BOB OSBORNE - 06/05/1974
It wasn't until late in his junior year of college at Penn State University that Osborne got the itch to go racing. For six months after he graduated, Osborne spent day and night knocking on doors trying to land a job with a NASCAR team. Finally in January 1998, Osborne was given the opportunity to work for the #96 Sprint Cup team as the tire specialist. Osborne worked for the team for one year, never relying on his engineering degree but knowing that his time and patience would eventually pay off. At the end of the 1998 season the #96 team closed its doors and Osborne went on to work for owner Jack Roush, at then Roush Racing, where he's been working his way up the ladder ever since. Osborne started out as a general R&D data acquisition engineer where he worked at the shop traveling only to tests for the first two years of his Roush Racing career. After two years, Roush Racing decided to employ an engineer with each Cup team. Osborne was assigned to the #6 Valvoline team driven by Mark Martin where he spent the following two years as the team engineer traveling to each race and becoming the right-hand man to the crew chief. All of Osborne's experience with the #6 team lead to him getting promoted to crew chief of the #99. Osborne's first race as crew chief came during the spring Darlington race in 2004 with veteran driver Jeff Burton. In the following 31 races. Although both were rookies, the team never missed a beat and Osborne coached Edwards to a 10th-place finish in his first career Cup start at Michigan. Osborne and Edwards picked up in 2005 where they left off in 2004, breaking
into the win column in just the fourth race of the year in Atlanta. The team would go on to post three more wins, taking checkered flags at Pocono, repeating at Atlanta and winning the inaugural night race at Texas Motor Speedway. The duo also gave the competition a run for their money in the Chase finishing third in the 2005 NASCAR Cup Series points standings. Osborne’s team entered the 2006 season as championship favorites but got off to a slow start. In April, owner Jack Roush made the decision to move Osborne to the #26 Crown Royal/Irwin Tools Ford driven by Jamie McMurray. The move was in an effort to strengthen the overall racing operations. By the second Phoenix race in November, Osborne was back with Edwards and the #99 team and looking ahead to 2007. In 2007 Osborne’s #99 team remained inside the top 12 in point standings for 31 of 36 weeks. Led by Osborne, Edwards also broke a 52-race win less streak at Michigan International Speedway. Osborne led Edward and the #99 team to two more victories in 2007 at Bristol and Dover in the newly introduced Car of Tomorrow. Osborne and Edwards kicked off the 2008 season by taking home the checkered flag in two of the first three races, and continued their winning ways throughout the season. The duo paired to record the most wins. Their quest for the championship came up just short, finishing just 69 points behind champion Jimmie Johnson. In 2009, Edwards entered the season as one of the teams to beat. In a disappointment, Edwards and Osborne did not win a race for the second time in a season together making the chase but finishing 11th in points. The 2010 season wasn't much different than 2009 although the team managed to win the final two races of the year at Phoenix and Homestead-Miami finishing the season with huge momentum and finishing 4th in the chase standings. The #99 team got another win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as well as the NASCAR All-Star Race XXVII. Although having the most top 5's, top 10's, and best average finish than anyone else in 2011, the team fell short again in the championship to surging Tony Stewart, who won five of the ten chase races that year. Although in a actual tie in the points, Stewart owned the tie-breaker with more wins giving him the title. On July 17, 2012, Osborne announced he would step down as crew chief from the #99 team, citing "health reasons" as his concern. At the time, Edwards was running 11th in the Cup points. It was announced that Chad Norris would take over as crew chief for Edwards. With his health issues behind him, On January 6, 2015, Roush Fenway Racing announced that Bob Osborne would be returning to the top of the pit box to be crew chief for 2011 Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne. It was Bayne's first full-time season with the organization in the #6 Ford Fusion. They were only able to have two Top 10 finishes. Osborne departed Roush Racing at the beginning of 2016 to go to work for owner Bob Jenkins and his driver Chris Buescher. They pulled off an upset win at Pocono when pit strategy and weather combined for the surprising win. So for his career, Osborne posted 19 wins, all but one with Edwards; and led Edwards to the top four in points in four seasons. The other was with Buescher as mentioned above.
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