3000th Cup start for Roush Fenway: This is a milestone week for Roush Fenway Racing owner Jack Roush, whose organization celebrates its 3,000th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start in Sunday's Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Roush's Ford team made its series debut on Feb. 14, 1988, when Mark Martin finished 41st in the Daytona 500. Since then, Roush has celebrated 130 victories - most recently last weekend, when Matt Kenseth drove his #17 Ford into Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway.(NASCAR)(10-24-2012)

 

Despite the all up hill battles with Nascar, Roush has done great over the years! May they run another 3000 !

 

Great! Thanks for posting! I agree, even though Nascar wants chevy to win everything all the time, this is a huge accomplishment!

 

Always loved the Stroh's Light T-Birds!!

 

Where is all that Roush/Yates horsepower all the TV commentators talk about. Martinsville is a short track where aerodynamics does not come into play so much as on the superspeedways. As a result you would think the Fords would qualify better with all that horsepower we hear about. The best a Ford driver could qualify was 6th.

 

It's just qualifying, it's not a big deal.

 

I agree and the way to start to fix Nascar is to in pound all the races. Bring your car.. 2 practice sessions, qualify and park it... You got what you got and adjust during the race...

 

Horsepower is more useful at mid-size tracks where there's enough straight to really drag it out (without being choked off by restrictor plates at the Supers). Small tracks are more about braking, and then there's the teams "bending" the rules with stuff like 4-wheel steering and independent braking mods.

 

So, why were none of the Roush cars contending for the lead at Martinsville ? Bad breaks ? Poor handling cars ? Drivers had no desire to lead the race ? Lack of sponsorship ? Not enough horsepower ?

 

Roush never had much success on short tracks.

Luckily, your boy David Ragan was able to save Roush's honor and finish at the 26th place.

 

Yea, good to see David Ragan finish ahead of the 2011 Sprint Cup Champion and also finish on the lead lap. Ragan is just some pit strategy away from winning. Maybe next race he will win.

 

... and the next year he will lead Front Row Racing to 1-2-3 finish at Daytona 500 and will win the first championship for the team ...