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Maybe someone should give Jack Roush Bill Belichick's phone number. The successful but disgruntled team owner sounds like he might need some tips on how to combat NASCAR's version of Spygate.
Roush is hopping mad about how a front sway bar from one of his teams found its way into the hands of Michael Waltrip Racing's garage in Dover last September.
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| Why did Jack Roush wait so long to rant about a sway bar that went missing last September? (Getty Images) |
"They altered the appearance of the part by changing the paint on it or blasting the unique paint that we had off of it, and it is back, and it's in our inventory and we are still considering what, if any, legal action we'll seek in the public sector."
Roush believes the incident is nothing less than stealing and is serious about his plans of some kind of recourse through the legal system if necessary.
"There are people ready to sweep dirt under a rug," Roush said. "I don't want to embarrass the sponsor. I really don't want to embarrass the team, but I also don't want to be made to look stupid or complicit as it relates to things that might occur within my team or have occurred within my team as it relates to NASCAR's rules.
"It is interesting that the high standard that we've got ... doesn't apply to simple moral conduct. For me to have to go to the courts and the rules of the broader society to deal with this problem will be a disappointment to me."
If Roush is going to pursue any action on the situation it looks as if the courts will be his only avenue as NASCAR won't be getting involved.
"We live in a very open society here in the garage area," vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said. "There are no walls dividing the garage stalls, and crewmembers are in there talking with other crewmembers."
"We're the governing body; we're not the law. People can work side by side for years and years, and sometimes accidents happen and you wind up with a part or piece off another guy's car and sometimes somebody goes and borrows a part or piece and takes a good look ... If they've got an issue, they need to take it up with those teams."
The team in question, MWR, did admit the part in question was in its possession. But team owner Waltrip says the claims of theft and legal action is a bit out of bounds given the circumstances.
"I promise you that no one went to their tool box and swiped it," Waltrip said. "This is not intellectual espionage. I liken a sway bar to an ink pen -- they come in different sizes and shapes. Some of them are expensive and some of them are not so expensive, but they all do the same thing and that's write.
"It's not the pen that makes it write, it's the person pushing it. A car going fast is not about the sway bar, it's about the team that puts the sway bar into action and what they do to make all that come together."
