NASCAR Cup

Pocono II: Roush Racing preview

Roush Racing Fast Facts - Mark Martin ran to his sixth finish of 15th or better in the last seven races with a 15th-place run at Loudon last weekend. The team will look to turn it up a notch as Martin looks for his first win at Pocono where he ...

Published: Jul 22, 2005, 3:36 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Roush Racing Fast Facts

- Mark Martin ran to his sixth finish of 15th or better in the last seven races with a 15th-place run at Loudon last weekend. The team will look to turn it up a notch as Martin looks for his first win at Pocono where he has finished runner-up on six occasions, including last fall.

- With 19 races in the books, Martin is currently seventh in the point standings, 27 points out of fifth and 352 points behind first.

- This will be Martin's 38th race at Pocono, where he has finished inside the top 10 on 25 occasions, including a seventh-place run last month. Martin boasts 18 top-five finishes at Pocono, the most of any driver.

- With the fifth place finish in New Hampshire last weekend, Greg Biffle remains second in the point standings, 77 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

- Halfway though this 2005 season, Biffle has already has three more wins, three more top-five finishes and three more top-10 finishes than he accumulated in his entire 2004 season.

- Biffle will be racing the signature red, white and blue National Guard paint scheme this weekend in Pocono.

- In his 11 Cup starts at Pocono, Matt Kenseth has finished in the top-five twice and the top-ten five times.

- Kurt Busch jumped five spots to fifth in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series standings with his runner-up finish at Loudon last week. He now trails point leader Jimmie Johnson by 325 points.

- Busch has been in the top 10 for 18 of 19 weeks thus far in 2005. Busch has three top-10 finishes in his last four races, including top-fives at Loudon and Sonoma.

- The No. 97 team brings the blue and yellow of IRWIN Industrial Tools to Pocono for the first time this season (the Sharpie Ford finished 22nd in June after suffering a flat tire while running in the top five).

- Busch is the only current driver with two consecutive top-five starts at Pocono, though a tire problem earlier this year and a transmission failure one year ago prevented him from finishing on the lead lap. Busch has finished runner-up twice in nine career races at Pocono.

- Carl Edwards win at Pocono in June marked the first win at the track for car owner Jack Roush. It was also the first time Edwards had raced at the track. He's the only driver to win at the track in his first attempt with the exception of Richard Petty who won in 1974 when the inaugural Cup event was held at the 2.5-mile tri-oval.

- Pocono marked Edwards' second career NEXTEL Cup win. His first win came earlier in the year at Atlanta in RK-270, the same car he won with at Pocono and the same car he will race this weekend.

- Edwards gained in the points standings after his 12th place finish at New Hampshire last week. Edwards currently sits 472 points out of the lead in 12th. He gained on 10th place closing the margin from 99 points to 54 with seven races remaining until the "Chase".

- Edwards will commute between Pocono, PA and Colorado Springs, CO this week for both the Busch and Cup events. Edwards will miss Saturday's qualifying session at Pocono and start at the back of the field for Sunday's race. Edwards charge from 29th to first was the furthest back a driver had started and won a race at Pocono. Edwards hopes to surpass that this weekend.

Mark Martin
Team: No. 6 Viagra® Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Pat Tryson
Chassis: RK-221 (won the All-Star Challenge earlier this season)

Martin on racing at Pocono Raceway: "Pocono is one of my favorite race tracks. It's really hard to believe that we've never won there, but we've run really well and we've finished second a whole bunch of times. We had a good car there last month and we've probably going to finish second and we might have even had a shot at the win, but we lost a tire there on the last restart and had to settle for a seventh place finish. Hopefully we can go there and put ourselves in that position again and come out on top this time.

"We had a tough race at Loudon. The car just wasn't as good as it needs to be to be competitive. Still the team kept fighting and we were able to use some really great work in the pits and run to a respectable finish. It wasn't by any means what we went into the weekend hoping for, but we got out of there in okay position in the points and we'll point our focus to Pocono and getting a win there."

Crew Chief Pat Tryson on racing at Pocono Raceway: "We were good there in June and hopefully we can expand on that. We are taking the same car back this time that gave us a chance to win the race last time, so it will just be up to us to get ourselves back in position to win again and hopefully this time things go our way and we help Mark get his first win at Pocono."

Greg Biffle
Team: No. 16 National Guard Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Doug Richert
Chassis: RK-299 (last ran at the Coca-Cola 600)

Biffle on racing at Pocono Raceway: "I'm looking forward to running at Pocono this weekend. We had a really good run there in June but had a little brake problem. We know what went wrong though and we're ready to go back. We're taking the car we raced in the Coca-Cola 600 and I feel really good about it. It is very similar to the car I won with at Michigan and that was a fast racecar. It should be a good race for us."

Crew Chief Doug Richert on racing at Pocono Raceway: "We're taking the car we ran in the Coca-Cola 500 earlier this year. It is built very similar to the car we won with in Michigan and Greg is pretty comfortable with it. We had a pretty good run going early on at the first Pocono race this year but we decided to take a different car back because we just feel this is a better car. We'll use the same notes though and the same setup from the June race as a starting point when we get there."

Matt Kenseth
Team: No. 17 DEWALT Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Robbie Reiser
Chassis: RK-39 (finished second at Chicago)

Kenseth on racing at Pocono Raceway: "Going into Pocono, our team feels confident that we can be a top-ten finisher week in and week out. We've improved our finishes this summer and I was really proud of what we were able to do on Sunday in Loudon. We didn't have a great car but everyone stayed focused and we were able to come home with another top-ten finish. We'll be looking to continue that streak in Pocono this weekend."

Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Pocono Raceway: "We had a decent car at Pocono last month. We made a questionable call towards the end of the race by coming down pit road under green, and we had some bad luck with our tires, but we also ran up in the top ten. We're bringing our car from Chicagoland to Pocono this weekend which has proven itself as a fast race car. With consistent top-ten finishes, we're chipping our way toward the top ten in points. That's what we'll be looking for on Sunday, another top-ten finish."

Kurt Busch
Team: No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig
Chassis: #65 (won the pole and finished fifth at Homestead last season)

Busch on racing at Pocono Raceway: "Pocono is definitely one of the most unique tracks we'll be visiting this year with the configuration of the track. It's basically a road course in the shape of an oval. We've run well at this facility the last couple of years, and had some trouble at the end. A couple years ago we were running well and hit some debris and got into the wall, and last year we had a transmission failure while running in the top 10 towards the end of the race, and then this past fall we had tire trouble at the end when we were running for a top-five. So our results here haven't been what they should have been. But we feel good about our car this weekend and want to continue getting the top-10 finishes we need to stay up in the points."

Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig on racing at Pocono Raceway: "We're on track right now with where we want to be. We had a good run at Loudon last week, and we feel like we've learned a few things going into Pocono from our last trip here. But we are really just looking for those nice, consistent finishes. That's what we need right now."

Carl Edwards
Team: No.99 Office Depot Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Bob Osborne
Chassis Number: RK-270 (won at Pocono and Atlanta)

Edwards on racing at Pocono Raceway: "I'm excited to go to Pocono this weekend. I raced there for my first time back in June and we won in the Stonebridge Ford. It was unbelievable. I knew we had a good car but I certainly wasn't expecting to win right out of the gate. The win there was really special since it was my first time there and it was Jack's first win there as a car owner. It really meant a lot to me to bring home that victory. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome crew chief and team, they are so talented and they do everything they can to give me fast race cars week in and week out. Even though our results have been up and down, overall we've been consistently fast and that's a great feeling. I'm really looking forward to returning to Pocono and trying my hardest to get the sweep in 2005."

Crew Chief Bob Osborne on racing at Pocono Raceway: "Pocono is an extremely tough race track for veterans let alone rookies. For Carl to go there and win his first time there was spectacular. It was Jack's first win there as an owner too so it was really special to be a part of that. We are taking the same car we won with at Atlanta and Pocono earlier this year so we're hoping it brings us more good luck this weekend. We are fighting as hard as we can to get back in the 'Chase' and I feel confident that we have the driver and team to do it with."

-rr-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Pocono II: Elliott Sadler preview

Next article Pocono II: Goodyear Racing preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez recovers from crash to take pole at wet Phillip Island

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez recovers from crash to take pole at wet Phillip Island

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

Formula 1

United States GP

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

No factory Honda bikes in Australian GP as Luca Marini withdraws due to virus

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

2 h

No factory Honda bikes in Australian GP as Luca Marini withdraws due to virus

"We're just a step behind" - what McLaren is trying to solve with its final 2026 upgrades

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

2 h

"We're just a step behind" - what McLaren is trying to solve with its final 2026 upgrades

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts