Roush fires back at No 99 accusations, Edwards lays down challenge
Quote selected text Published March 7th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Jack Roush is ready to take a polygraph exam to prove there was no intent or knowledge that his No. 99 team tried to cheat last week at Las Vegas.
The owner of Roush Fenway Racing was visually upset Friday that his driver, Carl Edwards, and crew chief, Bob Osborne, were accused of purposely rigging an oil cap to come loose during last Sunday’s UAW-Dodge 400, which Edwards won. In post-race inspection, NASCAR discovered the oil cap was missing.
“The reason I’m here this morning is because I’m mad,” he said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “I got woken up this morning to the news that Lee White, on behalf of Toyota, had made some disparaging remarks in the USA Today.”
Roush defended his No. 99 team and stood to the team’s initial statement that the missing bolt came off. His stance is that the vibration from the car forced the cap to unscrew.
“These racecars are very complex,” Roush said. “There are lots of fasteners in them. Fasteners fail because they get hit and fasteners fail because the harmonics go through the car. Fasteners fail. How many times have we seen a shifter fall off a car, off a transmission because the drive shaft was a little rough? How many times have we seen a mirror fall off a car because a tire equalized?”
But few people inside the garage are buying that.
“You go to any owner, engineer, driver or crew chief and ask them if that’s an advantage. Heck yeah, that’s an advantage,” said Elliott Sadler, who admitted his teams had done similar tactics in the past before NASCAR began policing it. “It’s 100 pounds of downforce.”
When asked whether he thought vibration was a possible reason behind the mishap, Ryan Newman also was blunt in his answer.
“No — because my car vibrates the same way and didn’t come off,” said Newman, who added that he felt that Edwards’ penalty was justified. “Should’ve used a different bolt.”
Pressed on the number of attachments used to keep an oil tank lid on, Newman said that varies.
“Depends on what team you’re on,” he said. “Looks like they used one.”
Responded Roush: “Well, you could put a number of fasteners in it, and if they all didn’t come loose, it would stay secure. One fastener is enough if it stays secure and keeping to the weight efficiency of the car, that’s what you’d want to do.”
Roush said it’s standard procedure on all of his team cars to use one fastener, and that while some organizations in the garage choose to use tape as an insurance policy, he noted that Osborne elected not to.
Edwards wasn’t as vocal about the ruling, but didn’t shy away from taking a stab at his critics.
“It was an absolute mistake; there was no intent. And that’s a reality,” Edwards said. “The bottom line is I don’t have anything going on Monday, so if Toyota or anyone else wants to line the cars up at Vegas and hire a flagman and run 400 laps again, I think I could do it on Monday.”
- Cheever Responds to Andretti & Patrick Accusations
- Report: Gibbs actively looking for replacement for Stewart
- Edwards re-signs with Roush Fenway
- Roush to make sponsor announcement in Boston
- Carl Edwards to do the triple at Daytona
If there was no intent and they can prove that there was no intent then why not appeal so they can clear their name?
Jack said they only used one bolt because that was enough to keep it secure…. I guess it wasn’t.
Also I do not see why the shots are being thrown at Toyota, when Toyota had nothing to say, and Employee of Toyota and former General Manager of Roush Racing is saying this.
While I know random things tend to vibrate off racecars at anytime, which I do think happened here, but also with the time frame, seems like one of the pit crew would’ve seen it loose at some time, and they should’ve know, while caused by failure, it is still illegal and should’ve fixed it !! Or mabey they did try to and failed and thats where “crewman seen unfastening on camera” rumor came from. Most Logical Analytical Standpoint Thinking I can muster Up LoL, but I fell they should still be penalized, someone should’ve noticed and take the time to fix it back right, to level out the top cars, Make it Standard rule that any “mishaps” enhancing preformance or ability of the car, that upon notice, by having the offical check each stop, make the car stay in the pits until its repaired back to a level playing field. To make it fair to everyone. If ya have to stay in the pits to fix “damage” Hey thats racing and what everyone goes thru !!!
Thank you Very Much
Mr.Speed
From: Mr.Speed’s RaceSpace
Date: Mar 8, 2008 12:40 AM
Subject: Nascars New Slogan…
Nascar !! its run atleast as good as the U.S. Goverment =-) LoL
Because all the ‘politicing’ is such B.S.
Checking cars at each stop would not work well one official may be faster than another. why not just mandate a cover that is hard to remove, if a car needs oil during the race they have bigger problems than just getting the cover off anyway.
What a load of BS… Of course he’ll take the lie detector test, and he’ll probably even pass! I really doubt the owner of the team had any intent to cheat here. Just like when Knaus gets caught, I don’t think it was Hendrick telling him what to do. The owners are probably far too busy to be dealing with the day-to-day cheating of 4 or 5 racing cars! Roush just needs to take his penalty like a man and be quiet about it. He knows they got busted and all this politicking isn’t going to change anyone’s minds about what was going on!
Jack is pissed because his X-General Manager told stories on him and now Jack looks bad…
Ya gotta love the old adage “What goes around comes around”.
Lesson to be learned Jack = Be nice to people who work for you or it will come back to bite
you in the A$$…
My vote is “YES” he knew and got cought at it. Thats why he is protesting so loud.
Bob wrote:
I think you are correct. This guy know roush as well as anyone. The bottom line is that the rules and the penalty are consistent.
WOW! Now that is just interesting.
They will go to that extreme, but not file an appeal? Hmmm. But then again what’s the point, they won’t win it, we know the only team that would. But Roush is a good guy and Carl a good driver. They just got caught going too far in the gray area, so now it time to pay up.
It wasn’t really a gray area. That lid has to be sealed tight to the top of that box that the tank sits in. It its not sealed tight then it is illegal. Not really any area for it to be gray in.
When there is Legal and Illegal where is the grey area? It is a Cut and dry thing, it is either Legal or Illegal, not sorta legal but sorta illegal. That lid is either Sealed tight or Not sealed tight.
A grey area is border in-between two or more things that is unclearly defined, a border that is hard to define or even impossible to define, or a definition where the distinction border tends to move.
This is clearly defined that it has to be sealed tight or it is illegal.
Appears to me to many folks got too much time to
worry and argue about all this crap. Why don’t you just watch “pro” wrestling instead?
Pro Wrestling? I cant stand it and wont watch that crap.
Fisha695 wrote:
Fisha= this is a perfect example why PEOPLE get so upset with you…
Your 1st response was OK, no problem but this 2on response was just overkill and a in your face type of response, Bottom line it was unnessary to DRIVE home your point again…
Just joking,I quit watching that stuff when Iwas about
seven years old or fifty years ago,(whichever came first).It allreminds me of what Tony Stewart said a year ago abouthow NASCAR was making it look like “pro wrestling”.If they could just go out and race without all the crap and nitpicking that’s going on racing would be enjoyable like it once was.
NASCAR has tried to fix something that wasn’t broken
for so long that all their tinkering finally broke it.I personally miss the old days(pre-90’s),but we are stuck
with what they gave us.
AMAZD wrote:
HERE, HERE!! Man, do I MISS those days
And… I am just too lazy to look up the post/thread that a certain person here SAID themselves, that the Grey area is totally ok.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EVERY team goes in the grey area and pushes it to the limit to get what they “think” is needed to compete the same as ,the other teams that do it. It’s just that SOME can go beyond that shade of grey ALL the time and other’s cannot and get away with it. This is a perfect example of that. Besides, Nascar needs to make up for the dwindeling ticket sales from the few races we have had so far AND Busch series. Let’s not even go into the pathetic empty seats of truck series. lol
Moral to the story”
Grey is grey and pushing the ledge-limits of “legal” to be competative… TOO DARK of grey is considered illegal. End of story.
And… I am just too lazy to look up the post/thread that a certain person here SAID themselves, that the Grey area is totally ok.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EVERY team goes in the grey area and pushes it to the limit to get what they “think” is needed to compete the same as ,the other teams that do it. It’s just that SOME can go beyond that shade of grey ALL the time and other’s cannot and get away with it. This is a perfect example of that. Besides, Nascar needs to make up for the dwindeling ticket sales from the few races we have had so far AND Busch series. Let’s not even go into the pathetic empty seats of truck series. lol
Moral to the story:
Grey is grey and pushing the ledge-limits of “legal” to be competative… TOO DARK of grey is considered illegal. End of story.
Oops… sorry double clicked
Simple fix to quiet down this problem: Put a seal on it in tech. If you have to take the lid off during the race (for any reason, which should be very rare), the official assigned to your pit hwas to check-off on it. The official is assigned to that pit and this would take away any doubt.
I realize there will be people who say that this shouldn’t have to be the case, that sealing this part would only lead to sealing other parts. While that may or may not be true, there doesn’t appear to be any grey in this area but if NASCAR seals it and it comes off, that would cancel out all argument. There are many other controversial possibilities in other areas of the car and this would eliminate one of them.
Fisha695 Registered User
Mar 8th, 2008 at 1:32 pm Quote
It wasn’t really a gray area. That lid has to be sealed tight to the top of that box that the tank sits in. It its not sealed tight then it is illegal. Not really any area for it to be gray in.
10 Fisha695 Registered User
Mar 8th, 2008 at 1:56 pm Quote
When there is Legal and Illegal where is the grey area? It is a Cut and dry thing, it is either Legal or Illegal, not sorta legal but sorta illegal. That lid is either Sealed tight or Not sealed tight.
A grey area is border in-between two or more things that is unclearly defined, a border that is hard to define or even impossible to define, or a definition where the distinction border tends to move.
This is clearly defined that it has to be sealed tight or it is illegal.
You know, i really enjoy this site and the blog’s. What i dont like is how alot of people make an effort for everyone to think their so knowledgable like you FISH. That is clearly a figure of speech to me what JR88fan said about a “GreyArea.”
Jeff, every word is a figure of speech.
Oh and the reason their are two posts like that 20some minutes apart is because the second one is a reply to a reply that later on got deleted.