Sprint Cup - Roush Fenway Has Been Big Hit In Texas

FT. WORTH, April 12, 2012: Roush Fenway Racing dominated the inaugural NASCAR weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in 1997, winning both Sunday’s Sprint Cup event with Jeff Burton and Saturday’s Nationwide Series race with Mark Martin. RFR led over 100 laps throughout the weekend of April 5-6, with the team taking home a pair of trophies and full bragging rights for one of NASCAR’s biggest attractions.

The success was a precursor of things to come, with Roush Fenway winning the first two Sprint Cup races at TMS and three of the first four NNS events. All in all, Roush Fenway has posted 16 NASCAR victories at Texas Motor Speedway and will look for No. 17 when the NASCAR Series rolls into Ft. Worth.

Carl Edwards has won five times in Roush Fenway Fords at Texas and is excited about the chance of earning his fourth Sprint Cup win at the 1.5-mile oval this weekend.

“They have a great race track there and we have had huge success at Texas,” said Edwards. “We would like to go there and get a fourth win. We have run really welI at these mile and a half (tracks). I think Vegas was a good run for our whole Roush Fenway team. We had three top-five cars there, so we will go there to win this race.

“When you win at Texas it is always exciting,” added Edwards. “You get to stand there in victory lane and everybody gets a cowboy hat and then they hand you loaded handguns (with blanks) that you shoot off there. It is a lot of fun. It’s Texas. It’s a fun place to go visit, a great race track and hopefully we can get a win, and Saturday night racing is a lot of fun.”

Roush Fenway won three times last season in Texas, with Matt Kenseth in the Sprint Cup Series and Carl Edwards and Trevor Bayne sweeping the Nationwide Series at TMS in 2011.

Edwards believes the future for RFR should be as bright - or even brighter - than the past.

“(General Manager) Robbie (Reiser) and (head engineer) Chip (Bolin) and all the guys at the shop have been working hard all year to build the very best race cars that we have ever had,” said Edwards. “They are very good cars. The cars are lighter and we’ve learned some things. Doug Yates and the guys at the engine shop have worked really hard with this FR9 to make sure we have a ton of power, which is hugely important on a mile-and-a-half race track (like Texas).

Friday night’s Nationwide Series race at Texas is set for 8:30 p.m. EDT and will be televised live on ESPN2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., will look to become the seventh Roush Fenway driver to win at Texas.