Roush-Fenway Drivers Coming Up Short Again in Chase

A year ago, two drivers of the Roush-Fenway Racing team found their way to NASCAR's illustrious Chase for the Sprint Cup.

They finished rather unspectacularly.

Greg Biffle held the banner highest for the proud Ford operation, winding up seventh after the season's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway last November. His teammate, Carl Edwards, finished eleventh.

Neither garnered a win during that 2009 campaign -- one that seemed to start in quite the fashion with Matt Kenseth's sweep of the season's first two races, including the Daytona 500.

Fortunes seemed to be in the organization's favor this season after all three of those drivers -- Biffle, Edwards and Kenseth -- made it into the top 12 at the Chase cutoff point in September.

Edwards was in the best shape of the three during the pre-Chase run-up, tallying eight consecutive 12th-or-better finishes before Richmond. He maintained his streak through the first four races of the Chase before a 34th-place finish at Auto Club Speedway derailed the run.

Electrical problems were to blame, and the team hasn't been able to recover.

With three races left, Edwards is sixth in points and trails leader Jimmie Johnson by 247 points. The effect is that Edwards is gearing up for wins in a season that's winless so far.

"At this point in the season we've got three races left to finish strong and Texas is one we feel like we have an opportunity to go get a win, so this race couldn't come at a better time," Edwards said.

Biffle, meanwhile, has had a rougher time of it in the Chase this year. Although he rallied for a win at Kansas in October, Biffle started his Chase campaign with finishes of 32nd, 17th and 19th.

Immediately after that boost, though, Biffle blew an engine at Auto Club and floundered to a 41st-place finish. Save for a massive penalty of Clint Bowyer after the Chase opener at New Hampshire, Biffle would have the record as the worst overall Chase contender.

He's currently 11th, down a whopping 367 points.

"It's frustrating that you work all season and it gets down to you pitted and the caution came out and trapped you, and then it comes down to we had the engine too lean and we blew up," Biffle said at Martinsville.

He's an all-or-nothing guy when it comes to the championship.

"As far as the championship goes, the reality is that if you're not in it, I don't really care," Biffle said. "If I can't win it, then it really doesn't affect me. If Jimmie wins it again or Denny (Hamlin) wins it or Kevin Harvick or Tony (Stewart), it's not gonna impact me that much.

"I'm just gonna compete and try to do the best I can and see where I can get to in the points and just see what happens."

The third driver in the Roush-Fenway Chase trio, Kenseth, has had an equally disappointing Chase run. The finishes -- he hasn't had a top-five since Michigan in August -- are just a continuation of a season that has been consistent, but uneventful.

Kenseth is 10th in points, riding finishes of 15th at Martinsville and 16th at Talladega. The Wisconsin driver echoed Edwards' sentiments about just grabbing a race win -- something he's managed to do once at Texas Motor Speedway, back in 2002.

"We haven't had a win for a long time, so we certainly would like to get back to victory lane and get back to winning with the 17 and finish as high as we can in the points and be ready for next year," Kenseth said.