Roush Fenway Racing has been a stalwart of NASCAR's Truck Series since its inception back in 1995, but team co-owner Jack Roush said Tuesday that his squad, which yesterday debuted its new Nationwide Series Mustang for current Camping World Truck Series driver Colin Braun, will not return next year.
“I don't see a presence in the Truck series for Roush Fenway for 2010,” Roush said at the official unveiling of Braun's Mustang.
Roush Fenway, which has scored 50 wins in the Truck category over the years, was down to a single Truck team this year for open-wheel and Grand-Am series graduate Braun, and Jack Roush says declining sponsorship opportunities made adding another Truck program cost prohibitive.
“It's a worthwhile series,” Roush insisted of the Trucks, but added, “When Chrysler came in in the ‘'90s and Toyota came in just after the turn of the century and brought their sponsorships, it discounted the sponsorships that other non-automotive affiliations would make. Dodge stepped into one of my sponsorship arrangements. When they came in and offered two trucks at half the price for what was required to run one of my trucks, they basically discounted 75 percent.”
Roush has raced in the Truck series since its debut in 1995 and helped launch the NASCAR careers of Sprint Cup drivers Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards.