Races at Michigan International Speedway are special to Jack Roush. The 2-mile track isn't far from Livonia, Mich., where the car owner's engineering and automotive aftermarket companies are based. It's within a short drive of the headquarters of Ford Motor Co., where Roush began his career in 1964. This past Thursday he flew over the race track in one of his vintage World War II-era airplanes, part of a weekly aerial tour of the countryside that he does this time of year.

No single facility is more of a home track to the two-time championship car owner, and the friendliness of the confines are reflected in the record books. Roush has 11 career victories at Michigan, tying him with the Wood Brothers for most among Cup owners all-time. His cars have won five of the last 11 races there, most recently in August of 2008. In the Wolverine State, Roush victories on the big Brooklyn oval have become about as expected as summertime tourists rolling across the Mackinac Bridge.

And yet, these days, a victory by Roush Fenway Racing anywhere -- Michigan included -- would be something of a surprise. Roush is winless this season, his last victory coming at Talladega in the fall of 2009 with Jamie McMurray, a driver who doesn't even work for him anymore. No Roush car, or any Ford for that matter, has won on a non-restrictor-plate track since Matt Kenseth reached Victory Lane at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., way back in February of 2009.

What's wrong with Ford? Roush knows people are asking the question, even though he has three drivers -- Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle -- still in position to quality for NASCAR's season-ending playoff. Roush is central to the equation, since his team also builds cars and engines for Richard Petty Motorsports, NASCAR's other full-time Ford team. The owner traces the problem back to NASCAR's testing ban, which went into effect due to economic reasons at the end of the 2008 season, and coincides almost identically with Roush's current, prolonged slump. Neither Biffle nor Edwards has won since the end of the 2008 season.

That policy change forced teams to place more emphasis on simulation data. And Roush's data, so integral in determining car setups, has simply been off.

"We've got third-party vendors, not Ford and not Roush Fenway, that were engaged in our data analysis and in our simulations, and quite frankly we haven't got the results this year that we had expected," Roush said.

"Certainly the results aren't as good from the simulation data, that analysis point of view, as we had in 2008. And given the fact that we don't have testing, that has been a handicap. We're looking at additional third-party vendors. We're taking more things inside and taking them on ourselves as Roush Fenway, and the Petty organization is looking to Roush Fenway and doing some things on their own. They've added staff. So we're trying to fill that void that we had not expected."

Essentially, Roush claims that Ford teams have been arriving at race tracks with setup strategies that are behind what their competitors are using, and the difference is evident in the results. The setup difficulties have been eclipsed somewhat by the focus on Ford's new NASCAR engine, the FR9, a much-ballyhooed piece of equipment that's spent months in development and is only now on the brink of being implanted across the board. All Ford entries are scheduled to run the new engine at Michigan, and Roush said that after this weekend, the old one would be used only at road courses, if at all.

Although the new engine makes only marginally better horsepower, Roush said, it's more efficient in cooling and combustion, and can better withstand more tape or garbage on the car's front grille. "We've got great confidence with the new FR9 to go compete for a championship," he said.

To do that, though, his team has to prove it can win races; right now, any Roush driver who makes the Chase risks starting at least 40 points behind Denny Hamlin, who leads the series in victories. Roush is not one given to rosy predictions, but he clearly likes the potential of Ford's new power plant. He believes his team's cars will improve as the simulation data gets better. And who knows, one day Michigan just might feel like Michigan again, with a man in a hat and a car with a blue oval logo all together in Victory Lane.

"We think," Roush said, "we see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Related:
• Edwards among the Roush drivers comfortable at MIS
• Edwards on state of Ford: 'We just aren't fast enough'