Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"Roush-Fenway's 60 Car Ends Toughest Year Ever"

Posted by nascarman on November 17, 2018

Viewed 3091 times Tweet Nine months after the season began, the 33rd and final checkered flag has fallen on a team with historic levels of bad luck. By my count, the Roush-Fenway 60 car in the Xfinity Series was involved in 22 incidents that brought out a caution, an additional 6 spins/crashes that didn't bring out a caution, and another 4 crashes in practice or qualifying. Never has a team had that many crashes in a single season.







With teams like KBM and JR Motorsports developing drivers for Toyota and Chevy, Ford was falling behind. After Brad Keselowski Racing closed, the "Blue Oval" didn't have a good landing place for young drivers. Roush's 60 team was put together by Ford Motorsports to grow three drivers and help them advance their careers. They named the group, #TheProgram60.



On paper, the trio were some of the best prospective drivers. Both Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe won Camping World Truck races in 2017. Ty Majeski had won the ARCA Midwest Tour championship four years in a row between 2014 and 2017. And to lead the team, Mike Kelley brought in as crew chief. Between 2011 and 2013, Kelley won two championships with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and had an incredible 73 top-10 finishes in three years.



"We're really excited to get going," said crew chief Mike Kelley in a January press-release. "We spent the winter hanging out with these guys. I could not have asked for three better drivers. They all bring something different to the table, but together we are going after the Owner's Championship. We're all looking forward to some big things from Ford and these drivers."



Winning the owner's championship was never realistic. In the end, the 60 car finished the season 22nd in owner's points. The teams of Alex Labbe, Joey Gase, and Ryan Sieg had more successful years.



The season started on a sour note. In the opening laps at Daytona, FOX spent several laps showing Cindric struggling with an incredibly loose car. When he crashed on lap 10, the team got their first of two last place finishes. Cindric crashed the car again at Las Vegas, but the season continued with quietly consistent performances.



The 60 team's "Curse" took hold at Bristol when Majeski was caught up in two crashes that began ahead of him. In the seven races between Bristol and Michigan, the car was involved in nine crashes, almost all of which were caused by someone else.



After two consecutive top-10s by Majeski and Briscoe in June, the car had their most spectacular crash of the year at Daytona. On lap 81, Cindric was spun by Matt Tifft and the 60 car flipped twice across the turn one banking. Once again, this kicked off a stretch of bad luck. In the 17 races between Daytona in July and Phoenix in November, there were only two races where the car did not crash or spin at some point in the event.



With the most crashes of anyone, Ty Majeski was involved in 14 incidents while driving the car in 12 races. On the other hand, it wasn't all bad for him. In the two races he didn't have any problems, Majeski finished 7th and 8th, the two best finishes for the team. Briscoe had three top-10 finishes and 7 incidents in 11 races. And in 9 races, Cindric had 7 incidents and a best finish of 13th.



The unsung heroes of this year were the strong crew members on the road who maintained this bad-luck operation. Zach Marquardt, Chris Bowe, Ryan Ballance, Tony Arnold, Aaron Kramer, Steven Frymyer, Brian Alvord, and Chris Goode spent at least part of the season with the team. Their efforts against repeated adversity deserve serious respect.



Crew members have said that the 60 team will not return in 2019. Despite its problems, #TheProgram60 accomplished its goals of furthering the careers of its drivers. Austin Cindric will run the entire season for Team Penske in 2019. While Briscoe has no announced plans for 2019, all signs point to a ride with Stewart-Haas. And while nothing has been said about Majeski, Roush-Fenway has always been enthusiastic about him and perhaps he will continue there.



The curse is over. So long 60 car.



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