NASCAR owner Jack Roush seeks end to winless streak

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When will a Roush Fenway driver close the deal this season?

Through the first 14 races on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, no Ford driver has reached Victory Lane -- including the four who drive for Roush Fenway Racing, which long has been considered one of the sport’s premier organizations.

They’ve been getting closer. Roush Fenway’s Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle have a combined 22 top-10 finishes this year. (The fourth driver, David Ragan, has one.) Kenseth, Edwards and Biffle also are in the top 10 in the Cup championship point standings.

But they’re all still looking for their first win as the series prepares for Sunday’s race at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway track.

Team co-owner Jack Roush said Tuesday that his cars have missed that winning edge mainly because their computer-simulated strategies for each racetrack ‘have not been as good as our competitors’,’ simulations that are needed because of NASCAR’s strict curbs on testing.

‘So we’re starting off with not as good a setup in the car based on simulations as we’ve had in the past,’ Roush told reporters on a teleconference. ‘We’re working to fill that void.’

Roush also said a new Ford engine being rolled out, the FR9, ‘has been wonderful’ and not an issue in extending the losing streak.

The lack of wins has been a rude setback for the likes of Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion, and Edwards, who led the series with nine victories in 2008.

But Roush said ‘everybody has done a good job of not getting frustrated. Anybody that stays in this business very long understands that you can’t be in the top all the time.’

After Michigan, the series moves to the Infineon Raceway road course in Sonoma, Calif., for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on June 20.

-- Jim Peltz