Grumpy Old Men

Jack Rousch is a stubborn old coot. In fact, one doesn’t get to be one of the most powerful and successful men in NASCAR without doing things your way. Like him or hate him, he will always give you his opinion about the state of affairs in the sport. Not surprisingly, Rousch – who once paid an employee in Yen whose personal vehicle was a Toyota – was less than supportive when the Japanese manufacturer announced that they would be entering the world of NASCAR stock car racing. One can only imagine just how steamed – and feel free to insert a much harsher adverb if you wish – Jack must have been a few weeks ago in the wake of the Carl Edwards cheating accusations after the Las Vegas race. Lee White, Vice President of Toyota Racing Development, and a former Rousch employee, took a shot at Rousch in an interview with USA Today’s Nate Ryan. White, in the interview, quantified the advantage the 99 car would have gained by removing the oil cover during a race:

‘Lee White, GM for Toyota Racing Development, said the manufacturer's testing at wind tunnels in Germany revealed removing the cover on the oil tank (located in a steel box behind the driver's seat) resulted in 170 extra pounds of downforce, the aerodynamic measurement of keeping a car glued to the track.

White also said video of a pit stop showed a member of Edwards' pit crew pulling on a right rear fender to open a 3-inch gap to an inner panel. Toyota testing showed that would create about 70 pounds of downforce, White said. NASCAR said the only issue with the car during inspection was the lid.

White said Edwards, who has won the last two Cup races, "was eating cars getting onto the straightaways anywhere he wanted to go" because of the extra 240 pounds of downforce, a roughly 20% increase to the 1,200 pounds of downforce typically generated by a Cup car.

"If you have 21% more downforce, that's like having 50 (extra) horsepower," White said. "There's absolutely something going on there where someone knew what they were doing.”

War had been declared, and you knew it wouldn’t be long before Jack struck back. Well, it happened and it didn’t take long at all. Reported by ESPN the Magazine and Sirius Speedway; the following week at Atlanta, Rousch was quoted as saying “We had a proprietary Roush Fenway part go missing from one of my race teams, and we recovered it from a Toyota team. I’m not going to say which team it is, but we are considering legal action, or getting NASCAR involved.”

This is certainly going to turn really nasty really fast and has the makings to become one of the top stories of the year. Now I’m not going to say old Jack is making this up because he’s ticked off, but since he decided to go public with his accusations, it would have been nice had he been a little more specific. Which team took the part? When did this happen? What was the part? (I’m trying so hard to resist the urge to suggest that it was the ‘special’ oil tank cover) He has made some pretty serious allegations against Toyota racing, and with the forum he chose to utilize (the media); he owes it to everyone to give us the complete story. Otherwise, I’m afraid his statements will be viewed as nothing more than the bitter ramblings of an angry old man.