Michigan is the perfect track for a Roush rebound

Roush Fenway Racing began the Cup Series season perfect with Matt Kenseth winning the first two races.

Then, the improbable happened. Not one win from any of the team's five drivers since. In fact, it wasn't until last week at Pocono, the 14th race of the season, that one of Jack Roush's drivers, Carl Edwards, finished second.

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Roush Fenway is expected to build on that finish because this week's race is at Michigan International Speedway, a track Roush has dominated over the years. A Roush team has won at Michigan in each of the past seven years, a track record. And every member of Roush Fenway Racing knows how important success at Michigan is to Roush.

"Racing at Michigan is pretty significant for all of us at this organization," said Jamie McMurray, who finished 10th in both Michigan races last year. "The region is home to Ford Motor Company as well as Roush Industries, so this is a bit of a home track for Roush Fenway and we always want to perform well when we come to Michigan."

Roush has more wins, 11, at Michigan than at any other Cup track. Edwards and teammates Greg Biffle and Kenseth have two wins each. When Edwards won last August's race, all five Roush drivers finished in the top 10. In the June race, only Biffle fell short of a top-10 finish. (David Ragan, the fifth Roush driver, finished eighth and third.)

"Those wins at Michigan are special because of the looks on Jack's face and the Ford guys when you get out of the car in Victory Lane," Edwards said. "Michigan is a kind of bragging rights track. It's in Roush's back yard, Ford's back yard -- so another win there would be huge."

At this point, any win for Edwards would be huge. He won a series-high nine races last year, and if he comes away empty in Sunday's LifeLock 400, he will have his second-longest victory drought to begin a season. He was winless in 2006 and then won his 15th race of 2007 -- at Michigan.

"I always say Darlington is my favorite race track, but Michigan is becoming a close second," Edwards said. "Michigan has a lot of personal history for me, and I'm always glad to go there. It's where I made my first Cup start, where I made my 100th start and where I broke a 52-race winless streak with a win in June of 2007."

FIVE TO WATCH

Martin

Mark Martin, No. 5: If comfort level is important to a driver, then Martin will have to fight falling asleep at Michigan where he has four wins -- all when he drove for Roush -- and 28 top-10s in 46 starts. Only Bill Elliott with seven wins and 29 top-10s has better numbers at Michigan.

Tony Stewart, No. 14: Can Smoke make it two in a row? He has one win at Michigan (2000) and has finished in the top 10 in four of his past five starts at the track, including three top-fives.

Kyle Busch, No. 18: The Cup race culminates a busy weekend for Busch, who also will race Saturday in the Truck race at Michigan and the Nationwide race at Kentucky. What will be left in Busch's tank on Sunday afternoon? When he pulled the triple last June, he started from the pole and finished 13th. Last August, he led 34 laps and finished second to Edwards for his first top-five in eight starts at Michigan.

Ryan Newman, No. 39: The other half of Stewart-Haas Racing might not have a win, but he has been on fire of late with six consecutive top-10s, including five top-fives. Newman has two wins at Michigan (2003-04) and the car to make it three.

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48: Michigan often comes down to fuel mileage, and last week at Pocono, in another fuel-mileage race, Johnson ran out of gas on the final lap and coasted home seventh. Lesson learned?

TRACK CHATTER

Hamlin

Denny Hamlin: "At Michigan you have a lot of space to work with and it gives the driver a lot of opportunity to move around and try different lines. I will be asking [crew chief] Mike [Ford] or [spotter] Curtis [Markham] for lap times during the race so I can get an exact idea of how a new line is working. You can move around and figure out where you want to be and where you need to be to handle the corners at Michigan and make sure you are set up for these long straights. Getting that balance right is something we'll work on from the very start on Sunday."

Kyle Busch: "It's just a fun place to race. It's wide-open racing, and you can run from top to bottom. The biggest thing is just trying to get grip there. Some guys are able to get it, other guys can't. You can get it for maybe five laps and then you're just out to lunch. The biggest thing is just trying to make your car comfortable and make it last throughout a whole tire run and, of course, make it fast, too. And the wide race track is good. That's what makes Michigan so exciting and so fun. That's the biggest deal about it."

Sam Hornish Jr.: "Michigan is like Charlotte in that you have a lot of lines you can run -- but for the complete opposite reason: Michigan is a very low-grip surface. Very high-grip or very low-grip tracks mean you can find the best place for your car to work and get the best out it. Plus, Michigan is so wide, so there's even more choice of line."