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Roush Fenway Halts Xfinity Program For 2019
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Roush Fenway Racing (RFR) will not field a car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the first time in over 25 years, as confirmed by Team President Steve Newmark on Wednesday during SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “Dialed In” show.
RFR will continue to field two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars in 2019, which kicks off its season at Daytona Int’l Speedway on February 16. Ryan Newman will drive the No. 6 Ford Mustang, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will field the No. 17 Ford Mustang.
“We’re going to focus exclusively on both of those Cup teams (in 2019) and realized we needed to allocate all of our resources there,” Newmark said, speaking with show host Claire B. Lang. “We’ve fluctuated on the number of the teams in the Xfinity Series and a lot of that has been based on need. We’ve been four, we’ve been one, and I think (2019) we’ve decided on how we’re positioned we’ll step out of that for a year and see how that goes and just focus all the resources, all the engineering, all the wind tunnel on making sure that we perform to our expectations at the Cup level.”
Newmark noted sponsorship money was a factor in the decision, stating “There’s no doubt that sponsorship plays a factor in everything that we do. For better or worse, that’s the way NASCAR is structured right now and sponsorship is the lifeblood for the teams. My hope is that at some point in time we continue to evolve to a model that moves a little bit way from that. But that was just a factor.”
Xfinity served as a feeder series for the team to enter the Cup, according to Newark. After considerations, however, Newark noted, “we kind of felt like we had all the pieces of the puzzle in place and so really what we need to do is go out and execute at the Cup level and we’ll see where we end up in Xfinity in the future.”
RFR fielded two full-time cars in the Xfinity Series in 2018.
For more information, visit roushfenway.com.
RFR will continue to field two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars in 2019, which kicks off its season at Daytona Int’l Speedway on February 16. Ryan Newman will drive the No. 6 Ford Mustang, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will field the No. 17 Ford Mustang.
“We’re going to focus exclusively on both of those Cup teams (in 2019) and realized we needed to allocate all of our resources there,” Newmark said, speaking with show host Claire B. Lang. “We’ve fluctuated on the number of the teams in the Xfinity Series and a lot of that has been based on need. We’ve been four, we’ve been one, and I think (2019) we’ve decided on how we’re positioned we’ll step out of that for a year and see how that goes and just focus all the resources, all the engineering, all the wind tunnel on making sure that we perform to our expectations at the Cup level.”
Newmark noted sponsorship money was a factor in the decision, stating “There’s no doubt that sponsorship plays a factor in everything that we do. For better or worse, that’s the way NASCAR is structured right now and sponsorship is the lifeblood for the teams. My hope is that at some point in time we continue to evolve to a model that moves a little bit way from that. But that was just a factor.”
Xfinity served as a feeder series for the team to enter the Cup, according to Newark. After considerations, however, Newark noted, “we kind of felt like we had all the pieces of the puzzle in place and so really what we need to do is go out and execute at the Cup level and we’ll see where we end up in Xfinity in the future.”
RFR fielded two full-time cars in the Xfinity Series in 2018.
For more information, visit roushfenway.com.
