Jack Roush men are suddenly cold as ice...maybe they'll be back in form at Texas.

  

  
Fate is fickle, and Matt Kenseth knows that too well (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   BRISTOL, Tenn.
   After such a hot start to the season, with Matt Kenseth's back-to-back wins at Daytona and California, things have certainly cooled off for the Jack Roush bunch.
    None of Roush's men played a role in Sunday's Bristol 500, and most striking was Carl Edwards, a distant 15th at the finish, after winning here last summer.
    Edwards, who had started deep in the field, 38th,  left the track without comment,
   And the rest of the Roush guys could only moan and groan.
   But for Travis Kvapil the day ended on an even more bitter note – this was his last race. Lack of sponsorship has forced team owner Doug Yates to shut down that team, though the 28 crewmen will not lose their jobs.
    On the Chevrolet side promising newcomer Aric Almirola is expected to follow Kvapil to the sidelines in the next week or two, also for lack of sponsorship.
   Kenseth, 33rd and six laps down, summed it up succinctly: "Obviously it was a bad day. 
   "We ran like junk in the beginning. Then some of those guys got track position, and we were buried in the back. 
    "I got loose and hit the wall a little bit….but Kyle Busch's right-front looked worse than mine, so I can't believe that hurt it too bad. 
    "We just missed it by about four miles all day."
    Kvapil, 18th Sunday, and now 39th in the standings, was stoic: "I thought we were going to finish around 10th or 12th there for a while. 
    "I had a really good car. On one run I just got my car too tight and lost a bunch of track position.
    "Then we ran out of time and couldn't get our lap back. 
   "We weren't laying over for anybody.  We had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I raced 110 percent every lap.
     "I'm proud of my guys. I just hate it that we've had top-15 or top-20 cars or so every week, and except for a couple of races we've had horrible luck, and haven't got the results. 
    "It's unfortunate. 
     "Right now Martinsville (next weekend) is questionable. Hopefully in the next 24 hours something great happens to this team.  That's all we can pray for."
    Teammate David Ragan, whose luck so far hasn't been great, also showed the problems inherent with poor qualifying. He struggled in 27th, three laps down.   
   "It was just a real long day," Ragan said. "That first run we picked up about 10 or 15 spots, and I felt our car was going to be good. 
    "But from there on we just struggled getting off of the corner all day. We made a lot of adjustments trying to get the rear-end hooked up. 
   "Our pit crew did a good job, and we picked up spots…but when you get a lap down and you're always back in traffic, and your car isn't always perfect, it's tough.
    "It was just one of those days. And we needed a good run going into Martinsville to get some points back."
   Ragan is 26th .
 
 

 The end of the line? Travis Kvapil will be waiting anxiously by the phone for a sponsor to ring (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)