Ford Sprint Cup camp needs to pick up the pace

I know the Fords struggled at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last weekend. Honestly, though, it wasn't the whole Ford camp because Kasey Kahne had one of the cars to beat last Sunday. He looked great in the practices and sat on the outside of the front row in qualifying. Then come race day, he led over a third of the race.

Sure there was the engine failure, but I don't think you could point to the new FR9. I think what happened to them could have happened to the old Ford engine as well. It looks like either a valve spring or valve caused that.

Honestly, though, the performance of that car and that car alone is a bright spot in the Ford camp. The other solid team is that of Richard Petty Motorsports' AJ Allmendinger. Does the team generally have a top-five car or is it ready to win a race yet? No, but it is really working hard on consistency. Sunday Allmendinger earned his sixth consecutive top-15 finish. If he and his team can keep that kind of performance up, maybe by the end of this year or 2011, they will be ready to win some races.

Those two teams I just mentioned really have to have the Roush Fenway Racing camp scratching its heads. Remember that Richard Petty Motorsports, well into the offseason, was still in the Dodge camp. So it made the transition from Dodge to Ford and, like a lot of weekends this season, RPM teams have been outperforming the Roush Fenway drivers.

Let's face it, the Roush Fenway teams were terrible all weekend. They struggled in practice. They struggled in qualifying. Then, come Sunday, they had to spend the day scratching and clawing simply to try and stay on the lead lap.

I have told you this before, but please remember that the new Ford FR9 engine is not the answer to the Ford woes. Ford has said that this weekend that all of its teams will be using the new engine. While that's great news for the teams, it doesn't simply translate into winning races immediately. There obviously are more issues over there.

The good news is there are still three Fords sitting inside the top 12 in the points with only nine races to go before the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins. Sure, a couple of those are hanging in there by their fingernails. Greg Biffle is in 10th and Carl Edwards is in 12th position.

Team co-owner Jack Roush has been in this sport since 1988. We have seen him down before, but we have never seen him out. Jack and all his folks aren't going to simply sit back. That's simply not Jack Roush. That's why he has been as successful as he has been in all of motorsports.

So my point is the team will fix it. Look at Richard Childress Racing. A year ago, it looked like the organization didn't even know how to crank the motor on a race car much less be contenders for wins and making the Chase. Look where the group is one year later. So I think that is a good benchmark for everyone that is struggling right now. It gives them hope that things can turn around that quickly.