By Tom Jensen
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- The NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR's equivalent of the AAA level of professional baseball, kicks off the 2008 season with a new series title sponsor and a familiar face looking to repeat as series champion: Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
Edwards, who had one of the best seasons ever in what was known last year as the NASCAR Busch Series, is hoping he can pick up where he left off last season and give his team another title for the Blue Oval Boys.
"What are my expectations in the Nationwide Series? That's to perform the best we can," said Edwards. "My hopes are that that's good enough to win the championship."
To the end, Edwards said his team still has room for improvement, and the team has spent the winter fine-tuning and polishing its operations.
"Definitely, we can be better in the preparation department," Edwards said. "We figured out a lot of ways to lose races the second half of the season last year. I mean, we just weren't quite as prepared as we could be.
"I made a couple mistakes that were compounded by mechanical failures on our backup cars, stuff like that … Maybe some of the strategy on pit calls, many of which were my fault, where I thought we could do something to try to win the race where we could have just gotten some points. That would have been better. Overall, we can do a lot better racing preparation and strategy."
Also planning a full campaign in the Nationwide Series again is Edwards's teammate, David Ragan, who said the more seat time for him the better.
"I think the benefit for myself is just more racing, not only more experience for me as a racecar driver, but more racing with the guys like Jamie (McMurray) or Carl Edwards -- the guys that race on Saturday and Sunday (in the Sprint Cup series)," said Ragan. "The more I race with the veterans and the guys that have been around here for a while, hopefully the more respect I'll get, the better I'll get on restarts. The cars are very different this year, and setups won't carry over, but we will be racing on the same tires. The race tracks are basically the same."
While the rest of the Roush Fenway Sprint Cup drivers will not do full-time double-duty in the Nationwide Series, they each will enter some races during 2008 and share cars with younger team members over the course of the year. Greg Biffle, for example, will split time in a Roush-Fenway No. 16 Fusion with youngsters Todd Kleuver and Colin Braun, while Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth will each also run limited Nationwide Series schedules this year. Also new to the team this year is sponsor CitiFinancial.
In addition to the Roush Fenway squadron, JTG Racing will field two full-time Ford Fusions, with Tasmanian superstar Marcos Ambrose in the No. 59 Kingsford entry and young Wisconsin up-and-comer Kelly Bires, who will have his first full season of Nationwide Series competition in 2008, behind the wheel of the No. 47 Clorox Ford.
Ambrose, who finished eighth in points during his rookie season last year, said he is still coming to terms with his car and a new NASCAR engine package that robs about 100 horsepower from each car.
"We are still working at tuning and understanding our new cars," said Ambrose. "We've made some major adjustments and improvements on our cars from last season to this year, and we are just working at finding the best set-up for them."
Bires, meanwhile, is excited about his prospects this season. "I've got a really good feeling about things now. Last year was a challenge for Scott (crew chief Zipadelli) and me because we kind of got thrown into the mix together and had to make things happen in a hurry," said Bires, who joined the team in mid-season last year. "Now we're getting a chance to approach a season the right way, both patient and prepared."
Brad Coleman, one of the hottest young prospects in the series in years, will drive the No. 27 Baker-Curb Racing Fusion, with Kleenex sponsorship. This team was formerly based in Kentucky, where it was known as Brewco Motorsports, but Nashville businessman Gary Baker and music industry executive Mike Curb bought the team in mid-December and relocated it to Nashville.
"These guys have really done a great job getting this team moved from Kentucky to Tennessee," said Coleman. "It looks like they have been here a long time. Everything is well organized, the crew guys are working on cars and the excitement level is really high."
The same can be said about the entire Ford Nationwide Series effort for 2008.The Blue Oval Boys look to chalk up another series title, starting on Saturday with the season-opening Camping World 300 at Daytona International Speedway.
