Unique chemistry has Roush team winning

RICHMOND, Va. - It would be hard to find five more different personalities in the NASCAR Nextel Cup garage than the Roush Racing drivers.

Kurt Busch is the tough punk; focused, talkative and confident, sometimes to the point of arrogance.

Greg Biffle is the aggressive one; always ready for a battle, on or off the track.

Mark Martin is the cagey veteran; the fan favorite who knows all the tricks and still has fire in his eyes as he nears the end of an outstanding career.

Matt Kenseth is the quiet one; very professional but going about his business with no fanfare and little or no enthusiasm showing on the outside.

Finally, there is the baby of the group, 26-year-old Carl Edwards, racing in his first full season in Cup and showing his elders he can compete with them on an equal basis.

But these guys have more than team owner Jack Roush in common: They make up half the 10-man field for the 10-race Chase for the championship that begins next Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway.

It's just the latest proof that Roush, who spent 16 frustrating years trying to win his first Cup championship before Kenseth and Busch gave him the last two in a row, has built something rare in stock car racing.

It's not only a five-car team - the biggest in the sport - it's a team that works.

"Jack gives us all the same stuff," Kenseth said Saturday night after clinching a berth in the Chase by finishing second, sandwiched between winner Busch and third-place Biffle, in the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Speedway.

"We all have the opportunity to build the same thing," Kenseth said. "I can build the same kind of car Greg can, or he can build the same kind Kurt builds, or whatever.... Right now, we have it really, really good as drivers and Jack has it pretty good, too, because all five teams are working really, really well together.

"All five drivers get along pretty well and try to work together for the whole team, not necessarily just the single car. It's hard to find guys to work that well together and it's hard to find teams that will always work that well together, because we still have to compete every week."

Biffle sat next to Kenseth, listening and nodding.

"We share information really well together - all the teams do - and we give each other racing room," Biffle said. "It's fun to race with Matt and these other guys. Man, it's just unbelievable that our cars run this good."

But they do and they have been all season. Roush drivers have won 11 of the first 26 races in 2005. Among them, they have totaled 38 top fives, 62 top 10s and have failed to finish just nine races in a combined 130 starts.

Roush, who had tremendous success in drag racing and road racing before finding his way to NASCAR, is enjoying the success after so many years of failing to reach the top in Cup. It has all been made even sweeter by the fact that he survived the crash of an experimental plane he was piloting in April 2002.

"When I was 60 years old, I had my horrible airplane wreck and I hadn't won a championship yet and, as I came back, I was sure I never would," Roush said. "In fact, I wasn't sure I would be able to do the things I'm able to do today, physically and emotionally.

"To be able to now have this success is a real surprise to me."

And Roush isn't counting on it lasting, either.

"I think we're due some bad luck in these next 10 races," he said. "If I go back and look, I haven't broke an engine part all year, I haven't broken a transmission this year, I haven't had an electrical system put me out of a race, I haven't had an oil leak, I haven't had a power steering pump fall off.

"I haven't had a lot of things happen that happened to my contemporaries in the same time frame for reasons that I believe were not of their own doing. It's just because they had a bad part from a vendor on a given day. We haven't had any of that."

And there are changes coming to his elite team, changes that have the potential to hurt the unique chemistry Roush somehow has concocted.

Busch has signed with Penske Racing South for 2007 and Martin's planned retirement from Cup at the end of this season has been put on hold for a year because his expected replacement, Jamie McMurray, remains under contract to Chip Ganassi Racing through 2006.

That might be disruptive to some teams, but Roush doesn't expect problems and insists he isn't upset about the situation.

"I don't want Jamie McMurray to drive for us in 2006, because he's made a commitment to (Ganassi) the same way Kurt Busch has made one to me," Roush said. "And I don't want to start the precedent of tearing those relationships up.

"If the commitments we make to our sponsors and amongst ourselves aren't held, well, then there's chaos in our world. If we're going to do that, then why even write it down."

Meanwhile, there is another championship to be won and, with half the Chase field, Roush has got to like his chances of winning a third straight title.

"Well, I'm in better shape with five than I would be with one," Roush said, smiling. "We've got five capable and able drivers. On any given day, they've all demonstrated they can win."

So has Jack Roush.