June 21st, 2009 
Journo Jack Roush was a very happy man in Milwaukee. And who wouldn’t have been? Carl Edwards won the race and three of the top five were from his stable. What made it even better were the successes of Roush’s development drivers.
Throughout the garage Jack Roush is one of the very few owners who have committed to and successfully executed a driver development program. Now don’t get me wrong others currently have and have had development programs. Rick Hendrick wouldn’t be where he is at without some risks on young drivers, nor would Joe Gibbs or Richard Childress, but none of them has the program Roush has.
Just look at Roush’s stable, all but one of their current drivers was developed through their program or given an opportunity to excel in the organization (Kenseth). With Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, David Ragan, Jamie McMurray, Erik Darnell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, and Colin Braun, Roush has a combined 48 Cup Series wins, 60 Nationwide wins, 18 Truck Series wins (with Roush), and four championships across all three series.
Roush’s development program is perhaps most famous for its “Gong Show” which was developed into a reality television show on Discovery Channel in 2005 called “Driver X.” The Gong Show brought together some of the best and brightest young drivers throughout the country and gave them an opportunity to showcase their skills to Jack Roush and Roush management.
Among the winners of the various Gong Shows are Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Erik Darnell. While not all of the program’s winners have gone on to success, it no doubt gave Roush some great prospects.
In recent years Roush has brought on Colin Braun and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Braun a former go-kart and sports car driver, joined Roush in 2007 and made his truck series debut last season. While Braun’s run hasn’t been without its troubles, he landed his first win a couple of weeks ago.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. joined the program in 2008 and ran last year for the ARCA Re/MAX title. He was competing for the title into the final race too when he and Scott Speed got into it and ended both of their chances. Penske stand out Justin Allgaier walked away with the title. This season Stenhouse is running a partial Nationwide Series schedule for the team. Thus far he has had four starts with one top-5 and two top-10. No matter your feelings on the kid following the ARCA showdown last year, he can drive.
In addition to Stenhouse, Erik Darnell is also running a partial schedule for the team. In five starts he has two top-5 and three top top-10.
Jack Roush said this past week he planned to put both Stenhouse and Braun into the Nationwide Series next season. Where that leaves Darnell is not exactly clear.
At this point I think the biggest issue Roush is facing is where to put all these solid prospects. While he has room in the Nationwide Series for the time being, he is running up against the four car limit in the Cup Series. Certainly Yates is an option as is the partnership with Hall of Fame.
Whatever happens with the current crop of drivers, Jack Roush should be commended for his commitment to developing drivers, and not just those with money. The future is bright for Roush Fenway Racing and Jack Roush and his keen eye for talent is the biggest reason why.
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Between the 6, 16 and 60 nationwide cars, and assuming that Edwards isn’t planning on again running a full season, I’d think that Roush would have seat time for all 3 of the Darnell, Braun and Stenhouse crew. Something along the lines of each of them getting a 1/2 season in a NNS car while Edwards, Kenseth, Biffle and/or Ragan split the other 1/2′s is a possibility.
journo, there’s not a whole lot about rousch that impresses me on a regular basis but his commitment to developing talent is one of the few! when we discuss “where is the next generation of drivers coming from?”, rousch seems to consistently provide us with that answer. that being said . . .
how about rousch lead the charge and keep his cup drivers OUT of n’wide all together? that ought to keep those seats free for the development drivers he’s been so wonderful at finding. and then he could crank up his media machine to promote both these drivers AND the series itself. and maybe, just maybe, he could be an advocate to his fellow owners to put n’wide racers in n’wide and cup racers in cup. (can you tell it’s one of my peeves?!?)
as for his cup situation: he’s had time to figure this part out and the partnerships with HOF racing as well as yates should serve both him and those groups well. as with SHR, an infusion of real talent into struggling teams can make a significant impact.
while i often wonder if the black helicopters circle jack rousch’s head on a regular basis, i will never deny his passion for our sport and his eye for talent.
Jack sure has a good balance of technical know-how and mgr/business sense.
And to think that what you see today could be of a totally different landscape, or non-existent, if not for Troy Alabama resident and retired Marine Sergeant Major Larry Hicks. Larry pulled the battered, unconsious and drowning Roush from his wrecked experimental plane in a nearby lake.
I first worked with Jack in the mid 80′s Daytona 24 hr with the GTO Mustang refueling his two cars for 24 hrs, that actually ran on Firestone street radial tires. I’ve never seen so much used rubber come off a race car. 100(+) tires per car in 1 day.
“At this point I think the biggest issue Roush is facing is where to put all these solid prospects. While he has room in the Nationwide Series for the time being, he is running up against the four car limit in the Cup Series. Certainly Yates is an option as is the partnership with Hall of Fame.”
I think that’s a great point. There’s definitely a lot of driver talent out there, probably more than there are good teams. It’s a shame that there are so few good teams that drivers have to compete for. I think part of that might be because the manufacturers select a set or two of teams and funnel them most of their resources.
http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/nationwideseries/Carl_Edwards_plans_to_run_full_Nationwide_schedule_in_2010_for_Roush_Fenway_Racing.html
looks like Edwards will run a full NNS season in 2010, which throws a kink in my original comment on this article.
John – “It’s a shame that there are so few good teams that drivers have to compete for.”
This just shows you how cyclical the sport is. Heading into the 2006 season there was an abundance of seats and a limited number of drivers. You had Roush/Penske/Ganassi negotiating driver buyouts. Roush begging Mark Martin to stick around another year. Etc. Roush taking a chance on Kluever. Rookies of Yeley, Bowyer, Stremme, Sorenson, Truex & Hamlin. Raines back in a car after a couple years off.
It was a good time to be a driver negotiating a contract!
I commend Jack Roush for his commitment to developing drivers, and not just those with money, and he has some really nice hats too ; )
In todays NASCAR market place for drivers the talent pool os amazing. Team owners can take the pick of the litter. Roush is an amazing company with the amount of depth they have. The four car limit NASCAR has won’t stop Jack, he has Yate and HOF, Jack could have 12 cars if he uses Yates and HOF. Hendrick is anpther with tons of driver depth, Mr.H has SHR and Jr, Motor sports among others to draw from. MWR has 4 cars now with the parner ships, 2 cars are doing very well. between tthese three teams that 1/3 of the cup feild and we have’nt touched the rest of the talent pool. I find it very ineresting. The talen pool runs deep inside NASCAR.
My daughter claims that Colin Braun is a “hottie”. Apparently Joonyer and Jaimie McMurray are aging off her radar.