« Robby Gordon Motorsports Being Sued by a Sponsor | Main | Elliott Sadler Injures Back, May Not be Able to Race at Martinsville »
March 28, 2008
Jack Roush Gives Details and It's Not Pretty
Jack Roush did what he should have done in the first place and gave details regarding his allegations that a missing Roush-Fenway Racing proprietary part went missing and later turned up with a Toyota team, that he refuses to name out of respect to that team's sponsor and members of the team who he believes had no idea what happened. According to Jack someone from this Toyota team stole a front sway bar from the toolbox of a Roush team's toolbox that was next to theirs at Dover last September. Roush didn't even know it was missing until the vendor that makes the part for them called them because the Toyota team had called them asking to get the part made for themselves. At the same time someone who used to work for that team was hired at Roush and said he had saw this part at the Toyota organization. Apparently Jack wanted to go out and get search warrants and go after this other team but unknown to him one of his managers contacted the other team's manager, who didn't have knowledge of the missing part but eventually found it and returned it to Roush.
Jack claims he spoke with Nascar three times about this - something Nascar previously denied - and that he's still considering legal action, though he seemed to indicate a public apology and a promise not to use any of the information that might have been gained from that team working on the part would satisfy him. Of course it would because Jack knows that this team - and Toyota - would get crucified in the court of public opinion and that would be very satisfying to him. Jack also claimed that he never would have said anything publically about any of this if not for Lee White from Toyota accusing him of deliberately cheating regarding the oil tank lid on Carl Edwards's car. I don't really believe that since Jack has never shied away from ripping Toyota and accusing them of various misdeeds, but the more I think about it the more of a mistake I think Lee made with his comments about Jack. Fact is, it's wrong for Jack to have accused Toyota of misdeeds without offering up any proof until now and it's wrong of Lee to make accusations about Jack without proof as well.
There's no doubt in my mind that this isn't an isolated incident and that teams engage in espionage and take parts and information from each other when presented with the opportunity to do so. However, just because it happens doesn't make it acceptable if a Toyota team stole a sway bar from one of Jack's teams. That's theft plain and simple. Not only that but the team didn't stop with just examining the sway bar, they were looking at trying to get one made for their own use. Toyota was supposed to issue a statement or hold a press conference at some point and it'll be interesting to hear what they have to say. The other day Jim Aust from Toyota claimed that the part in question had gotten mixed in with other parts after a teardown - I don't think that excuse is going to hold water here. They may have to just admit wrong-doing on the part of members of one of their teams and just try to move on from there.
As much as I wish it wasn't so, cupscene.com says that sources told them that the Toyota team in question is Michael Waltrip Racing. That doesn't mean it's true of course - after what happened last year at Daytona I can see why some might jump to conclusions that they're involved. I would be very disappointed if MWR was the team in question. After the Daytona mess, even if every other team in the garage area is routinely stealing things from each other, they can't be getting themselves involved in anything like that. Another scandal could be deadly to this organization, particularly since contracts with their two biggest sponsors, NAPA and UPS expire at the end of this season. So I dearly hope that MWR isn't involved - or at least isn't named publically.
Now what I'd like to know is since Jack has proof of these allegations, does that mean he can prove that there were multiple Toyota teams besides the #55 that had a foreign substance in them at last year's Daytona 500 and that Toyota tested it ahead of time?
Posted by silverdsl at March 28, 2008 02:23 PM