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Sprint Cup Series:
6. Trevor Bayne
16. Greg Biffle
17. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
Xfinity Series:
16. Ryan Reed
60. Chris Buescher
--. Darrell Wallace Jr.
Roush Fenway Racing (originally Roush Racing) is a racing team competing in NASCAR racing. As one of NASCAR's largest premier racing teams, Roush runs teams in the Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series, and formerly in the Camping World Truck Series and ARCA RE/MAX Series.
Roush first entered NASCAR competition in 1988, but had competed and won championships in various drag racing and sports car racing series since the mid-1960s. The racing business was originally a small branch of co-owner Jack Roush's successful automotive engineering and road-racing equipment business based in Livonia, Michigan.
The NASCAR operation, based in Concord, North Carolina, has since become the cornerstone and centerpiece of the company, winning back to back Sprint Cup Series Championships in 2003 with driver Matt Kenseth and 2004 with driver Kurt Busch. In the Sprint Cup Series, the team fields the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion for Greg Biffle, the No. 17 Zest/Nationwide Insurance Ford Fusion for Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., and the No. 6 Ford Fusion for Trevor Bayne.
In the Nationwide Series, RFR fields the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang for Trevor Bayne, the No. 16 Lilly Diabetes/Drive to Stop Diabetes Mustang for Ryan Reed, and the No. 60 Ford EcoBoost/Roush Performance Mustang for Chris Buescher. The No. 60 had been dominant throughout its history, amassing many wins with Mark Martin, two driver's championships with Greg Biffle in 2002 and Carl Edwards in 2007, and an owner's championship with Edwards in 2011. The No. 6 won back-to-back driver's championships in 2011 & 2012 with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
Roush also fields a Ford Mustang in the Pirelli World Challenge sponsored by Roush Performance with the car being driven by his son, Jack Roush, Jr.
From 1995 until 2009 Roush also fielded teams in the NASCAR Truck Series, fielding trucks for drivers such as Kurt Busch, Biffle, Kyle Busch, Edwards, Ricky Craven, David Ragan, and various others. Many of these drivers went on to drive for the team at the Cup level. Roush's trucks won over thirty races and the 2000 Truck Series championship with Biffle driving.
Since its inception, Roush has competed exclusively in Ford brand automobiles. Currently, the Ford Fusion competes in the Sprint Cup, the Ford Mustang template is used in the Nationwide Series, and the Ford F-150 was used for the Camping World Truck Series.
Founded in 1988, the program is built around having multiple cars and providing engine, engineering and race car build services to other NASCAR teams fielding Ford branded vehicles. The multi-team aspect of the company allows for information and resources to be shared across the enterprise, improving the performance of all of the teams. Since the 2004 season, engines for the cars have been provided by Roush-Yates Engines, a partnership between Roush Fenway Racing and now-closed rival Yates Racing, with Doug Yates as head engine builder. Roush-Yates also provides engines, cars, and parts to other Cup teams including Team Penske, Richard Petty Motorsports, and Front Row Motorsports.
In 2007, sports investor John W. Henry, owner of the Fenway Sports Group which operates the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool F.C., and the New England Sports Network bought a 50% stake in the team, renamed Roush Fenway Racing. Jack Roush continues to head day-to-day operations of the team.[1]
From 1998-2000 and 2003-2009, Roush Racing operated five full-time Cup teams (6, 16, 17, 26/97, 99), more than any other organization including Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing which have both operated as many as four full-time teams. The team set a NASCAR record by putting all five of its race teams in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup in 2005.[2] Following the 2009 season, Roush Fenway was ordered by NASCAR to shrink its operation to four Sprint Cup Series teams, ceding the #26 team.[2] The team would later shrink to three teams after the 2011 season.
The 06 attempted eleven races during the 2006 season to prepare Roush Racing's development drivers for future Cup careers. Todd Kluever was originally the sole driver, but was replaced with David Ragan for five out of eleven races. The team debuted with Kluever behind the wheel at Chicagoland Speedway on July 9 with sponsorship from 3M. Kluever also drove the car at Michigan International Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway, and attempted to start races at California Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway. David Ragan ran the #06 at Dover International Speedway in September 2006 and Martinsville Speedway, and missed the second 2006 race at Texas Motor Speedway.
The 6 car began as Roush Racing's original foray into NASCAR. With a debut at the 1988 Daytona 500 as the #6 Stroh's Light Ford, short track driver Mark Martin at the wheel, the team finished 41st after experiencing an engine failure after 19 laps. However, performance quickly improved, with Martin winning a pole position later in the season and achieving ten top ten finishes. With a year of experience under their belt, Roush and Martin went on a tear in 1989, winning six poles, earning eighteen top-10 finishes and winning for the first time at North Carolina Speedway. The team finished third place in championship points.
Garnering new sponsorship from Folgers in 1990, Martin won three each of races and pole positions, as well as finishing in the top 10 in all but six races. Martin held the points lead for a majority of the season, but lost momentum in the final races. In the end, the team lost the championship to Dale Earnhardt by 26 points. Interestingly, Martin would have won the championship had he not been docked 46 points in the second race of the season following a rules violation. Regardless, the team hoped to carry the momentum into 1991. Disappointingly, Martin finished sixth in points, and didn't win until the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
In 1992, Valvoline joined to sponsor the car, but the team's position in points still did not improve. Finally, they recaptured the magic of before in 1993, as Martin notched five victories and finished third in points. 1994 found Martin and the 6 team finishing once again runner-up to Earnhardt in points. In 1995, Martin defeated former teammate Wally Dallenbach, Jr. to win at Watkins Glen and won the most money of his career at that time, $1,893,519. However, the team's performance slumped sharply in 1996, as Martin did not visit victory lane. He would win again 1997, with an additional four victories and finishing third in championship points. In 1998, Martin and team 6 had their most dominant season yet, winning seven times, but finished second in points yet again, this time to Jeff Gordon. The 1998 season was marked with a black spot when Martin's father Julian died in an aviation accident. Although 1999 saw Martin winning only twice, he finished in the top-10 in 26 out of 34 races.
After winning only one race in 2000, primary sponsor Valvoline left for MB2 Motorsports, and Pfizer/Viagra became the team's new financial backer. In addition, throughout the season Martin served as co-owner/mentor of rookie driver Matt Kenseth. However, Martin again failed to win, and ended up 12th in points, his lowest finish since 1988. The team won only once in 2002, but was narrowly defeated by Tony Stewart for the championship. 2003 was another season of lackluster performance for the team, as once again they didn't visit victory lane, and finished 17th in the final standings. 2004 brought improved performance, with a victory at Dover International Speedway and a 4th place finish in points. Prior to beginning the 2005 season, Martin stated that 2005 would be his last year in full-time Cup competition. The team conducted a Salute to You farewell tour to his fans highlighting many of Martin's career accomplishments. Martin finished fourth in points and went to victory lane once, along with achieving 19 top ten finishes. Due to contract issues, Roush was left without a driver for car 6 in 2006. After learning of the situation, Martin announced his return to car 6 for one more year. The team extended the Salute to You tour after modifying its paint schemes to reflect the team's new sponsor, Automobile Association of America. Martin went winless, but had 7 top 5's and 15 top 10's en route to a 9th place points finish in his final year for Roush.[3] He would on to Ginn Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. part-time for 2007 and 2008, then did run several more full seasons for Hendrick Motorsports and two partial seasons with MWR, Gibbs, and Stewart Haas, retiring for good after 2013.
Todd Kluever was originally scheduled to drive the 6 car in 2007, running several races in the 06 Cup car in anticipation, but due to lackluster performance in the Busch Series, Roush Racing decided to put Truck Series driver David Ragan in the car full-time. He had three top-tens and finished 23rd in points. The following season, he had fourteen top-ten finishes and finished 13th in the points standings.
AAA left the #6 team after the 2008 season for Penske Racing, with the United Parcel Service becoming the sponsor for Ragan's car for 2009. Ragan only had two top-ten finishes and finished 27th. The next year, the team started off on a mixed note by nearly winning the 2011 Daytona 500, only to be penalized for an early lane change. The team then won at Daytona in July, their first since 2005. Despite the victory, UPS left the 6 team and moved to an associate sponsor for the #99 team. Jack Roush announced that RFR would not field the 6 team in 2012 and would lay off nearly 100 people.[4]
Roush decided to run the #6 part-time in 2012. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. drove at the Daytona 500 and Roush Fenway Racing planned to run more races in 2012 if a sponsor can be found. After the Daytona 500, Jack Roush sold the owner points from the #6 to former RFR crew chief Frank Stoddard and his FAS Lane Racing team. However, Stenhouse did race in the #6 car in three more races at Dover, Charlotte and Homestead in the fall.
The #6 car did not run in 2013. In the fall of 2014, Roush development driver Trevor Bayne attempted the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte in the car, but failed to qualify. Bayne will pilot the car full-time in 2015, with Nationwide Series sponsor Advocare covering the full season. [5]
Originally the first car to make Roush Racing a multi-car stable, the 16 team debuted at the 1992 Daytona 500 with Keystone as the sponsor. Wally Dallenbach, Jr. drove the car to a fifteenth place finish. Dallenbach, however, earned only one top ten finish that year and finished 24th in points. 1993 proved to be a little better with Dallenbach posting four top tens. However, for 1994, the team underwent major changes. Driving duties were given to Ted Musgrave, with The Family Channel becoming the new sponsor. The car's performance improved drastically, with Musgrave notching three poles and finishing thirteenth in points. The 1995 season saw Musgrave improving six spots in points to seventh. Despite this success, Musgrave never visited victory lane in his tenure behind the wheel of the 16. Midway through 1998, Musgrave was released and replaced by rookie Kevin Lepage, who finished runner-up to Kenny Irwin, Jr in Rookie of the Year honors.
Teamed with TV Guide and Primestar, Lepage and the 16 team began 1999 with a fifth place finish at Darlington Raceway, having a chance to win the Winston Million bonus, and a pole at the season ending race at Atlanta. Unfortunately, TV Guide did not renew their contract for the 2000 season. Car 16 ran the beginning of the season unsponsored, before ultimately signing a multi-year pact with FamilyClick. Over the course of the year, Lepage missed two races and dropped to 28th in the standings. He was quickly released. Dissastisfied with the team's performance, FamilyClick did not return as a sponsor and the team disappeared for one year, before returning in 2002.
During the 2002 season, car 16 was used to prepare 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion and eventual Busch Series champion Greg Biffle for his Rookie of the Year campaign the following year. While the team missed several races, Biffle made seven starts. Biffle ran full-time as a rookie in 2003, with W. W. Grainger sponsoring the car. Biffle started 35 out of 36 races, won the Pepsi 400 and finished runner-up to Jamie McMurray for Rookie of the Year. The next year, the car had a new primary sponsor in the National Guard. Over the 2004 season, Biffle won twice. In 2005, Post-it Brand and 3M replaced Subway as a secondary sponsor. 2005 was to be the most successful year for car 16 to date, as the National Guard Ford won six races, a season high, and finished runner-up in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Biffle signed an extension to drive the #16 until at least 2008.
After 2007, National Guard did not renew its contract, moving to Hendrick Motorsports and the #25. Ameriquest Mortgage, which had sponsored the majority of the 2006 Busch Series season for Roush,[6] had signed a three year contract to move up to Biffle's #16 Cup ride, with 3M sponsoring 6 races. By March, however, the company had asked to be released from the final two years of its contract, along with relinquishing naming rights to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Ameriquest was one of the biggest subprime loan providers, and the sponsorship pullout likely coincided with the Housing Bubble of 2007.[7] Several companies including Aflac, Nintendo, Dish Network, and Jackson Hewitt picked up the slack for the remainder of the season.[8]
It was announced on June 27, 2008 that Biffle signed a contract extension to remain at Roush-Fenway through 2011 with 3M as his major sponsor. That season, he finished third in points and won two races, but didn't re-visit victory lane in 2009. In 2010 3M returned as the primary sponsor with Red Cross as the secondary sponsor. Biffle and the 16 team got of to a good start finishing 3rd in the 2010 Daytona 500 and stayed in the top 12 in points all year. Biffle also won two races that year the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono as well as the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas leading to a sixth place finish in the standings. Biffle struggled for most of the next year, failing to return to victory lane and finishing 16th in points. In 2012 he started the season with 3 straight 3rd place finishes and a win early at Texas put him in the points lead, but he eventually gave it up to teammate Matt Kenseth.
In 2013, both Roush and Biffle struggled, however Biffle did get the 1000th win for Ford at Michigan in June and made the Chase.
In 2014, the struggles of Roush Fenway became much more pronounced. Struggling for speed all season long, the #16 team did not contend for a victory for most of the season.
In August 2014 it was announced that 3M would leave the team, and that Scotts-Miracle Gro's Ortho brand would take over primary sponsorship. Scotts, which had previously been a sponsor of Carl Edwards at Roush, made its debut at Bristol in August of 2014.[9]
The #17 car entered NASCAR's premier series at a part-time level in 1999. Matt Kenseth was the driver, DeWalt Tools was the sponsor, and Robbie Reiser served as crew chief. This was the same combination as was run on Reiser's own Busch Grand National team. Premiering at the summer Michigan race in 1999, Kenseth finished 14th. A fourth place finish one month later at Dover proved Kenseth was ready for Cup.
In 2000, the car started every race, won the Coca-Cola 600, and defeated favorite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for Rookie of the Year honors. The 2001 season saw Kenseth finish thirteenth in points, winless and with only 9 top ten finishes. However, the team saw marked improvement the next year, as Kenseth won five times in 2002, ultimately reaching an eighth place finish in points.
While winning only once, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kenseth won the Winston Cup Championship by 90 points in 2003, earning Roush its first Cup championship. Some say that after his championship with only a single win is the reason NASCAR switched to the chase.
The team continued to perform in 2004, winning two races, making the Chase for the Nextel Cup, and finishing eighth in points. In 2005, Kenseth finished seventh in points after experiencing a disappointing beginning to the season. However, the second half of the year brought a resurgence of success for the car, as a win at Bristol Motor Speedway helped the team make its second consecutive Chase for the Nextel Cup. In 2006, Kenseth won 4 events, and finished second to Jimmie Johnson in the championship standings. Kenseth won the first two races of the 2009 season winning Jack Roush his first Daytona 500. Due to the slumping economy, however, Kenseth's longtime sponsor DeWalt informed Roush Fenway Racing on July 23, 2009 that they would no longer be sponsoring the #17 team for the 2010 season. Crown Royal announced they would move to the #17 in 2010 for 35 races as Valvoline sponsored the remaining 3.[10] For 2011, Kenseth returned to victory lane at Texas, Dover and Charlotte. However, Crown Royal announced that they would not return to the #17 team, instead focusing their NASCAR efforts on the Brickyard 400 sponsorship. Despite this, Kenseth finished fourth in points.
In 2012, Kenseth's primary sponsorship was split between Best Buy, Zest Soap, and Fifth Third Bank, although the team was still forced to run several races unsponsored. Kenseth started the year strong by winning the Gatorade Duel Qualifying Race and the Daytona 500, which was also Jack Roush's 300th victory in NASCAR and his second Daytona 500 victory. It was later announced that Kenseth was leaving Roush Fenway Racing after the season, even though he had no team he was going to. Everyone was wondering how Kenseth would perform after revealing the news. Kenseth made the Chase and won two of the 10 Chase races (Talladega and Kansas). Kenseth finished seventh in the standings. It was then announced that Kenseth would be driving for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013.
In 2013, Kenseth was replaced by rookie Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.. Stenhouse inherited Kenseth's sponsorship, while adding primary support from Nationwide Insurance to cover the unfilled races. Stenhouse had shown promise, as he finished 12th at the Daytona 500. Through the first 17 points races, his highest finish had been 11th. He also finished second in the Sprint Showdown. Stenhouse's best finish of the entire season was a third place finish at Talladega in October.
In 2014, the team's Best Buy sponorship was replaced by Cargill, while keeping Zest, Fifth-Third and Nationwide. Stenhouse struggled along with the rest of the Roush program. Stenhouse spend a majority of the summer working with new crew chief Mike Kelley trying to improve the chemistry of the team. The #17 suffered through a dismal season, with Stenhouse recording two top-10s, while failing to qualify once. The team finished 28th in owner points.
In 2015, Nationwide Insurance will be moving to Hendrick Motorsports. Zest, Cargill and Fifth-Third will return to the #17, while Nationwide's spot will be taken by Fastenal, moving from Roush's #99 car.
The 26 car raced for the first time at the 1993 fall event at Charlotte Motor Speedway as #97. Sponsored by Kleenex and owned by Greg Pollex, Chad Little was the driver. Little and Pollex ran part-time for four years with various sponsorships until 1997, when they ran full-time with backing from John Deere. However, after experiencing financial and performance struggles, Roush bought the team three-quarters of the way through the season. Little qualified for 27 out of 32 races that year. The team returned in 1998, with the car changing to the Ford nameplate from Pontiac.
Despite missing the spring Atlanta race, Little finished a career-best second at the Texas 500 and finished 15th in points. After that, the performance of the team slipped, and midway through 2000 it was announced that Little would leave the team. For the remainder of the season, a Roush Craftsman Truck Series driver, Kurt Busch, began running races for the team. Car 97, like the 16 car in 2000, started the 2001 season unsponsored (especially since John Deere bowed out after the 2000 season), but soon found sponsorship from Rubbermaid and Sharpie. Busch's rookie year in Winston Cup was unspectacular save for a pole at Darlington. The team finished 27th in points, with only six top ten finishes. In 2002, Kurt Busch grabbed headlines after battling with Jimmy Spencer for a win at Bristol. This sparked a rivalry between the two drivers that lasted for the following years. However, the 2002 season marked a coming-of-age for the team, which won four times (including 3 of the final five races and the season finale at Homestead) and finished third in the championship points. Busch drove car 97 to victory four times in 2003, along with 14 top ten finishes. The team was riding in the top 10 for most of the season, but late season struggles brought the team an 11th place points finish. 2004 was the defining year of team #97. Winning three times, earning 21 top ten finishes, and clinching a pole, Busch won the first Chase for the Cup Championship. In 2005, he won three times and finished tenth in points.
Midway through the 2005 season, Busch shocked many in the NASCAR community when he announced that he would be leaving Roush Racing and replacing the retiring Rusty Wallace in the #2, owned by Penske Racing. On November 7, 2005 it was announced that Busch had been released from contractual obligations at Roush and would leave the team at the end of the season.[11] In November 2005, Busch was cited for reckless driving in an area close to Phoenix International Raceway. Although no action was taken by NASCAR, Roush Racing suspended Busch for the remainder of the 2005 season. Busch moved to Penske Racing in 2006. Kenny Wallace took his place for the final two races of the season.
On November 16, it was officially announced that the #97 would be renamed to the #26 for the 2006 season and beyond.[12] Roush had fielded a #26 team once previously, in 1998 and 1999. Sponsored by General Mills, the team debuted at North Carolina, where Johnny Benson finished 30th in the car. Benson ended the 1998 season with 10 top ten finishes and earned twentieth place in the championship points. In 1999, the #26 car experienced a very disappointing year. After mustering only two top-10 finishes and dropping eight spots in points, Benson quit the team to drive for Tyler Jet Motorsports. The #26 team was subsequently disbanded, but Roush retained ownership of the number.
For 2006, Jamie McMurray was the car's new driver, with sponsorship from Crown Royal, Smirnoff Ice, and Irwin Industrial Tools. He had seven top-ten finishes and finished 25th in points in his first year with the team. For 2007, the season hit its peak when McMurray edged out Kyle Busch by 0.005 seconds to win the Pepsi 400. McMurray would end 2007 with one win, three top fives, and nine top tens along with a 17th place finish in points. 2008 was mostly the same for the #26, but improving one spot to 16th thanks to four top fives in the final six races of the season. 2009 was the final season for the #26 team because of a new NASCAR rule that will limit Roush Fenway Racing to four cars. Crown Royal will sponsor the #17 team in 2010 after DeWalt terminated its sponsorship due the economic downturn.
In January 2010, Vermont businessman Bill Jenkins purchased the team. The new #26 team was called Latitude 43 Motorsports, after the cleaning products company Jenkins owns.
Car 99 first raced at the 1996 Daytona 500, with Jeff Burton driving and Exide Batteries the sponsor. The car finished fifth. After missing the first Atlanta race, Burton won a pole at Michigan and finished 13th in points.
Burton won the first three races of his career in 1997, (including the inaugural Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway) and ended fourth in points. In 1998, Burton enjoyed another successful season, winning twice, mounting 23 top ten finishes, and earning fifth place in the championship points. The team led the standings for part of 1999, but lost the top spot after performing poorly at Richmond. The team again settled for fifth in the points, with six wins and, like the previous year, 23 top ten finishes. Late in 2000, Exide ceased their sponsorship, and Citgo joined with new financial backing. The car finished a team-high third in the points, with four wins, one of which was at New Hampshire in September where NASCAR used restrictor plates following the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin earlier that year, along with 22 top ten finishes and one pole position. Burton won twice in 2001 at Charlotte and Phoenix, but fell back to tenth in the points with 16 top tens. The #99 would not win another race with Burton behind the wheel, as he managed back-to-back twelfth place points finishes in 2002 and 2003.
After the 2003 season, Citgo discontinued their sponsorship of the 99 team and Roush was not able to find a full-time sponsor to run the team. Burton continued to race for the team with several one-off sponsorship deals and some support from his secondary sponsors, but with the financial state of the #99 still in doubt and Burton struggling rumors began circulating that Burton's days in the #99 were nearing an end. Burton eventually did leave Roush after eight and a half years to replace Johnny Sauter in the #30 AOL Chevrolet at Richard Childress Racing, and took whatever sponsors were left with him to his new team.
To fill the void left by this departure, Roush elevated Carl Edwards from the truck series. Edwards showed immediate promise while driving the unsponsored 99 entry, posting five top ten finishes in his abbreviated season. During his first full-time season, 2005, with sponsorship from Scotts, Office Depot, Stonebridge Life Insurance Company and World Financial Group, Edwards won four times and finished in a tie for second in points. In 2006, Office Depot became the exclusive sponsor of the team. Edwards failed to win or make the Chase for the Cup, posting ten top-fives but finishing twelfth in points. Edwards snapped his 52 race winless streak by winning the 2007 Citizens Bank 400 at Michigan International Speedway. In 2008, Edwards posted a series-best nine victories and also led in top 5s and top 10s, but he was still runner-up by 69 points to three-time consecutive champion Jimmie Johnson.[13] Office Depot did not renew their sponsorship after the 2008 season. In 2009 Aflac became the new sponsor for Carl Edwards and the #99 team. Edwards made the chase in 2009 finishing 11th in points while not winning a race. In 2010, Kellogg's moved from Hendrick Motorsports to join the team as primary sponsor for two races, and associate sponsor for the rest of the season.[14] Scotts also joined Edwards' Cup sponsorship after several years as a Nationwide sponsor. Edwards snapped a 70-race winless skid with his victory in the 2010 Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. One week later he won his 2nd race in a row at Homestead-Miami Speedway during the Ford 400.
In 2011 Carl Edwards returned to drive the #99. He won his only race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but managed to remain in the top 12 with consistent finishes. Kellogg's and Subway returned to sponsor a few races, and Edwards managed to finish second in points on a tiebreak with Tony Stewart. For 2012, the 99 was sponsored by Fastenal, Kellogg's, UPS and Best Buy. Edwards finished 15th in points, winless, with three top-fives and 13 top-tens In 2013, Edwards ended his winless streak by winning in Phoenix.
Edwards won the Food City 500 at Bristol in March 2014 to lock himself into that year's Chase. However, on July 27, 2014 Roush Fenway announced that Edwards would not return to the #99 in 2015 and that sponsor Fastenal would move to Roush's #17 car to replace the departing Nationwide Insurance. This left the #99 without a sponsor or a driver for 2015, and the team is expected to shut down.
The number 1 started as the number 06 Ford Fusion when first raced in the Hershey's Kissables 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2006. Todd Kluever piloted the car, with sponsorship from 3M, for the entire 2006 season, earning four top-ten finishes and one pole. Mike Kelley, the former car chief on championship car 97, was the crew chief. For 2007, Mark Martin drove the 06 machine, with sponsorship from Dish Network at Daytona International Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. This team did not return in 2008. On October 30, 2014, Roush Fenway announced Elliott Sadler would drive the #1 car in 2015.
The car now known as the 6 car debuted at Daytona in 1997 as the 9 car. Jeff Burton drove the Track Gear sponsored Ford Taurus to a 40th place finish. During the 1997 season, Robbie Crouch, Musgrave, and Rob Wilson drove the #9 on limited schedules, with a best finish coming from Crouch at Loudon. Over the next six years, Burton drove to 16 wins with additional sponsorships from Northern Light and Febreeze, among others. After Burton left Roush Racing midway through 2004, Mark Martin returned to the Busch Series, posting four top-10s in five starts. In 2005, Martin ran five races and won twice. The car switched to the #6 in 2006, after a number switch with Evernham Motorsports, and ran a part-time schedule sponsored by Ameriquest. In 2007, David Ragan drove the car full-time in 2007 using the #06 owner's points, with sponsorship coming from the Discount Tire Company. After a 5th place finish in points, Ragan was named Rookie of the Year. After running full-time in 2008, Ragan went to part-time and won the 2009 Aaron's 312 for his first Nationwide series victory as well as a win at Bristol. Rookie Erik Darnell filled out the rest of the schedule with Northern Tool and Equipment sponsoring. He won a pole and had two top-fives, but was unable to return the next season due to a lack of funding.
In 2010, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. drove the #6 Ford with Citifinancial as the primary sponsor. After crashing out of a few early events along with rookie teammate Colin Braun, Roush temporarily benched Stenhouse after he failed to qualify at Nashville in April. The 6 was driven by Brian Ickler at Kentucky, and by Billy Johnson at Watkins Glen. When veteran Mike Kelley took over the pit box, Stenhouse responded with a 3rd place finish at the fall race at Daytona. The team rallied back to claim Rookie of the Year honors. The next year Cargill Meat Solutions sponsored the team for a few races as Citi had left for Kevin Harvick Incorporated. With fresh momentum, and most of the Cup drivers running limited schedules, Stenhouse swept both Iowa races for his first two Nationwide Series victories, and held off former Cup driver Elliott Sadler for the Nationwide Series championship. Stenhouse would beat Sadler again in 2012 for his second consectutive championship. For 2013, former Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne, who had been sidelined in recent years due to illness and lack of sponsorship, drove the car full-time. Cargill returned to the team, along with Valvoline and Ford EcoBoost. In 2014, Advocare moved from Richard Childress Racing to sponsor the entire season. Bayne will move up to the Sprint Cup Series in 2015. In December 2014, It was reveled that Camping World Truck Series driver Darrell Wallace Jr. had asked for a release from his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing. The release was granted and a few hours later word broke that he had signed a deal to compete in the Xfinity series with Roush Fenway having Chad Norris from the #6 car as his crew chief.[15]
The #16 car made its Busch Series debut at Daytona in 2006. Greg Biffle drove the Ameriquest car in 20 races, winning once at California Speedway. For 2007, Biffle shared driving duties of the 3M Ford Fusion with Todd Kluever. For 2008, Citifinancial and 3M will be the sponsors on the car, with Biffle, McMurray, and Colin Braun sharing the driving duties. Biffle drove most of the races, Mcmurray drove at Atlanta, Texas, and Phoenix. Colin Braun drove with two pole wins at Mexico City and O'Reilly Raceway Park. Braun, Kenseth, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., and Biffle drove the car in 2009, with Biffle winning twice and Kenseth once. Braun moved up to the ride full-time in 2010 with Con-way as sponsor for 18 races. However, Braun crashed out of a few races, and was replaced by Matt Kenseth at Richmond, Darlington and Atlanta. Brian Ickler drove a few races, and Erik Darnell drove 3 races.
For 2011, Braun was released and was replaced by Trevor Bayne. After 8 races, Bayne was hospitalized for various illnesses, and Roush drivers Chris Buescher and Kevin Swindell filled in for him. Bayne returned later in the season, and scored his first win at Texas in the fall. Bayne's crew moved over to RFR's #60 to run a limited schedule, and the 16 team shut down for 2012. For 2013, the #16 car was resurrected with Chris Buescher and Billy Johnson driving part-time with Ford EcoBoost, and Ryan Reed driving a limited schedule with Lilly Diabetes/Drive To Stop Diabetes the sponsor. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. ran at Texas with nationwide sponsor Zest. Reed will run the #16 full-time starting in 2014 with Lilly and the ADA,[16] while Buescher moved full-time to the #60.
The 17 car debuted in 1994 at Darlington with driver/owner Robbie Reiser driving the unsponsored car to 35th after a crash. Reiser ran part-time for a few years. He hired Tim Bender to drive in 1997. After Bender was injured, Reiser decided to hire fellow Wisconsinite Matt Kenseth to take his place. Kenseth had seven top-10 finishes and ended the year 22nd in points. His substitution duty was impressive enough to get him a ride in Reiser's car for the next season. Kenseth won his first race at the North Carolina in 1998. Driving with new sponsorship from Lycos, Kenseth won three times and finished second in points to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. DeWalt Tools became the sponsor in 1999, with Kenseth getting an additional four wins and a third place finish in points. The team actually was not a Roush team until 2002; Reiser, the team owner, ran Chevrolets through the 2001 season. Since then, the 17 car has run part-time with a variety of different sponsors, with Kenseth at least co-driving each time. In 2006, the car ran a limited schedule sponsored by Ameriquest and Pennzoil. Kenseth had three wins. In 2007 the 17 car was sponsored by Arby's, Dish Network, and Weyerhauser, and continued to be driven by Matt Kenseth, along with Danny O'Quinn, and Michel Jourdain, Jr.. The car took two wins at California and Texas, with Kenseth finishing 10th in points despite running only 23 races. For 2008 sponsorship is expected to be the same, with Citigroup coming on board for a few races. In 2009, Kenseth raced this car in the Camping World 300 at Daytona with Ritz as sponsor and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. drove this car in the Dollar General 300 (Charlotte) in October with Save-A-Lot as sponsor. This team had hopes for returning in 2010, as a part-time team for driver Matt Kenseth. However sponsorship has not been found so the team has been suspended. On October 2, the 17 returned at Kansas Speedway with Trevor Bayne as the driver for the remaining 7 races of the 2010 season after Bayne was released from Michael Waltrip Racing. The team will shut down again for 2011.
The number 26 Ford debuted as the #50 at Daytona in 2006. Danny O'Quinn was the driver, with primary sponsorship from World Financial Group and Stonebridge Life Insurance Company, members of the Aegon group, after beginning the season with sponsorship from Roush Racing only. Drew Blickensderfer was the crew chief. O'Quinn had five top-ten finishes and was named Rookie of the Year despite being replaced by David Ragan for two races. The team switched to the #26 for 2007, with Greg Biffle driving at Daytona with Oreo sponsorship. Jamie McMurray then drove the car for the majority of the season sponsored by Dish Network, finishing in the top-ten three times. Todd Kluever drove twice with a best finish of nineteenth. This team did not return in 2008.
The centerpiece and original car of Roush Racing's Busch operation debuted at the opening race of the 1992 Busch Series season at Daytona. Mark Martin was driving with Winn-Dixie as sponsor, finishing sixth in that race. For the next several years, this was Martin's personal Busch car and he won enough races to surpass Jack Ingram as the all-time leader of wins in the Busch Series. During this time, he and several other Winston Cup drivers came under steep controversy for running the Busch Series as well as Cup. These drivers earned the nickname "Busch Whackers."
After the 2000 season, Martin abbreviated his Busch Series schedule, and Winn-Dixie left NASCAR as a sponsor. His replacement was one of Roush's Truck Series drivers Greg Biffle, who brought W.W. Grainger with him. Biffle had a phenomenal rookie season, winning five times and even leading the championship standings at one point in the season before falling to Kevin Harvick. Biffle returned in 2002, winning four more times and the championship by a wide margin before moving on to Winston Cup, bringing Grainger with him. Roush hired hollywood stuntman Stanton Barrett, who to that point was a journeyman driver, to drive the #60 for 2003 with OdoBan sponsoring. Despite winning two consecutive poles, the car lost its sponsor and folded before the end of the season. Charter Communications began sponsoring the car in 2004 and Biffle returned to drive the car full-time, winning five times and placing third in the series points standings.
In 2005, Busch Series rookie and Cup Series regular Carl Edwards moved into the 60 car, winning five races en route to finishing third in points, and earning Rookie of the Year honors. Edwards returned to drive the Ameriquest-sponsored Ford for a full-time schedule in 2006, winning four more times and was runner-up for the championship. Edwards continued to pilot the car in 2007, with rotating sponsorship from Scotts, World Financial Group, and others. Edwards and the #60 team went on to win the 2007 Busch Grand National Series Championship by a very wide margin over David Reutimann. In 2008 he won five races and finished second in points behind Clint Bowyer in the inaugural Nationwide Series season. Edwards finished second in points again in 2009, finishing behind Kyle Busch. In 2010, Edwards ran for the Nationwide Series Championship again with co-sponsorship from Fastenal and Copart. Despite winning at Road America Gateway, and Texas, Edwards finished runner-up to Brad Keselowski. Edwards drove the #60 again in 2011 with only half of the season sponsored by Fastenal.[17] Despite being unable to compete for the drivers championship, as well as missing Road America, Edwards scored a career-high eight wins in 2011 and won the Owners Championship for Jack Roush. With the departure of crew chief Mike Beam to Kyle Busch Motorsports, Edwards announced that he would not contest the Nationwide Series owners championship the next season.
In 2012, Trevor Bayne's #16 crew moved over to the #60 and ran the first five races with the intent of running the full season. They ended up being sidelined by a lack of sponsorship. Later in 2012, the 60 returned with Edwards at Watkins Glen with Subway sponsoring. Edwards would subsequently win the race. At Montreal, the car was fielded for Roush road course driver Billy Johnson, who finished 8th. The team returned with Bayne at Bristol with backing from the Pat Summit Foundation, as well as one start by Travis Pastrana at the fall Richmond race with Ford EcoBoost. Pastrana would drive the No. 60 for the full season in 2013. While he often showed speed, Pastrana struggled in his transition from Rally cars to heavier stock cars. On November 11, 2013, Pastrana announced that he will not race in NASCAR in 2014.[18]
ARCA champion Chris Buescher drove the #60 in 2014 and competed for the Rookie of the Year award against a strong rookie class. After failing to qualify at Daytona, Buscher has had a solid rookie season, finishing 9th at Las Vegas, 7th at Richmond, 2nd at Talladega, 9th at Charlotte, 11th at Dover, 10th at Michigan, and 12th at the July Daytona race. Buescher finished fifth at New Hampshire to earn a spot in the second Nationwide Dash 4 Cash race at Chicagoland;[19] he would finish 8th at Chicago and 11th at Indianapolis. Fastenal returned to sponsor the 60 at Iowa,[20] where Buescher finished 14th. Cup sponsors Kellogg's and Cheez-It sponsored the car at Watkins Glen.[21] Buescher scored his first career victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the Nationwide Children's Hospital 200.
As part of the breakup of Yates Racing following the 2009 season, Jack Roush purchased the #98 Nationwide Series team. Paul Menard continued to drive for the team with sponsorship from Menards. Menard and his sponsor moved to Richard Childress Racing for 2011 so the team shut down.
The 09 truck began running in 2005 as a research and development entry for Ford. Bobby East attempted a few races in the truck (then #33) but failed to qualify. Mark Martin made the team's first qualification at the Ford 200, where he started 14th and finished 8th with sponsorship from Stonebridge Life Insurance.
After Martin's strong start to the 2006 season, his original limited schedule was expanded. Roush decided to run another part-time team for rookie David Ragan to fill out his original schedule. Ragan took the #50 to a 22nd place finish at Atlanta, but struggled in his next few starts in both the #50 and the #6. After crashing the #6 in practice for the Mansfield race, he was replaced for the weekend. Carl Edwards ran the #50 at the Dover race, and Ragan returned at the Texas race. Ragan's best finish in the 50 came at Atlanta where he finished sixth. Peter Shepherd and Michel Jourdain, Jr. also drove the 50 on a part-time basis during the season with sponsorship from PurposeMoney.com. Edwards drove the truck for the first two races of the season unsponsored, when it was announced T. J. Bell would drive the truck for fifteen races, bringing sponsorship from Heathcliff's Cat Litter. Development drivers Peter Shepherd and Danny O'Quinn, Jr. also drove the #50 truck with sponsorship from Northern Tool and Equipment. Joey Clanton began the 2008 season driving the #09 full-time in 2008 with Zaxby's sponsoring, but after the season-opening race, he was released. Travis Kvapil returned to Roush and shared this ride with Bobby East, and Jon Wes Townley for the rest of the season. Roush shut down the #09 team after the 2008 season.
The #6 truck debuted at Heartland Park Topeka in 1996 as #99. It was sponsored by Exide Batteries and driven to an eighth place finish by Jeff Burton. Posting three top tens in four races that year, he shared the ride with Mark Martin, who won at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The next year, Chuck Bown was hired to drive full-time, and posted thirteen top tens and finished ninth in points. The rotating doors moved again, and Joe Ruttman was driving this truck in 1998, winning once and finishing 3rd in points. Mike Bliss was next to tackle the ride, and he performed masterfully, winning at Martinsville at finishing 9th in points. When Bliss left for an ill-fated rookie year in Winston Cup, Kurt Busch was named the new driver. Busch won four times and finished second to teammate Biffle in the championship, easily winning Rookie of the Year.
Both Busch and Exide exited after that season, and rookie Nathan Haseleu took over with Eldon the new sponsor. Despite posting four top ten finishes in the first twelve races of the season, Hasleau was waived and replaced by Kurt's younger brother Kyle for a limited run. Despite being 16 years old, Busch had two top tens and was scheduled to go full-time in 2002, before NASCAR announced all drivers in its top series must be age 18. Biffle and Tim Woods III also drive the 99 in limited runs during 2001. After Tim Fedewa ran the season-opener in the truck, the team took the rest of 2002 off, the truck returned in 2003 with Carl Edwards driving; although the United States Navy was the truck's original sponsor, they left the team midway through the year and Edwards ran largely unsponsored until Superchips came on to sponsor him. Edwards won three races and the Rookie of the Year title. He repeated his win total in 2004 and moved up to fourth in points, and following Jeff Burton's departure from Roush Racing he began splitting time between the Truck Series and the Nextel Cup Series.
When he moved up to Nextel Cup for 2005, Roush hired a former Cup driver, Ricky Craven to take his place. Despite posting seven top tens and winning at Martinsville, Roush and Craven announced they would not be back together in 2006. Instead, the truck switched to #6, and was shared by NEXTEL Cup veteran Mark Martin and rookie David Ragan. The #6 truck's new sponsor was Scotts, and the truck, piloted by Martin, won the first two races of the 2006 season. Martin then decided to race more races than he originally intended, and he only skipped races without a corresponding Nextel Cup event. Auggie Vidovich II drove for the Mansfield race after Ragan crashed the truck in practice, finishing 19th. Ragan shared the truck with Martin for the balance of the season and had six top-tens and one pole in the 6 truck. Martin had the most success in the truck, winning five races. Overall, the team finished 2nd in the owner's points. 2003 NCTS Champion Travis Kvapil returned to the Truck Series in 2007, and won four races en route to a sixth place finish in points. As Kvapil heads back to the Sprint Cup Series with Yates Racing, former Rolex Sports Car Series driver Colin Braun took Kvapil's place in the 6 truck with sponsorship from Con-way. In his rookie season, Braun had three top-fives and finished 13th in points, winning Rookie of the Year. In 2009, he won at Michigan and finished 5th in points. With moving Braun to the Nationwide Series for the 2010 season, Roush shut down this team and ended its Truck program. He later sold the remaining Trucks to Sprint Cup driver Kyle Busch for him to start his own Truck Team.
The original truck in Roush's stable which debuted in 1995 at the Heartland Park Topeka road course. It was #61 and driven to a fourth place finish by Todd Bodine. Bodine had two more top ten runs at Richmond and Mesa Marin Raceway before Ted Musgrave drove to a fourth place finish at Phoenix. In 1996, the car switched to #80 and Joe Ruttman was at the wheel, nailing down sixteen top-10s and finishing 4th in points. In 1997, with sponsorship from LCI, Ruttman won five times and finished 3rd in points. After running one race with the truck in 1998, the truck switched to #50 and Ruttman took over another ride with the team and he was replaced by rookie Greg Biffle, whom Roush hired under the recommendation of Benny Parsons. Although he failed to win, Biffle won four poles and finished eighth in points.
Biffle would go on to set the trucks on fire in 1999, when he won nine times, and was in contention for the championship for much of the season before finally losing to Jack Sprague. His 2000 season was less dominant with only five wins, but he was able to win the championship by 230 points over teammate Kurt Busch. In 2001, Roush hired an unknown modified driver named Chuck Hossfeld to take Biffle's place as he was moving up to the Busch Series. Hossfeld struggled in his rookie year, and soon he was released, with a rotation of drivers including Jon Wood and Biffle himself in the driver's seat. Wood's audition was impressive enough to earn him a full-time run in 2002, and he posted twelve top ten finishes in the U.S. Navy sponsored truck and finished 12th in points in his first full year. Wood had two wins the next year, and finished 15th in points in 2004 before moving on. In 2005, Todd Kluever piloted the World Financial Group truck to six top five and twelve top ten finishes in his rookie season. Erik Darnell piloted the newly renumbered truck full-time in 2006 with at first Woolrich, but eventually Northern Tool and Equipment as sponsor to a 2006 Rookie of the Year title. 2007 brought about Darnell's first win at Kansas, but inconsistency put the team 12th at season's end. 2008 would be the 99's final season in the Truck Series, as the team was being moved up for a part-time schedule in the Nationwide Series. Erik captured one win at Michigan by only .005 seconds over eventual champion Johnny Benson. This team was shut down after the 2008 season.
Perhaps Roush Racing's most famous partnership is with fellow Ford team Yates Racing. In 2004, the two teams announced a program to combine their engine divisions, a move which greatly improved the power of both organizations' engines. By 2006, most Ford teams were using the Roush Yates engines, including long-time Ford team Wood Brothers/JTG Racing.
Yates has purchased at least one Roush chassis, and may be moving towards adopting Roush's car designs. Jack Roush has also stated that Roush Racing would not court RYR's sponsors when their contracts were up. As well as Yates Racing, Roush Yates also supplied motors for Hall of Fame Racing for the 2009 season.
In 2005, nine-time Pro Bowl NFL wide receiver Tim Brown announced that he intended to start his own NASCAR team, most likely #81, and receive equipment from Roush Racing.[22] Brown also stated that he will let Roush select his driver.[23] The series the team will run will depend on how much sponsorship money the team gets.
Brown has said that his team will most likely not enter NASCAR until 2007, but as of October 2006, no further announcements have been made about the status of this partnership. If it does happen, it will likely be an arrangement similar to the affiliation deal with No Fear Racing.
In 2006, SoBe No Fear energy drink announced that it was forming a new team to run full-time in 2007, with a car driven by road racing specialist Boris Said. It was also announced that this new team would be affiliated with Roush Racing. This allows Roush to sell No Fear Racing cars and equipment, as well as help them with engineering. In return, Said is tutoring Roush's younger drivers on road course racing.[24] The team began running a limited schedule with the Sonoma road course in 2006.
Starting with the 2007 season, Robby Gordon switched from Chevrolet to Ford vehicles after signing a contract with Ford Racing. He leased engines from the Roush/Yates engine program through the 2007 season, until he switched to Gillett Evernham engines and a Dodge Charger.
Roush Fenway, in collaboration with Roush-Yates Engines, supplies most of the Fords in the Sprint Cup Series with technical support and engines. In 2010 Front Row Motorsports signed with Ford and Roush Fenway Racing to receive technical support and engines. Roush also supplies support to Wood Brothers, who's driver, Trevor Bayne is under contract with Roush. Along with these teams, Roush supplies support to Germain Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Phil Parsons Racing, and FAS Lane Racing. As of 2012, Roush supplies engines and chassis to 13 Sprint Cup Teams.
On February 14, 2007, the Fenway Sports Group, owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, purchased 50% of Roush Racing to create a new corporate entity, Roush Fenway Racing.[25]
Mike Dee, president of the Fenway Sports Group was quoted as saying, "Although there have been many instances of cross ownership in the world of professional sports, this partnership marks the first time that owners of a professional franchise in one of the four major leagues have crossed over into the world of NASCAR."
Current management will remain in place at Roush Fenway Racing, with Jack Roush handling all competitive operations and Geoff Smith will continue as Roush Racing president to handle business activities.[26]
Roush Racing hires many of its developmental drivers through an elimination style of testing entitled The Gong Show. The process begins when Roush solicits applications from thousands of drivers from all levels. They are then put through a series of tests, gauging not only driving skills, but also public relations talent and personality traits. Eventually, the field is narrowed down to an elite group who are allowed to race Roush vehicles, often Craftsman Truck Series trucks, in an attempt to assess driving ability. Those with the fastest times progress, and ultimately the best are awarded with a contract to drive for Roush in the Craftsman Truck Series or Busch Series. In 2005, the process was documented in the Discovery Channel television series Roush Racing: Driver X, which followed the stories of those involved in the 2005 Gong Show.
The term "Gong Show" comes from the 1970s talent show spoof "The Gong Show."
Sprint Cup Series, Mexico, Touring car racing, Canada, Daytona Beach, Florida
Dale Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson, United States, Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon
Nascar, Sprint Cup Series, Roush Fenway Racing, 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Texas Motor Speedway
Mazda, General Motors, Ford Fiesta, Henry Ford, Detroit
Ford Motor Company, Toyota, Chevrolet, Roush Fenway Racing, Germain Racing
Chevrolet, Toyota, Dodge, Ford, Roush Fenway Racing
Dodge, Chevrolet, Ford Motor Company, Toyota, Hendrick Motorsports
Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Ford Motor Company, Toyota, Tony Stewart


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Here in Cymru we're celebrating Saint David's Day, so as promised I'm bringing you a special Saint David's Day tutorial. Today I'm going to show you how to make a unique daffodil brooch, using just scraps of fabric and a brooch back.
- Yellow/orange/green fabric scraps
- Matching cotton
- A small sewing needle
- A brooch back (You can find these in Hobbycraft, independent craft shops and on Amazon)
- Fabric scissors
If using thin fabric:
- Iron-on interfacing (available in craft/sewing shops and online)
- Iron on adhesive (Therm-o-web, fuse-a-web etc, again available in craft/sewing shops and online)
Start by drawing out your templates. The template for the centre of your daffodil (the spiky part) should be around double the width of the bottom of your petal template, as shown in the diagram. The good thing about this project is that you don't have to obsess too much about measurements. The template for the centre of my daffodil was approx. 7.5cm width and 6cm in height. My petals were approx. 3.5cm in width with a peak of around 5.5cm. The leaf can bee free-hand.
Cut your template pieces out.
With pencil or fabric marker/chalk draw around each template and cut the shapes out. You will need to cut 10 petals, 4 leaves, and 2 centres.
If you're using a very 'sturdy' material which will hold shape well (such as felt sheets) you can skip this and the next step. If you're using up your cotton scraps as I am, you'll need to draw around your templates and cut out the same amount as in the previous step. Interfacing will make your fabric much more sturdy. Be sure to read the pack, as some interfacing is sew-on.
Draw around your templates and cut out 2 leaves, 1 centre, 5 petals, and follow the instructions on the iron-on adhesive pack to stick all your pieces together, until you're left with 5 complete petals, 2 leaves, and one centre. Don't worry too much about precision, as we'll be trimming the uneven edges before moving on to the next step. (NB: be very careful not to melt iron-on adhesive on to your iron! – I learnt the hard way a few years ago)
Once you've trimmed any uneven edges, bring the two sides on the base of the petal together, one slightly overlapping the other, to form a slight trumpet shape.
Sew a few little stitches to secure. Do this for all of your petals.
Now for the centre of your daffodil. Slightly over-lap one side, and secure with a pin. Use matching cotton to sew along the edge.
Once you've got you tube shape, pinch the bottom part of the tube together and secure with a few stitches.
Now we need to attach the petals to the centre. This can be a bit tricky, so I recommend using the shortest needle you can, and allow yourself more cotton than you actually need, just to allow you some 'manoeuvre' space. You're just putting a few stitches through your petal and centre, up along the line where you've stitched your petal sides together.
Repeat the above step until all of your petals are attached.
Now our flower is complete, it's time to work on the leaves. Just to get the leaves in the position you want, put a simple cross stitch in the centre of your crossed-over leaves.
Take your brooch back and attach it securely to your leaves.
Attach your flower to your leaves. You can use this step to make your brooch back even more stable; sew carefully through the centre of your daffodil, going in and out of the brooch holes each time.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Spate Media is over 10 years old. We started our journey back in 2006 with an idea to document the culture we love hip hop. It turned into something amazing and we got a chance to work with the future superstars of the world. We enjoyed every minute of it and we are looking forward to the next 10 years.


text:
Thursday, May 24, 2012
make a wish...
42 comments:
Ugh, sleep challenges are the worst, especially when it feels like you're caught in it like that. Ugh! I find weather changes affect me that way. Good luck :)ReplyDelete
Love the card - the flag-tag is so cool, and what is it about jars that's just so appealing? Love it :)
love it!ReplyDelete
that happens to me, waking up too early and then its 7pm the next night and I can't keep my eyes open. hope you get back on track.
I hate when my sleep gets off...hope you are able to get back to normal this weekend...and stay that way!ReplyDelete
Love the SRM stickers and the beautiful paper on the banner.
This card is absolutely wonderful! The twine, the stitching, and the sweet mason jar. Happy b-day to boss' boss (or however it is typed!)ReplyDelete
Hope you get your sleepy troubles figured out sooner rahter than later!ReplyDelete
This card is just perfect! The colors, the SRM (!) :) and that twine is like the cherry on top of a sundae!
Bummer about the sleep.... and you know I'm not the one to ask about punctuation, right?!?!?!?! LOL!!!! As we all know I am FAMOUS for ................... LOL!!! :)ReplyDelete
I loveeeeeeeeeee the card! LOVING the colors and we are both ROCKIN' the Dear Lizzy jars today!! LOVE it!!
LOVE your awesome card!!! Great take on the sketch!! Hope your sleep cycle rights itself :(ReplyDelete
LOVE this pretty card!ReplyDelete
Love the card Amy and I am sure your bosses boss will love it. (I don't know how you say it either).ReplyDelete
Don't you just hate when your sleep pattern gets thrown into a tailspin?
Super gorgeous take on the sketch!!!ReplyDelete
I love this...great design...that little jar is too cute..ReplyDelete
beautiful! love that jar :)ReplyDelete
Very cute card!ReplyDelete
Lovely card. Love that strip of yellow paper.ReplyDelete
Such a beautiful card!ReplyDelete
Fabulous card! Yikes, 1:30.... hope your sleep pattern gets back to the norm soon!ReplyDelete
What a gorgeous card Amy.ReplyDelete
Hugs Riet.xx
SUPER CUTE card!!! LOVE the jar, papers and twine!!!ReplyDelete
Thanks for the B-day wishes!!! (=
- AnonymousMay 24, 2012 at 8:28 AM
Wonderful card! Love that jar! Guess what hubby and I found out about OUR sleep patterns?! I'm going to blog about how he was diagnosed weeks ago as pre-diabetic so we're having to hugely cut out carbs and sugar. Well, he's been seeing thee most amazing kinesiologist, and come to find out gluten and sugar have been causing hubby's fibromyalgia to get worse. Along with massively cutting carbs and sugar, we do not eat a carb at dinner, we don't eat past 8pm, and guess what? We're sleeping through the night. We haven't slept through the night in over 8 months.ReplyDelete
beautiful card. you should go back to bed now!ReplyDelete
sooo LOVE your card, the colors, style and jar!!! love it!!ReplyDelete
This is so sweet, love the way you've lined the sentiment up vertically on the banner. Fun!ReplyDelete
You really know how to work those SRM stickers!!! AWESOME card!!!ReplyDelete
Really lovely Amy. Love the colours. Soooooo beautifully composed! :)ReplyDelete
P/s: I find that intensive cardio helps me sleep better...
too cute! love that little jar! lovely card, Amy!ReplyDelete
Beautiful mix of colors and patterns, Amy, a lovely card for your boss' boss.ReplyDelete
Sista... I love this card... Now you got me hook on jars too!!!ReplyDelete
Oh no to the sleeping pattern.... I know exactly how it feels... I was like that last year.... but when i started exercising and STOP drinking green tea... I'm well again... I hope you'd find a solution...and catch on your sleep this weekend...xx
P/S: Just received my goodies from Paper issues... cant wait to play... and im so loving the craft meow stamps too... I love you sista!!!! xx
Cute card Amy! Love the little Ball jar and the twine bow adds a nice touch!ReplyDelete
Ugghh, I feel for you! Hope you can get back on track this weekend. I love Chupa's sketch & your beautiful take on it.ReplyDelete
so sad you can't sleep!! hope you can craft instead ;)ReplyDelete
ok i am loving these jars!!! off to check out the link now :)
don't know if i will be around for the next 2 days. might "hit the road" with hubby on the bike on fri for an overnighter :)
have a wonderful holiday weekend girlfriend :)
Hey Amy, I use spell checker, otherwise I wouldn't know!!!! doesn't matter unless you are a English prof, even though I know you are a professional and want it right. Love the card, the colors and design are so awesome. Sorry about the sleep, I don't know what that is most nights, so can't help you there. Drink less coffee, and I know that is not your idea of fun. Have a wonderful Friday!ReplyDelete
absolutely beautiful Amy!ReplyDelete
I especially love this card! It's so pretty!ReplyDelete
oh, how fun!! perfect job on the sketch!! love it!!ReplyDelete
This is too pretty for words, girlie! You had me at that gorgeous black baker's twine... YUM-O!!!ReplyDelete
what a fabulous card with take note. just love it and that mason jar !ReplyDelete
Great mix of papers Amy! Love the stitching too!ReplyDelete
Hope your sleep schedule gets back to normal soon!
OHHH! What a fun birthday card--totally casing this:)ReplyDelete
Hey Amy!ReplyDelete
I LOVE your card. It inspired me on so many levels. For some reason I often shy away from the pattern paper but your card inspired me to give it a shot.
And, somehow I'd missed that Chupa had sketches on her site so now I can play along there, too.
Thanks for all the fabulous inspiration you're always sharing.
Link to the card you inspired, should you desire to stop in:
Love it! elegant and beautiful.ReplyDelete
I hope your sleep has improved.
Hi Amy- Beautiful Card! Love the little jar.ReplyDelete
I LOVE this card! YOu knocked that sketch out of the ballpark! I didn't know Chupa had sketches, I just added her to my challenge list, thanks!ReplyDelete


text:
Even if you're a WNBA all-star, you're not going to do much on the court with a mushy or flat basketball. Once you have the right tools, pumping some air into your basketball isn't a tough task. But it's important to put the right amount of air into the ball, particularly when you're practicing, so the ball bounces as it will during a game.
Screw the needle into the hose of a manual bicycle pump, then push the needle gently through the ball's air hole. Push the pump's plunger up and down until the ball feels firm when you squeeze it, but still has a bit of give.
Use an air compressor as an alternative to a bicycle pump. Place the compressor's sports needle onto the hose, plug the compressor into an electrical outlet -- if necessary -- then switch the compressor on. Insert the needle into the basketball, then press the appropriate switch to pump air into the ball. If you know the pounds per square inch level your ball requires, observe the compressor's gauge and stop adding air when your ball is full.
Test your ball after you've filled it with air. Hold a yardstick or other measuring device vertically, with one end flat on the floor. Line up the bottom of the ball with the top of the measuring device, drop the ball, then observe how high the ball rebounds, as measured from the ball's bottom. If the ball is inflated properly it should bounce up about 60 percent of the distance from which it's dropped. Add air into the ball if it bounces significantly less than it should. If the ball bounces too high, remove some air by briefly inserting an unattached sports needle, then squeezing the ball a bit, if necessary. Retest the ball after adding or removing air.
Items you will need
- Bike pump
- Air compressor
- Sports needle
- Measuring device
- NCAA women's basketball rules state that a ball dropped from 6 feet -- as measured from the floor to the bottom of the ball -- should bounce up between 51 and 56 inches, as measured from the floor to the ball's top. For high school play, the ball should bounce up between 49 and 54 inches. The ball must be between 28 1/2 and 29 inches in circumference and must weigh between 18 and 20 ounces under high school and college rules.
- Over-inflation may damage the ball.
Video of the Day
Photo Credits
- Domenic Centofanti/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images


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Passwords are just an annoying fact of modern life, with pretty much every subscription service, online retailer, app and social network requiring its own individual password.
If you're using the same password for all your logins, you're doing it wrong - all it takes is to have your details nabbed once and everything becomes vulnerable. The alternative - keeping scores of vastly varying passwords stored in your brain - isn't really practical, unless you've got a photographic memory.
The solution, of course, is a password manager - and we've been tried the best of them to find out which one you should pick. But first, let's take you lovely password astronauts through your pre-launch briefing...
The Basics
1. Why use a password manager?
News flash: your passwords aren't good enough. If you use the same passwords between logins you only have yourself to blame when you get hacked, or have your identity nicked. A password manager app lets you use serious, hardcore passwords without needing Rainman-style memory. It remembers all your complex passwords so you don't need to. These apps are like password butlers, who keep all your sensitive logins behind a single password-protected wall. It's a security fix that needs no effort.
2. How do they work?
Password manager apps are like tiny little bank vaults that contain all your important logins. You unlock their wares with a single 'parent' login, and that's the only password you need to remember, ever again. Some apps are keep it simple, just letting you copy-paste passwords. However, others plug directly into apps to do the login bits for you. The less actual interaction you have to have with these passwords, the crazier you can make them. How about a 25-character one packed with squiggly symbols?
3. Which platforms do they work on?
Most big-name password managers will work on your phone, your tablet and your laptop. All four we've looked at support Windows 10, Mac OS X, Android and iOS. The one slightly sticky point is Windows 10 for phones and tablets: LastPass and Keeper work; the others are in the pipeline. Also, bear in mind you'll need to sign up for the paid version of these apps to use them between devices. Free versions are limited to one device, probably your phone.


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- News
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If employees weren't already stressed out enough, the current economic uncertainty is only making it worse.
But two career coaches say they've found a way to combat 'urgency addiction' -- the feeling of being overwhelmed by a mountainous, urgent workload -- and it doesn't have to involve a long, expensive vacation.
"Because of the economic downturn and cutbacks, people have to do more work with less," says Alan Caplan, co-founder of Inner Odyssey Retreats with his wife, Sharon Bronstein.
"A lot of people will actually pass up on their vacation time because the stress when they come back is just not worth it."
While the couple is in the business of providing executive retreats of up to five days from their base in Salt Spring Island, they recently pitched a much simpler -- and less costly -- alternative to longer retreats at a health, work and wellness conference last week.
"If they have mini-odysseys at the office and come back feeling recharged and more centred in their work, they're going to want to have more of them," explains Caplan.
Anybody can tap into the power of these "mini-retreats" at the office, he says. It's just a matter of doing a few simple things in your day to help you step back from the chaos and to reduce stress levels.
"I think there is a tremendous need for this in the world, especially with the economic downturn and the instability of the economy," says Bronstein.
To take a mini-retreat at work, you first have to set aside a certain amount of time -- it could be 15 minutes or 45 minutes -- and develop a routine. That could include taking off your watch or shoes, shutting off the computer, closing the office door and dimming the lights. Make it intentional.
Then you have to learn to tap into that sense of "timelessness" by mentally removing yourself from the workplace. It could be anything that makes you feel relaxed. Caplan, for example, would stare at a picture of one of his favourite locations near Banff when he was a college instructor.
Use any or all of your senses to enhance the relaxation experience and focus on yourself. "The self-inquiry process can take them deep into understanding themselves and re-connecting with themselves in a very deep way that they can then bring back into their lives," Bronstein says.
The physical and financial costs to being stressed out are well known and documented, yet people don't seem to take action to break their "urgency addictions," she says.
Stress can also be very deceptive, since it builds over time and rarely do people notice it gradually building. "It's like a house of cards. All of a sudden a small wind comes along and it blows the whole thing down," says Bronstein.
By starting Inner Odyssey Retreats, the couple is trying to smash the notion that "all work and no play makes a valued employee," as one cartoon aptly noted.
Many managers even thrive on the sense of urgency to everything, getting an adrenalin rush from feeling as though they're constantly fighting some "crisis," which is usually fiction more than reality.
And while taking vacation time is one way to recharge, Caplan believes people sometimes take time off for the wrong reasons.
He recalls one chief executive whose marriage was on the rocks because of his urgency addiction, so he went to Cuba only to drink and eat for a week and return to all of his awaiting problems.
"It's all there waiting when he gets back," says Caplan. "Plus, a retreat is cheaper."
The mini-retreats act as the basis for the company's longer retreats on Salt Spring Island, so the principles are the same but taken to a deeper level, including massages and more time for reflection and self-discovery.
The large number of people who turned up for the recent conference in Calgary is a testament to the fact people are searching desperately for anything that will help them break the cycle of stress and urgency that fills their lives.
Now, the couple spends much of their time training human resources personnel about how to educate people about mini-retreats and how each individual can take a short amount of time to recharge throughout the day, whether it's on a lunch break or after work.
No matter what their role within a company, there is a common thread among many of today's workers and the pair hopes to help people learn to unplug.
"They all had one thing in common," says Caplan. "They want to make their lives healthy, sustainable and pleasant."


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And it was a gift.
Now I know I said I wasn't going to tell anyone yet, and I didn't, she guessed.
I have one friend at work (I work with mostly men and most of the women are clique-y and related so I don't try too much with them). She's younger than me and had finished her drafting degree last year and decided that she didn't want to do drafting for the rest of her life and went back to school to become a teacher... at the University of Hawaii. So she left and came back this summer and is leaving again (probably for good) next week. Before she left last year (knowing about my IF) she told me she was going to make me a baby quilt. I told her it was a nice offer, but not to waste her time.
So I'm complaining about some horrible smell in the break room and she jokingly asks me, "What are you pregnant or something?" Well, we all know that I'm a bad liar, and she asked me outright, so I couldn't deny it (and this was at about 10 weeks). Anyhow, so she knows and immediately decides she's making me a quilt before she goes back. Anyhow, she finished it the other day and gave it to me, and it's awesome!
Can you believe that she finished this in barely 2 weeks? She's fast.
I told her it would probably be best to keep it gender neutral, and although their are a lot of browns, blues, and oranges most of the fabrics actually have a floral print and it will work perfectly for a boy or girl. And I love it, it fits my style... I'd been eying some of those fabrics lately anyhow.
The back is a flannel, so it's very soft. And she really enjoyed doing it because it was her first free motion quilt and I think she did a really good job on that. I also immediately noticed the zig-zagging and thought it looked really cool with the fabrics (you don't see a lot of zig-zag on quilts). She confessed that after she washed it, some of the fabrics frayed even though she did really good with the seam allowances and zig-zagging covered it up. I wouldn't have known if she hadn't of told me, I just think it looks cool.
Anyhow, I have an awesome friend and this is an awesome gift. The only condition is that I have to send her a pic of the baby on the quilt (hopefully I can manage that).
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
10 comments:
- Hillary said...
Wow, that is beautiful!!!! I love it.
- July 22, 2009 at 7:03 PM
- Michelle said...
Awww that is so nice of her! And she did an awesome job. I love the colors.
- July 22, 2009 at 7:49 PM
- Celia said...
That is lovely!
- July 22, 2009 at 10:41 PM
- Lucy said...
- July 23, 2009 at 8:53 AM
- Sarah said...
that's beautiful! what a lovely gift. i wish i knew how to make a quilt.
- July 23, 2009 at 9:33 AM
- Jill said...
how cool!
- July 23, 2009 at 9:59 AM
- Chelle said...
That really is amazing! Two weeks?! What a wonderful gift.
- July 23, 2009 at 2:52 PM
- The Wife said...
That is an awesome quilt. It's so nice that she made one for you. And in two weeks! Wow!
- July 24, 2009 at 7:16 AM
Wow that is beautiful! What a great first baby item!
- July 24, 2009 at 1:11 PM
- Sophie A. said...
It's a beautiful quilt; it looks comfy-cozy and perfect for a baby.
- July 24, 2009 at 3:28 PM
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Welcome to Harding Place Retirement, an independent living and respite care community in beautiful Searcy, AR, uniquely positioned on the campus of Harding University. Here, residents retire from work, not from life. Our non-denominational environment is family-orientated, friendly, and full of fun!
Harding Place Retirement Highlights:
Retire from Work, Not Life!
Our community is perfect for the active retiree who wants to maintain independence and freedom, yet still have highly trained help available when needed. One element of freedom is the ability to rent month-to-month. There is no endowment or expensive buy-in, and the monthly rental fee is all-inclusive.
Find the Right Apartment for You
Our campus includes 116 independent living apartments available in four unique floor plans that include full kitchens. We serve three delicious meals per day, and offer easy-access amenities such as an on-site beauty salon, weekly housekeeping, and door-to-door transportation for doctor's appointments, banking, and whatever else you want to do.
Enjoy a Fun-Filled Social Calendar
Our activities program lets your calendar be as full as you desire. Play canasta with friends, take an exercise class, attend Bible study, or join the book club. We have a library, darkroom for amateur photographers, computer lab, spacious lounges, and television areas. Every resident also receives a Harding University Lyceum Card, which allows free access to a wide range of cultural events, including the American Studies Distinguished Lecture Series with speakers such as former President George Bush and Margaret Thatcher.
Convenient Location, Beautiful Campus
Our convenient location in Searcy is within easy driving distance of Little Rock and is minutes from restaurants, theater, and shopping. See a new blockbuster at the Night at the Rialto movie theater, stroll through the exhibits at the Searcy Art Gallery, join in festivals like the Cardboard Boat Races and Holiday of Lights, or enjoy a meal at a local favorite, KJ's. The city also boasts two golf courses, picturesque fishing lakes, and wildlife refuges renowned for excellent birdwatching.
For more information about our beautiful senior living community in Searcy, please call 501-305-0100 today, or just stop by. We look forward to meeting you!


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January 23, 2019
Word Up! 2
Sherman Methodist
April 22, 2016
Pastoral Transitions – Retirement and Welcome
Adrianne Sterley
March 25th, Rev. Dr. Gessel berry, Jr. celebrated his 72nd birthday. As is mandated in the UM BoD, Pastor Berry will retire this year on July 1st. To celebrate Sherman UMC is hosting a retirement celebration June 11th at Evanston's Hilton Garden Inn from 1pm to 4pm. All are invited to attend ($75 per person). […]


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I ThinkThereforeI Code 2016-08-09T01:05:33+02:00 http://there4.co Juan José Aguililla David vs Goliath 2015-07-08T00:00:00+02:00 http://there4.co/tools/projects/2015/07/08/david-vs-goliath
Yeah, it's been a looong time, but I'm back on track with the blog.

Today, I want to prove that being big is not always an advantage, and I want to do it comparing two Web frameworks.

On one side, with green shorts, a lot of features… and even more annotations is: Spriiiiing Booot, on the other side with black pants, a funny name and a very simple approach is: Saaaabina

Ladies and gentlemen, let the fight begin.

For this match, I did some tests to measure size, cpu usage, memory, etc. do not expect nothing too fancy here anyway. If you are courious about the tests, you can check the code in this Github repository.

The project to test both frameworks was the simplest one (yes, a Hello World project). And the tools I used to measure the performance were Bash shell scripts, JMeter and Java's VisualVM.

System Information

First of all I will describe the laptop used to run the tests:

Architecture: x86_64 CPU(s): 8 Thread(s) per core: 2 Core(s) per socket: 4 Socket(s): 1 Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4712MQ CPU @ 2.30GHz CPU MHz: 1434.445 CPU max MHz: 3300.0000 CPU min MHz: 800.0000 BogoMIPS: 4589.46 L1d cache: 32K L1i cache: 32K L2 cache: 256K L3 cache: 6144K total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 7.7G 3.6G 4.1G 188M 36M 2.1G -/+ buffers/cache: 1.5G 6.2G Swap: 953M 27M 926M Total: 8.7G 3.7G 5.0G

Code Size

The first comparison I made was about the code size. Here are the results:

Spring Boot

28 39 hello-boot/build.gradle 18 34 hello-boot/src/main/java/hello/Hello.java 46 73 total

Sabina

13 19 hello-sabina/build.gradle 10 24 hello-sabina/src/main/java/hello/Hello.java 23 43 total

The first column is the number of lines, and the second one the number of words. And as we can see Sabina is nearly half the size of the Boot project.

Build Process

Let's continue with the build time and binary bundle size. For this test I built both projects three times and then I picked the best results out of the three executions. These were the results:

Spring Boot

Command being timed: "/opt/gradle-2.4/bin/gradle -q --no-daemon -p hello-boot clean build" User time (seconds): 17.16 System time (seconds): 0.39 Percent of CPU this job got: 333% -rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam 11M Jul 9 00:53 hello-boot.zip

Sabina

Command being timed: "/opt/gradle-2.4/bin/gradle -q --no-daemon -p hello-sabina clean build" User time (seconds): 14.06 System time (seconds): 0.26 Percent of CPU this job got: 315% -rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam 4.2M Jul 9 00:52 hello-sabina.zip

There is no big difference in the compile times, but the size of the Sabina's binary bundle is less than half than the Boot one.

Runtime

Finally, I executed 10,000 requests from 8 threads, to check the memory and CPU usage along with the requests per second per framework.

Results are screenshots of JMeter and VisualVM, however, if you want to see the exact numbers, you can clone the repository and run the test yourself.

Here are the results of my run:

Spring Boot

Sabina

As you can see Sabina's times are better, but the biggest difference is in the resources' usage. My opinion on this is that all features Spring Boot has, impact its runtime performance.

So if you really need something fast and are not going to use all its features, is better if you evaluate other options.

Disclaimer

Of course, these two frameworks doesn't compete in the same league… and their feature set is (to say it softly) not of the same size.

However, it was fun to compare both (though it was not a very rigorous benchmark) and the numbers could be more precise.

I will repeat these tests with a more complete project. Ie: the blog used in MongoDB courses.

Until them, you can check real framework benchmark's here. These two frameworks are there, but Sabina didn't implement all tests (another TODO in my task tracker) and I am not sure that Spring's version is the latest one.
 Bintray... The Github of Binaries 2014-10-15T00:00:00+02:00 http://there4.co/tools/2014/10/15/the-github-of-binaries
Yes, now you have plenty of places to keep your code… you can use Github or you can go for Bitbucket if you want to maintain your code private.

Anyway, what happens if you want to actually share binaries for others to use your libraries and/or applications?

Maven Central is there from long time ago, but… to be honest, deploying something there is like breaking in the Pentagon systems!

Sometime ago I discovered Bintray, and it seemed a good place to store binary repositories with a social touch (someone said Github?)

The place seems to by sponsorized by JFrog makers of Artifactory and… guess what, direct competitors of Sonatype (Maven's better contributors) that develops the Nexus repository manager over which Maven Central runs.

So I decided to test it myself with two projects of my own. One is Sabina written in Java and built with Gradle and other (popapp.co) coded in Java and built by Maven.

The free version has a limit of 500MB, not enough to deploy the smallest project of my previous company, but plenty to support Open Source projects though.

Bintray integrates with Maven Central and JCenter which claims to be more complete than Maven's main repository.

To integrate it with your build process you need to add the following lines to your build script (be aware that you won't be able to deploy snapshots!):

For Gradle:

build.gradle

 apply plugin: 'maven-publish' // ... configurations { deployerJars } // ... task sourceJar(type: Jar) { from sourceSets.main.allJava } publishing { publications { mavenJava (MavenPublication) { from components.java artifact sourceJar { classifier "sources" } } } repositories { maven { url 'https://api.bintray.com/maven/jaguililla/maven/Sabina' credentials { username 'jaguililla' password externalProperty ('.gradle/gradle.properties', 'bintrayPassword') } } } } // ... def String externalProperty (String fileName, String propertyName) { Properties properties = new Properties () properties.load (project.rootProject.file (fileName).newDataInputStream ()) return properties.getProperty (propertyName) }

.gradle/gradle.properties (this file is created to avoid publishing your API key)

bintrayPassword={your Bintray api key}

And execute: gradle publish

For Maven:

pom.xml

<distributionManagement> <repository> <id>{bintray repository}</id> <name>a meaningful name</name> <url>https://api.bintray.com/maven/{bintray user}/{project}</url> </repository> </distributionManagement>

settings.xml

<server> <id>{bintray repository}</id> <username>{bintray user}</username> <password>{your Bintray api key}</password> </server>

And run: mvn source:jar deploy

To include your binaries in Maven you've got to request that from their site (using the Web UI).

To me, this is a very good platform to support your Open Source projects, just like Github, Travis CI, Coveralls and all the like. Anyway, prior to deploying to JCenter you have to deploy the source of your project along with your binaries. To do so:

For Gradle:

 // ... task sourceJar(type: Jar) { from sourceSets.main.allJava } // ...

For Maven:

<plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.2.1</version> <executions> <execution> <id>attach-sources</id> <phase>deploy</phase> <goals> <goal>jar</goal> </goals> </execution> </executions> </plugin>

I hope you enjoyed and… you know, don't make your users compile your code and deploy your binaries!
 The Bali programming language 2014-07-24T00:00:00+02:00 http://there4.co/programming/2014/07/24/bali
Bali is an alternative language for the JVM that shares Java semantics but with a better syntax. The name comes from the small island right to the east of Java.

Ok, Bali isn't a programming language, at least it is not an existing programming language. It is only a desire of a Java programmer that fell in love with Scala in his middle age crisis.

At the beggining Java was great, you didn't have to take care of the memory, the API was very complete and documented, it ran unmodified in different environments and the tools were good… But time passes and you start seeing other languages in a different way.

Java is not as appealing as she was when she was young. Of course she is now more mature and has improved over the years (generics, enums and lambdas are good proofs), but others start to catch your eye.

The problem is that you shared a lot of things with Java, you planned your future with her and you know her deep inside. You don't want to throw all that to the thrash can and start from scratch again!

Anyway, the thrill of trying new things is hard and you start flirting with other languages. Scala, Groovy, Ruby, Python but most of them are dynamic (with its good things, and bad things) so they don't completely replace Java.

Oracle should be aware that a lot of developers consider changing language (not platform) because it evolves slow and it is very verbose (slow to develop with). But adapting Java is slow and should be done with care because there are a lot of code and tools to support.

They could avoid that situation creating a new programming language which shares the same Java semantics but more appealing to develop with.

If they do, most of developers trying to find an alternative would consider their proposal (because we trust Oracle) so they keep platform control, and it will be less fragmented.

It is important to note that if Oracle itself develop this language, tool vendors and middleware developers would support it better than if it is developed by other company. Just because they are the owners of the Java Platform and this assures the new language will be supported properly.

No other JVM language has had a massive adoption yet (each of them for their own reasons) but if Oracle itself provides an alternative, lots of programmers looking for another language would take this option seriously.

These are the things I would value in this language:

Don't rely on filesystem structure (directories and file names)

You end up with a lot of files and nested directories even for the smallest projects. Bali could support a flat package layout. This way you can start coding a package in a file, and split it in a directory only when it grows. Ie:

org.example.pack1/ // Allow the use directories with dots instead nested ones org.example.pack1.subpack/ org.example.pack2/ org.example.pack3.bali // Allow to use a file to hold all package classes

More than one public class per file

This point is related to the previous one. It will allow to start with a file and split it in different files when needed (no more twenty line classes in their own file)… My editor is gonna run out of tabs!

Getters and setters as fields

Allow to define getters as <Type> $name () and setters as void $name (<Type> newVal) allowing methods with these patterns to be accessed as fields. This way you scale functionaly not having to change client code (class users) if you change a field by a method or the opposite. Ie: you can start with a final field and after that change that for a getter/setter pair without changing all clients. For example:

// This class... class Person { public String name; } // Could evolve to this one... class Person { private String name; public String $name () { return name; } public void $name (String name) { this.name = name; } } // Without needing to change the client class Main { public static void main (String [] args) { Person p = new Person (); p.name = "Elmo"; } }

Multiline strings

This feature would be very useful for writing JDBC queries or embedded XML. An example worths one thousand words:

String s = """ select * from persons where age > 18 """;

Default and named params

Implementing this would save a lot of overloaded methods. It would also ease the creation of inmutable objects. And lastly, it could improve DSLs creation.

class Car { public final String brand, model; public final int year; Car (String brand, String model, int year = 2000) { this.brand = brand; this.model = model; this.year = year; } static Car build () { return new Car ( brand: "ford", model: "focus" ); } }

Remove semicolon whenever is possible

This one would improve readability and speed up editing. No need to say anymore :)

Last lambda outside parenthesis

For me it seems ugly to finish a sentence with }); if you could end it with just } it would be clearer!

// This call... build ("Widget", evt -> { evt.toString (); }); // Could be: build ("Widget") (evt) -> { evt.toString (); }

Add identity operator (===) and use == as equals

Having to write equals always seemed too verbose for me. Creating another operator for identity (===) and using == for equality would be more clear.

Null safe navigation operator (?.)

Adopt the null safe navigation operator as it is used in Groovy. No more nested if (var != null)

Elvis ?: operator

The Elvis operator is also a nice addition to handle null references. Copying it from Groovy would be a good choice!

Override (not define) operators

Another good feature of Groovy is operator overloading. this can enhance the code readability. On the opposite, you have Scala's operator definition that can lead to a mess if programmers are careless. Ie: you can define the */+- operator if you want.

Markdown in Javadoc

This way it would be easier to maintain the code documented ;)

With these changes, the language would be compatible and would be an evolution, not a revolution to Java. This language could be a proving ground to test new additions to Java.

I was a one programming language man until now, I cheated Java with Scala and Groovy. Anyway among all languages you have for the JVM, none of them are just a faster (to write programs) Java.

And you, what improvements would you do to the Java language?
 The Making Of 2014-06-19T00:00:00+02:00 http://there4.co/projects/2014/06/19/the-making-of
The concept

The idea of writing a blog came to my mind long time ago. I started two times, but finally the third is the good one. First because I found a good platform to write posts and create my own design and second because I already have a bunch of stories to write about.

This first post (the second really) is about the blog itself. Not only from the code point of view, but also from the design and concept perspectives.

The name's origin is pretty clear. It is René Descartes "Cogito" with a geek twist ;) The point is that you cannot code without thinking, but… do we always think as hard as we should? For the favicon, I will let the reader find out what it is!

At the beggining I wanted to focus on the "thinking" part and Rodin's Thinker came to my mind. Later I changed my mind to focus on the "programming side", then I decided to use a computer picture as the background. I considered "famous" computers as HAL 9000 and Eniac, in the end I used the latter one, focusing in the old times of computing.

The looks are "old style" or "vintage" as modern people like to call it nowadays. I wanted to reflect the origins of this craft and that is why the colors are dark and greenish (like my first monitor ;)

The implementation

I saw some premade themes and sites done with Jekyll, but finally I started from scratch to have the minimal code I needed for my blog and to customize it freely from the start.

In order to blog with Jekyll, you have to install the following software in your system: Ruby, Gem , Jekyll (obvious), Python, Pygments (for syntax highlighting).

Then, to create the site structure, you have to execute the command jekyll new <user>.github.io. This will generate the minimum files required by Jekyll to build a site. The name doesn't need to follow that naming pattern if you are going to host the site outside Github.

For the design I chose Twitter Bootstrap. Anyway I didn't wanted my blog to look like the hundreds of sites using Bootstrap, so I looked for a custom theme. I found very good templates in Start Bootstrap. Like these two which I used for some parts of the design:

Modern Business

Grayscale

To generate the base (static) site I used html5 boilerplate (in a tool of my own called Webstrap). The skeleton generated by this tool contains: crossdomain.xml, humans.txt & robots.txt from HTML5 Boilerplate.

The icons I use are taken from Font Awesome however I created a custom font using IcoMoon for the icons I could not find there.

To make the blog lighter and easier to update, I tried to use CDNs to avoid copying libraries to my blog's files. So most of the libraries (like Bootstrap, jQuery, Font Awesome and so on) are taken from remote servers instead of being served directly from the blog.

After this, I had all the static structure of the blog: the styles, icons, and so on. But I still had to code the templates to render content.

The most important templates are _layouts/default.html, _layouts/post.html and posts.html to develop them I took static HTMLs from the themes I downloaded and inserted the dynamic parts following the Jekyll reference which is very useful and clear.

If you are deploying in Github and the pages are not updated, check the Github repository settings (Github Pages section) to see if there is any error. Sometimes the blog builds locally but fails to render in the server (checking this can save you a lot of time wondering what is going wrong ;) trust me).

There are other templates that I picked from other Jekyll blogs, like these ones:

The atom.xml and _includes files were taken from the UP theme. Note that UP's includes were modified for the blog.

sitemap.txt and rss.xml were copied from JekyllBootstrap.

To make syntax highlighting work, you need to install Pygments tool. It is very important that you also generate the "syntax styles" for pygments. You can do this executing the following command: pygmentize -S monokai -f html > css/syntax.css After running the previous command, do not forget to include syntax.css in the pages where you intend to use syntax highlighting!

Blog usage

To use the blog, I decided to use shell scripts instead a full blown build tool. In the end the blog has to be maintained in Unix… so who cares about multiplatform.

The scripts are inside the _bin directory and they are used to generate the themes and the icons.

To write posts and deploy them to the server, you will only need Jekyll and Git. These are the most common actions:

Launch blog locally: jekyll serve --watch after running that, you can see the blog in http://localhost:4000

Deploy changes: git add . && git commit && git push will upload your latest changes to the server.

Conclusion

Starting a blog with Jekyll from scratch is way harder than using JekyllBootstrap or other blog engine. In exchange: you get flexibility, take advantage of your current knowledge (Git, HTML…) and you don't have to learn custom templates for closed products.

Also you will learn valuable things (about Web design and development) and have fun in the process!

As a side effect, I realized that static site generation can be useful for other purposes (not only for blogs). For example, it can be used to generate software project's technical documentation.

Regarding the last point, I found a Jekyll wannabe in Java called JBake that looks very promising.

(Re)using it

If you want to use the code for your own site, you can refer to the readme.md file and check how to change it to suit your own needs.
 Hello World! 2014-06-19T00:00:00+02:00 http://there4.co/projects/2014/06/19/hello-world
Everything begins with a… Hello World!


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The Outlet 66 Mall
The Outlet 66 Mall (The Outlet Ruta 66) is located in Canovanas, Puerto Rico, which is about 15 miles southeast of San Juan along Interstate PR3 (Route 66). It is the first completely indoor outlet shopping mall in Puerto Rico. The shopping center includes over 60 factory outlets including such brands as Aeropostale, Burlington Coat Factory, Charlotte Russe, Gap, Guess, Gymboree, Izod, Kenneth Cole, Nautica, Nike, PacSun, Polo Ralph Lauren, Skechers, Tommy Hilfiger, and more.
The Outlet 66 Mall also includes a movie theater (Caribbean Cinemas), a U.S. Post Office, and an indoor carousel to entertain the children. The factory outlet mall also includes a food court with a variety of food options as well as several restaurants surrounding the mall itself. The mall is fully air-conditioned and has plenty of free parking available surrounding the mall.
The Outlet 66 Mall is open from 9am to 9pm Monday through Saturday and from 11am to 6pm on Sundays. The address for the mall is 18400 Intersate PR3 (Roberto Sanchez Vilella Expressway), Canovanas, Puerto Rico. For more detailed information on the stores in the factory outlet mall as well as shopping center events, you can view the official website at http://theoutlet66mall.com/ or you can call the mall directly at 787-256-7040.
The Outlet 66 Mall was designed and built by Belz Enterprises, a commercial real estate development company based in Memphis, Tennessee.