“General” Jack Roush Loads Up For Toyota
I Expect To Hand Toyota Their Head… 
 “General” Jack Roush minced no words when describing how he will race Toyota in Cup – going to war. Wonder if he has read Gen. George S. Patton: “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” |
Text by John Carollo
Photos VMS / Harold Hinson
2/14/2007
Forget the new and improved Chase. Forget the Car Of Tomorrow (COT). The biggest story on the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Media Tour Hosted by Lowe's Motor Speedway was, as they say down in the South there, “Tie-Oda” and their big buck$.
Toyota has the well-documented perception of entering racing wallet first. With their foray into Cup racing there have been rumors of unlimited or even nonexistent budgets, major subsidies for driver pay and sponsorships, and a general sense of their throwing money around. Regardless, the money has everyone talking at the Cup level and that includes multi-car Ford owner Jack Roush.
So when the tour stopped off at Roush Racing, we all saw the Jack Roush we hadn’t seen in a while. This was “General” Jack and he was at DEFCON 5, ready for war. I expected a huge American flag to unfurl behind him as he was talking. Then I figured he’d don a chrome Army helmet, break out a riding crop and start working the assembled like General Patton. Only item missing was a pair of pearl-handled revolvers.
Jack has a special place in the heart of the racing media. Every now and then he really goes off on a particular cause and just the thought of ‘Tie-Oda’ was enough for him to confront them in his opening statements. Heck, we didn’t even have to rile him up. Plus, he usually makes a very articulate case for his thoughts. You asked for it, you got it – Jack Roush!
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How will current Cup teams respond to Toyota’s entry?
Jack set the tone of his coming comments. “They won’t be intimidated by any new team or any new manufacturer that might come in with more money, or on the face of it, would have some of the ingredients to make a better effort or a better program. All of the manufacturers are trying to establish a competitive and strategic advantage for themselves. Some will succeed in time. Most will not succeed initially. Toyota will not find that the established teams and manufacturers will wither in their path as has been the case where they’ve decided to engage elsewhere.”
Wither? He went on to clarify, “I know there are probably a lot of you that would like for me to go deeper into that, but I’m just going to say that nobody is frightened. We’re going to war with them and they should give us their best shot, because we’ll be back and giving as good as we take.”
How does Toyota coming in change the sport?
Jack explained directly, “I think that question has been asked and answered, but if Toyota is going to bring about changes in the way we conduct our business – they’ve got the deep pockets and the wherewithal to step outside the box and to pay more for a service or for a technology than sound business practices would otherwise justify -- then we’re going to have an announcement, I think, if things go well, about a new investor in our program to help us. Not as a sponsor but as a potential partner.
