Roush v. Toyota: Legitimate Beef or Sour Grapes?

When the news came out in bits and pieces yesterday — and we still don’t have the whole story, I’m simply going by what’s been reported thus far — I can’t say that I was particularly surprised.

In case you missed it, Jack Roush accused an as-yet unnamed Toyota team of stealing a “proprietary part” from one of his Roush-Fenway Fords at Atlanta three weeks ago. The unnamed part, according to Roush, went missing from one of his teams and was “recovered” from a Toyota team. According to the report, Roush is considering going to the authorities and/or NASCAR with the information. Given that a similar situation occurred in Formula One last year and resulted in, among other penalties, a $100 million fine for the McLaren-Mercedes teams, the accusation could create a terribly volatile situation.

In my opinion, there are three possible explanations as to what’s going on here. One — and this cannot be overlooked regardless of the participant — is that the allegations are true. If this is the case, and is proven, the team in question stands to lose, well, everything.

While it is highly doubtful that NASCAR would levy millions of dollars in fines, the penalties and potential backlash could cost the offending team its very existence while the repercussions would reverberate through the sport. That said, the burden of proof is also a heavy one, and should Roush fail to provide it, could create a public relations backlash of his own.

The second possibility is that the accusation is a total fabrication. Roush has made no secret that there is no love lost between himself and Toyota. An accusation of this magnitude would serve to create a public scorn of an already unpopular “new kid on the block” that would take years to absolve. Of course, if there were no truth to it, it would also be slander.

Jack Roush, however, is not above dragging his opponents — usually the ones beating his tail on a racetrack — through the proverbial mud. He accused the Ray Evernham/Jeff Gordon duo of soaking tires in 1998 after the 24 team’s two tires beat Mark Martin’s four at Michigan — and gave Gordon his fourth win in a row. It was rumored that Roush may also have been behind the allegations at Loudon in 2006 that Richard Childress Racing teams were using pinholes to alter tire pressures. Given Roush’s history, it’s my opinion that this is the most likely explanation.

Third, and certainly the most insidious, is that someone from Roush-Fenway Racing planted the part to incriminate the accused team. A distressing explanation if true, it would certainly be a sad day in the sport if this were the case. An offshoot of this hypothesis is that an RFR employee simply misplaced the part and once it was found, put the blame in a place that was guaranteed to take the heat off the individual. Either way, accusing a team of stealing a trade secret or tool and actually planting the evidence goes far beyond the low end of the ethical spectrum.

As for whom Roush plans to name as the perpetrator, we can only speculate. Because teams were garaged at the track according to owner points, it does place at least one Toyota team next to a Roush-Fenway team in the garage at Atlanta. At least three others were within a few stalls of RFR teams. The opportunity was there for others, just as the opportunity for a plant or the motive for an accusation was for Roush.

There is thunder rolling on NASCAR’s horizon. The question is whether what we see now is simply heat lightning or an actual storm cell prone to wreak havoc to the landscape. Here’s the thing: If it were any other team making these allegations, the racing world would sit up and take notice. Would it get up in arms against Toyota? Would it call for repercussions? Hard to say, but a reaction may come anyway, as the xenophobic stance is a popular one among many fans. If it were any other team, this would be huge. But because it is Jack Roush’s team, it looks more like a case of sour grapes from where I sit.

But presently, the forecast isn’t too clear.

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