Roush Fenway Racing

The 50 truck in 2007 driven by Danny O’Quinn Jr..

The No. 09 truck began running in 2005 as a research and development entry for Ford. Bobby East attempted a few races in the truck (then No. 33) but failed to qualify. Mark Martin made the team's first qualification at the Ford 200, where he started 14th and finished 8th with sponsorship from Stonebridge Life Insurance.

After Martin's strong start to the 2006 season, his original limited schedule was expanded. Roush decided to run another part-time team for rookie David Ragan to fill out his original schedule. Ragan took the No. 50 to a 22nd-place finish at Atlanta, but struggled in his next few starts in both the No. 50 and the No. 6. After crashing the No. 6 in practice for the Mansfield race, he was replaced for the weekend. Carl Edwards ran the No. 50 at the Dover race, and Ragan returned at the Texas race. Ragan's best finish in the No. 50 came at Atlanta where he finished sixth. Peter Shepherd and Michel Jourdain Jr. also drove the No. 50 on a part-time basis during the season with sponsorship from PurposeMoney.com. Edwards drove the truck for the first two races of the season unsponsored, when it was announced T. J. Bell would drive the truck for fifteen races, bringing sponsorship from Heathcliff's Cat Litter. Development drivers Peter Shepherd and Danny O'Quinn Jr. also drove the No. 50 truck with sponsorship from Northern Tool and Equipment. Joey Clanton began the 2008 season driving the No. 09 full-time in 2008 with Zaxby's sponsoring, but after the season-opening race, he was released. Travis Kvapil returned to Roush and shared this ride with Bobby East, and John Wes Townley for the rest of the season. Roush shut down the No. 09 team after the 2008 season.

The No. 6 truck debuted at Heartland Park Topeka in 1996 as No. 99. It was sponsored by Exide Batteries and driven to an eighth-place finish by Jeff Burton. Posting three top tens in four races that year, he shared the ride with Mark Martin, who won at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The next year, Chuck Bown was hired to drive full-time, and posted thirteen top tens and finished ninth in points. The rotating doors moved again, and Joe Ruttman was driving this truck in 1998, winning once and finishing 3rd in points. Mike Bliss was next to tackle the ride, and he performed decently, winning at Heartland Park Topeka but only finishing 9th in points. When Bliss left for an ill-fated rookie year in Winston Cup, Kurt Busch was named the new driver. Busch won four times and finished second to teammate Biffle in the championship, easily winning Rookie of the Year.

Both Busch and Exide exited after that season (Busch moving to the Cup Series), and rookie Nathan Haseleu took over.[18][19] The truck was largely unsponsored at the beginning of the year, with Eldon becoming the sponsor after nine races. Despite posting four top ten finishes in twelve starts, Hasleau was waived mid-season, replaced initially by former Truck Series drivers Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch.[18][19] Biffle scored two wins in the truck.[20] Kurt's younger brother Kyle would also run six races at the end of the season, earning two top tens at the age of 16.[21] Kyle Busch was scheduled to race the truck full-time in 2002, but during the 2001 season finale at Fontana he was ejected from the race due to conflicts with track sponsor Marlboro. Afterwards, NASCAR announced all drivers in its top three series must be at least 18 years of age. Tim Woods III would replace Busch in the race.[21][22][23][24]

After Tim Fedewa ran the 2002 season-opener in the truck, and with the now 17-year-old Busch not able to compete, the team did not run for the rest of the year due to lack of sponsorship.[22]

The truck returned in 2003 with Carl Edwards driving;[17] although the United States Navy was the truck's original sponsor, they left the team midway through the year and Edwards ran largely unsponsored until Superchips came on to sponsor him.[17] Edwards won three races and the Rookie of the Year title.[17] He repeated his win total in 2004 and moved up to fourth in points, and following Jeff Burton's departure from Roush Racing he began splitting time between the Truck Series and the Nextel Cup Series.[17][25]

Colin Braun in 2008.

When Edwards moved up to Nextel Cup for 2005, Roush hired a former Cup driver, Ricky Craven to take his place.[26] Despite posting seven top tens and winning at Martinsville, Roush and Craven announced they would not be back together in 2006.

Instead, the truck switched to No. 6, and was shared by Nextel Cup veteran Mark Martin and rookie David Ragan. The No. 6 truck's new sponsor was Scotts, and the truck, piloted by Martin, won the first two races of the 2006 season. Martin then decided to race more races than he originally intended, and he only skipped races without a corresponding Nextel Cup event. Auggie Vidovich II drove for the Mansfield race after Ragan crashed the truck in practice, finishing 19th. Ragan shared the truck with Martin for the balance of the season and had six top-tens and one pole in the 6 truck. Martin had the most success in the truck, winning five races. Overall, the team finished 2nd in the owner's points.

2003 NCTS Champion Travis Kvapil returned to the Truck Series in 2007, and won four races en route to a sixth-place finish in points.

As Kvapil heads back to the Sprint Cup Series with Yates Racing, former Rolex Sports Car Series driver Colin Braun took Kvapil's place in the 6 truck with sponsorship from Con-way. In his rookie season, Braun had three top-fives and finished 13th in points, winning Rookie of the Year. In 2009, he won at Michigan and finished 5th in points. With moving Braun to the Nationwide Series for the 2010 season, Roush shut down this team and ended its Truck program. He later sold the remaining Trucks to Sprint Cup driver Kyle Busch for him to start his own Truck Team.

The original truck in Roush's stable which debuted in 1995 at the Heartland Park Topeka road course. It was No. 61 and driven to a fourth-place finish by Todd Bodine. Bodine had two more top ten runs at Richmond and Mesa Marin Raceway before Ted Musgrave drove to a fourth-place finish at Phoenix. In 1996, the car switched to No. 80 and Joe Ruttman was at the wheel, nailing down sixteen top-10s and finishing 4th in points. In 1997, with sponsorship from LCI, Ruttman won five times and finished 3rd in points. After running one race with the truck in 1998, the truck switched to No. 50 for the rest of 1998.

Ruttman took over another ride with the team, and he was replaced by rookie Greg Biffle, whom Roush hired under the recommendation of Benny Parsons. Biffle would be sponsored by W. W. Grainger.[27] Although he failed to win a race, Biffle won four poles and finished eighth in points.

Biffle would go on a tear in 1999, when he won nine times, and was in contention for the championship for much of the season before finally losing to Jack Sprague. His 2000 season was less dominant with only five wins, but he was able to win the championship by 230 points over teammate Kurt Busch.[27]

With Biffle moving up to the Busch Series, in 2001, Roush hired Winston Modified Tour driver Chuck Hossfeld to drive the truck after he won 2000 Roush "Gong Show" competition.[18][19][28] Hossfeld struggled in his rookie year, and soon he was released, with Jon Wood driving the truck for the remainder of the season.[18][19]

Wood's audition was impressive enough to earn him a full-time run in 2002, and he posted twelve top ten finishes in the U.S. Navy sponsored truck and finished 12th in points in his first full year. Wood had two wins the next year, and finished 15th in points in 2004 before moving on to JTG Racing in the Busch Series.

In 2005, Todd Kluever, another "Gong Show" winner, piloted the truck sponsored by Shell Rotella T and World Financial Group. Kluever earned six top five and twelve top ten finishes in his rookie season, winning the Rookie of the Year award.[17][26][29]

Erik Darnell piloted the newly renumbered 99 truck full-time in 2006 with at first Woolrich, but eventually Northern Tool and Equipment as sponsor to a 2006 Rookie of the Year title.[17] 2007 brought about Darnell's first win at Kansas,[17] but inconsistency left the team 12th in points at season's end. 2008 would be the 99's final season in the Truck Series, as the team was being moved up for a part-time schedule in the Nationwide Series. Darnell captured one win at Michigan by only .005 seconds over eventual champion Johnny Benson. This team was shut down after the 2008 season.

Roush drove the No. 60 one time.

For 2008, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove an Aflac sponsored No. 99 to compete in the championship. During the last race, he and Scott Speed battled for the championship and Stenhouse ran Speed up the track causing a caution. Speed later than decided to get revenge on Stenhouse and he wrecked Stenhouse and himself out of the race allowing Justin Allgaier to win the championship.

Outside Roush headquarters.

Perhaps Roush Racing's most famous partnership is with the now defunct-Yates Racing, a longtime rival Ford team. In 2004, the two teams announced a program to combine their engine divisions, now known as Roush-Yates Engines (RYE), a move which greatly improved the power of both organizations' engines. By 2006, most Ford teams were using the Roush-Yates engines, including long-time Ford team and Roush affiliate Wood Brothers Racing (then Wood Brothers/JTG Racing). Current Roush-Yates clients include Team Penske (TP), Wood Brothers Racing (WBR), Stewart-Haas Racing[30] (SHR), Front Row Motorsports (FRM), and Go FAS Racing (GFR).[2][11][31]

Roush Fenway also has technical alliances with Front Row Motorsports, providing engines, chassis, and bodies as well as technical support.[32][33] Roush also provided heavy technical support to Yates Racing from 2008 to the team's closure at the end of 2009, when it merged with Richard Petty Motorsports.[34][35] As of 2017, Roush supplies engines and chassis to 13 Cup teams.

The first technical alliance between Roush Racing and another organization was with Wood Brothers Racing, another longtime Ford team and the oldest active team in the sport. The Wood Brothers alliance began in mid-2000, after Roush had provided the team with engines the previous two seasons.[36][37][38] The relationship later expanded when the team fielded Roush development driver Trevor Bayne from late-2010 to 2014.[39] It would end after that season, with the Wood Brothers currently receiving equipment and support (other than engines) from Team Penske.[40]

In 2005, nine-time Pro Bowl NFL wide receiver Tim Brown announced that he intended to start his own NASCAR team, most likely No. 81, and receive equipment from Roush Racing.[41] Brown also stated that he will let Roush select his driver.[42] The series the team will run will depend on how much sponsorship money the team gets.

Brown had said that his team will most likely not enter NASCAR until 2007, but as of October 2006, no further announcements have been made about the status of this partnership.

In 2006, SoBe No Fear energy drink announced that it was forming a new team to run full-time in 2007, with a car driven by road racing specialist Boris Said. It was also announced that this new team would be affiliated with Roush Racing. This allows Roush to sell No Fear Racing cars and equipment, as well as help them with engineering. In return, Said is tutoring Roush's younger drivers on road course racing.[43] The team began running a limited schedule with the Sonoma road course in 2006.

Starting with the 2007 season, Robby Gordon switched from Chevrolet to Ford vehicles after signing a contract with Ford Racing. He leased engines from the Roush/Yates engine program through the 2007 season, until he switched to Gillett Evernham engines and a Dodge Charger.

On February 14, 2007, the Fenway Sports Group, owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, purchased 50% of Roush Racing to create a new corporate entity, Roush Fenway Racing.[44]

Mike Dee, president of the Fenway Sports Group was quoted as saying, "Although there have been many instances of cross ownership in the world of professional sports, this partnership marks the first time that owners of a professional franchise in one of the four major leagues have crossed over into the world of NASCAR."

Current management will remain in place at Roush Fenway Racing, with Jack Roush handling all competitive operations and Geoff Smith will continue as Roush Racing president to handle business activities.[45]