LONG POND - The NASCAR world has been abuzz over the past week with several major news stories that have dominated the sport's landscape.

On Tuesday, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was handed significant penalties due to infractions found after Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The next day, the sport made waves with the announcement that its most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., would have Greg Ives as his crew chief next year when Steve Letarte departs for a role as an analyst at NBC Sports.But let's rewind to last Sunday to revisit the first headline-worthy news story that broke before the race at Indianapolis started and Jeff Gordon won his record fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the track.Prior to the green flag, Roush Fenway Racing announced that Carl Edwards - who has spent his entire career with the team - would not return in 2015.Edwards, 34, has won a Nationwide Series championship with Roush and has accumulated 23 wins in the Sprint Cup series, 38 in Nationwide and six in the Camping World Truck Series during his NASCAR career.While the decision had been speculated for quite a while, the reality is that the future of RFR has changed. The team likely will field cars for three drivers next year in the Cup Series - Greg Biffle in the No. 16 Ford, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the No. 17 car and current Nationwide Series driver Trevor Bayne in the No. 6.Like Edwards, Biffle had his chance to jump ship and test the waters elsewhere. But the 44 year-old opted to stay with the only team he's ever known."Every driver has opportunities and I was thankful that I had plenty of opportunities," said Biffle. "I was coming down to deciding what I was gonna do for the future from other teams and there were some interesting seats open."But I think internally what happened is I was deciding what I wanted to do for the future, I think Carl decided that he was gonna move on and then I needed to make a decision what I was gonna do. But I felt like at that point we were doing a lot to close the gap on the competition and all anybody wants is an opportunity to win and be competitive."Biffle has certainly been competitive during his Cup career, winning 19 races while also notching championships in the Busch (2002) and Craftsman Truck Series (2000), both of which came driving for Roush.But Biffle enters this weekend's GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway 16th in the Cup standings with only two top-fives and five top-tens.Despite his early struggles, Biffle hopes the choice to stay will offer stability for him and the team as the series enters its stretch run and gears up for the Chase for the Cup."I made the decision to stay and be the anchor for Roush Fenway," he said. "I made that commitment to stay and it's been a tough eight weeks since then. I made that decision a while back and, I'll tell you what, I can't say enough about how good I feel right now about how we unloaded this morning (at Pocono), and after our test, I feel like we're on to something."I feel like we're getting back to where we need to be to compete and win races. That's the most important thing here is to win races."Biffle won't be alone in trying to help turn Roush Fenway around, as the organization announced on Thursday that longtime driver Mark Martin would be returning as a driver development coach.Martin, who drove for the team for nearly 20 years, was the first driver hired by team owner Jack Roush when he founded his NASCAR operation in 1988. The two went on to become one of the most successful duos in sports history, accumulating 83 NASCAR wins, four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship runner-up finishes while building Roush Fenway into one of the most successful teams in NASCAR history."I'm excited to return to Roush Fenway Racing, as it feels like I'm going home to where I belong," Martin said in a press release. "I was fortunate to help build this team from the beginning and it's very humbling to be a part of Jack's team again."When Jack first hired me in 1988, we didn't talk about salary or benefits of perks, we talked about testing, tires and putting the right personnel into place to win on the track. That commitment is what stood out to me then and it's what stands out to me today."Roush was equally complimentary of Martin."The thing that always stood out to me about Mark was his unmatched drive to win," Roush said in the release. "Mark put us on the map and I am pleased to have him as a part of our team again."While Roush Fenway might have lost a great talent in Edwards, it certainly seems as though the team did more than enough to fill the void with Martin's return and Biffle's re-signing. Both moves, coupled with the solid foundation of Stenhouse, 26, and Bayne, 23, should have the organization in good hands for years to come.