2009, Stenhouse moved into the NXS and recorded his first career pole at Iowa Speedway and achieved one top-five and two top-10 finishes in seven races.
Stenhouse is a golf and basketball fan and likes to work out. He also is a fan of country music. Born in 1991 in Knoxville, Tennessee and now residing in Mt. Holly, North Carolina, Trevor Bayne started racing go-karts when he was 5 years old. In the eight years he competed in the go-kart circuit he achieved three World Championships, and collected more than 300 feature wins and 18 State and Track Championships. He graduated to the Allison Legacy Race Series when he was 13 years old and quickly became the youngest top rookie of the series. In a two-year period racing in the series he garnered 14 wins, 19 pole positions and 30 top-five finishes in 41 starts. He won the series National Championship in 2005. In 2007, when he was just 15 years old, Bayne moved on to compete in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series Southern Division. His career took a fortunate turn in 2008 when he joined Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s driver development program. That year he started competing in the NASCAR Camping World East Series and collected his first series win at the Thompson (Connecticut) International Speedway. In that year he recorded six top-five and seven top-10 finishes and finished in fourth in the NASCAR Camping World East point standings. Bayne began the 2009-racing season finishing second in the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway. Due to this achievement, he won Sunoco Rookie of the Race honors. He debuted in the NXS that year at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, where he finished 23rd driving Jimmy Mean’s No. 52 car. He joined Michael Waltrip Racing as a part-time driver in 2009 racing the No. 99 car. His first race behind the wheel he captured the outside pole at Nashville Super Speedway. In 15 contests he earned one pole and two top-10s and finished inside the top 15 seven times. He joined Roush Fenway Racing in October 2010 and competed in seven NXS races. On February 20, 2011 when he was just 20 years old Bayne became the youngest winner in the history of the Daytona 500. The win was achieved in only his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start. He went on to win his first career NASCAR XFINITY Series event in Texas and garnered 14 top-10 and five top-five finishes in 29 NXS starts that year. He continued racing in the NXS until the end of the 2014 season and then began competing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series fulltime in 2015 driving the No.6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion.
2017 marks Bayne’s third fulltime season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. When not racing, his activities include biking, wakeboarding and snowboarding. He is also involved with Back2Back Ministries’ orphanages in Monterrey, Mexico. Born in 1993 in Bakersfield, California and now residing in Davidson, North Carolina, Ryan Reed’s racing career began when he was 4 years old when he won the Kid’s Kart Championship. By the time he was 8 years old he was the Junior 1 Comer and HPV Karting Track Champion. In 2009 he was the Legends Division Track Champion at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale and was named Rookie of the Year in the Super Late Model Division in 2010. He was the youngest winner at the Toyota Speedway in the Super Late Model Division. In 2010 he moved from California to North Carolina to get more involved in racing and in 2011 he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He was told that he would never race again. Determined to fight back, he returned to California and found Dr. Anne Peters of the University of Southern California’s Clinical Diabetes Program, who treated Reed and made it possible for him to return to racing. He made essential life style changes that included a strict diet and exercise, the use of devices that provided on track data, and reported to his team of doctors in California. He returned to racing that year and competed in three races of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. In 2012 he competed in 14 ARCA races and recorded one top-five and six top-10 finishes. He also raced in one event of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Reed joined Roush Fenway Racing in 2013. That year he competed in six events in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. He finished in the top-10 in most of his races. His best finish was fourth at Daytona International Speedway.
Reed started the 2015 racing season with a win at Daytona. It was his first career win and the first win for Roush Fenway Racing in the XFINITY Series at Daytona. In 2016 Reed participated in the inaugural NXS Chase. Although he did not quite make it to the final round, he did finish sixth in the driver point standings due to seven top-10 finishes. Ty Majeski is a new addition to Roush Fenway Racing and debuted for the team in June. A spokesperson for Roush Fenway noted that driver lineups change from year to year for a variety of reasons. The team has had 52 different drivers compete in NASCAR and 19 of them have won events for Roush Fenway. Eleven of the 19 won their first race for the team and nine of the drivers have won a Cup race. Eight of them were new winners. Roush Fenway does a number of things to prepare for a race that includes the drivers, pit crews and race teams. For example, the drivers spend time in simulators, watch film of previous races, and work out to maintain optimal physical stamina. The pit crews practice on an average of two or three times a week and work out three days a week in the gym. The team’s personnel also prepare the cars during the week following instructions from the Research and Development Department and team engineers. The spokesperson for Roush Fenway explained that it generally takes 30 to 45 days to prepare a car from the ground up. “This includes building the chassis, fabricating and handing the body, time in the paint and body shop and final set up plate as the car is prepared to go to the track,” he said. “Each team takes two race cars to the track each week –- a primary and a backup.” So far this season, Roush Fenway has competed in more than 55 races. It has won one race, finished in the top 5 in five races, finished in the top 10 in 19 races and has logged more than 12,994 laps and 17,560.5 miles. Races that still remain on the schedule include: July 1 - Coke Zero 400 July 7 - Alsco 300 July 8 - Quaker State 400 July 15 - New Hampshire 200 July 16 - New Hampshire 301 July 22 - Indianapolis 250 July 23 - Brickyard 400 July 29 - US Cellular 250 July 30 - Pennsylvania 400 August 5 - Zippo 200 at the Glen August 6 - Watkins Glen 355 August 12 - Mid-Ohio 200 August 13 - Pure Michigan 400 August 18 - Food City 300 August 19 - Bass Pro Shops Night Race August 27 - Road America 180 September 2 - VFW Sport Clips Haircuts 200 September 3 - Bojangles' Southern 500 September 8 - Virginia 529 College Savings 250 September 9 - Federated Auto Parts 400 September 16 - Chicagoland 300 September 17 - Chicagoland 400 September 23 - VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 September 24 - New Hampshire 300 September 30 - Drive Sober 200 October 1 - Dover Fall Race October 6 - Drive for the Cure 300 October 7 - Bank of America 500 October 15 - Hellmann's 500 October 21 - Kansas Lottery 300 October 22 - Hollywood Casino 400 October 29 - Martinsville Fall Race November 4 - O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 November 5 - AAA Texas 500 November 11 - Ticket Galaxy 200 November 12 - Can-Am 500 November 18 - Ford EcoBoost 300 November 19 - Ford EcoBoost 400 Partners include: Ford Performance Plus Motor Oil Fifth Third Bank Advocare Lilly Fastenal Sunny D Fanvision Raybestos CleanHarbors Wiley X Eyewear Coca-Cola MAC Tools K&N Sherwin Williams Champion International Leidos Liberty Life Insurance Company Siemens K&N has been supplying the team with air filters for engines that are manufactured by Roush Yates Engines. “K&N has been a great partner for the last several years and we have enjoyed our relationship with them,” concluded the team’s spokesman. | |||||
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