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Roush Fenway Fords Enjoy November Sun in Homestead

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by Matt Mercer, Special To On Pit Row

I'm the new guy at Bench Racing and I'm supposed to be the younger perspective. I'm the guy behind The Catfish Show, which you can access through the links on the right.

November 10, 2008 9:13 pm CST 5 Comments

While only winning the championship in 2004, the Roush Fenway Fords are dominant at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Greg Biffle won this race three years running and Matt Kenseth capped off the season one year ago with a win. To add to the fun for the Cat in the Hat, Carl Edwards has a very good record here and David Ragan has a top 10 in his first start here last year. For Roush, those are good odds.

The championship is obviously the big story at Homestead, but every year the margin of victory is getting larger. From the incredible drama of Kurt Busch’s 2004 season to Tony Stewart’s and Jimmie Johnson’s solid if unspectacular runs in the years following, the championship chase is still must-watch television and the redesigned Homestead track deserves a lot of the credit. This year almost certainly promises to see Johnson do what only Cale Yarborough has done in NASCAR’s top series unless something freakish happens to the normally unflappable #48 team.

Paging David Gilliland, remember where your engines come from… anyway, lets get a look at the numbers.

The winners:
2007 – Matt Kenseth
2006 – Greg Biffle
2005 – Greg Biffle
2004 – Greg Biffle

Champs finish:
2007 – Jimmie Johnson – 7th
2006 – Jimmie Johnson – 9th
2005 – Tony Stewart – 15th
2004 – Kurt Busch – 5th

Let’s see, let me find a Roush Fenway driver that has had the best season this and won on similar 1.5 mile tracks… oh yeah, if you’re not anticipating Carl Edwards leading nearly every lap and winning this thing Sunday night, I’ll take whatever odds there are for the race. Aside from Edwards, Biffle does have a track record of winning here and could easily do it again.

The two sleepers I’ve pegged for this race are Ragan and Jamie McMurray. Both drivers have performed admirably in the final stretch of the year. The season finale always produces surprises, it should be interesting to see what happens this year. Among the one-off entrants are Brad Keselowski and Mark Martin, and the end of A.J. Allmendinger’s run in the #10.

Finally, it’s been a pleasure to write this weekly column for On Pit Row. I want to thank Steve and Charlie for all of their hard work and I look forward to continuing my contributions to the Bench Racing blog. Journey provides the season finale with the classic karaoke song Don’t Stop Believin’. YouTube is your friend. This won’t be like the Sopranos finale when the music just stops before the

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed Under 1, Bench Racing blog, Fantasy NASCAR, Ford Racing, Gillette-Evernham Motorsports, Homestead-Miami Speedway, NASCAR, Nascar Chase 2008, On Pit Row 

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Comments

5 Responses to “Roush Fenway Fords Enjoy November Sun in Homestead”

  1. User Avatar Charlie Turner on November 10th, 2008 10:36 pm

    The logic of the Roush picks is indisputible. Unless you believe in NASCAR’s “fairy tale finishes”. Maybe Tony Stewart winning his last for the Coach or Rocket Ryan doing the same for the Captain. How about the weekly hope of Bobby Labonte and the #43 or Jeff Gordon avoiding his first shutout? And seemingly, every time we figure Jimmy Johnson will stroke it, he buries the field as he did at Phoenix.

    But I like Carl here, to put his best score on the board. If he wins three of the last four and still can’t beat Jimmy, there is no shame. It will have been two classic performances.

    Speaking of which - your own contributions to this Bench Racing project are classic as well. I can’t tell you how proud I am to have had you contribute to what this place is. All I can say is thank you. Well done. Stick around.

    Nice Sopranos reference too.

  2. marc on November 11th, 2008 4:39 am

    Can I take a flyer?

    Thanks, I will.

    David Ragan wins in a romp

  3. Homestead-Miami Speedway: Anyone But Jimmy Johnson | On Pit Row on November 11th, 2008 10:24 am

    [...] 59 mins ago | Chase this story » Roush Fenway Fords Enjoy November Sun in Homestead [...]

  4. User Avatar Steve Wronkowicz on November 11th, 2008 9:34 pm

    Everybody has hooked on to the Roush-Fenway bandwagon. On tonight’s show I took a flier also; maybe not as big as marc’s, but a flier none the less. I took Matt Kenseth to claim the win.

    Matt–thanks for your hard work with the extra Chase additions. Lots of kudos go to Luke and Chris as well for helping with the post-a-Chase day program. It would have been too big a task for Charlie and me to take on alone. You three are the best and ON PIT ROW is far better with your contributions. .

  5. Homestead Fantasy Picks: Throw Away the Loop Stats | On Pit Row on November 13th, 2008 1:52 pm

    [...] Use your heads NASCAR fans. With only three races in the NASCAR Loop stat database for Homestead-Miami Speedway, you will need to look at more trends than the Loop Data give you. In fact, make it easy on your self and just pick a Roush-Fenway Racing driver. [...]

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