The Chase - Un-Restricted: Roush Fenway Takes Championship Charge To Talladega

CONCORD, Oct. 20, 2011: Roush Fenway Racing moves into this week’s Sprint Cup showdown at Talladega flashing a strong hand. At the half-way point in the Chase, Carl Edwards leads the Cup standings by five points and Matt Kenseth, who just may be the hottest driver in the sport, is coming on strong in third position; just seven points behind Edwards.

Talladega is the fourth and final restrictor-plate race of the 2011 season and despite Roush Fenway’s strong restrictor-plate program, team owner Jack Roush has been around long enough to know how quickly fortunes can change at the massive 2.66-mile Superspeedway.

“What is certain about Talladega is that there is risk for the drivers and the teams that there will be elements that are out of your control,” said team co-owner Jack Roush. “It’s a matter of having good fuel mileage and working up a good strategy that you are willing to stick with in regard to who you are going to push with and who you are going to team with.

“You have to hope that you make a good judgment as to whether you are going to contend for the leads early and stay up front or if you are going to hang around in the back and wait to make your charge later.”

Still, Roush Fenway won the last restrictor plate race this season via David Ragan’s dramatic victory at Daytona in July, a one-two finish with teammate Kenseth pushing the No. 6 across the finish line. Ragan came equally close to winning the Daytona 500 earlier this year, with Edwards posting a second-place run in the season’s most prestigious event.

“I guess moving forward, I don’t know what’s going to happen at Talladega,” said Kenseth after last weekend’s victory at Charlotte. “Certainly in July at Daytona David (Ragan) and I had a plan and stuck to it the whole weekend and it worked out great. We finished first and second. I think it would be expecting a lot to expect it to go that smooth again and for that to all work out, but the way that kind of tandem racing is there, hopefully, him and I will be able to finish and stay together and make something happen there again.”