Jack Roush Playing Favorites Amongst His Roushketeers?
Monday, April 2nd, 2007 1:33pm CDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
If you’re new around here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but here’s my take on this. But first, let me say this is nothing against Greg Biffle. He’s the unfortunate innocent party in this new Roush Debacle. As you know, here a Thunder Lounge we don’t necessarily dislike any driver. The few exceptions to the rule being Todd Bodine, and on occasion a love to hate Mr. Flip-Flop’s opinions.
So when NASCAR drew the line at 4 Cup teams per stable, Roush was grandfathered into the mix with a clause that essentially said they had to whittle down to 4 teams as soon as possible, once a sponsorship or driver contract had come to the end of its terms.
OK, so let me see here. Since then Roush has replaced Mark Martin, and Greg Biffle is flying new colors this season as well. Not too long ago, NASCAR must have saw the light and made a firm date of “no later than the 2010 season” for the ol’ Cat in the Hat to whittle his stable down by one team, unless contracts dictated a sooner date.
So let me see here if I get this right. Essentially Jack is either playing NASCAR for a fool, or he’s playing favorites amongst his Roushketeers. Perhaps a little of both.
Greg apparently has another year left on his contract after this season, and Ameriquest has opted to not renew for 2008. So here Geoff Smith is trying to not only broker a new contract for Biffle, but a new sponsorship contract as well. So we are already up to the third opportunity for Roush to comply with the NASCAR mandate. Anybody see anything wrong with this picture here? Anybody want to call shenanigans yet?
The above being the case, and three neglected opportunities to comply, what’s going on here? Roush may very well be the biggest independent influence in NASCAR. He’s built a powerhouse that commands respect of his accomplishments no matter what your personal opinion is. Yet, is he “above” NASCAR?
He’s going to have to pick one team, and soon, to begin phasing it out of operations. The likely scenario is a partnership or an under the table deal with Yates, where if need be Roush is running that team but under a different stable. It would be a Yates team, but Roush would foot the bills and whatever else on the side if need be.
The question is, who will it be? Greg doesn’t seem likely, and you know Carl isn’t going anywhere. The rookie isn’t a safe bet, else he wouldn’t have been hired unless his contract is the same length as AAA’s sponsorship. Matt? OK, yeah, right. Roush give up his Championship team? Not hardly. That leaves Jamie, at the moment.
It’s no secret that the performance to date has been very “Un-Roush” like. Last year was dismal for McMurray, but then again, Roush struggled as a whole with the new Fusion. So the blame isn’t squarely on the 26 team, and so far this season things are picking up in that department so far. So what about David Ragan then? I’ll give a thumbs up for improvement at Martinsville this past Sunday, in comparison to last October, and at least he’s not being told to skip Texas. However with him being the new face in the crowd, does that limit his credentials in the stable? Obviously Jack doesn’t think so, and knows it would be an uphill battle to bring out the kid’s potential. What it very well may come down to is performance between the 26 and 6 teams. He who finishes best, keeps his Roush logo on his fire suit.
Not a position I’d want to be in, then again I wouldn’t want to be a TV reporter either. (Note: TV reporter comment just to give Jay a laugh.)
So what’s the deal going on here? Is it Roush playing favorites, acting as his Roushketeers are above the “law”, or what?
Could it be that he’s holding out as long as possible, playing Russian Roulette instead, and whoever comes up comes up?
I don’t think so. Roush isn’t dumb, folks. He has something up his sleeve, and that you can be sure of. Trying to guess their next move is like trying to predict a winner on Sunday. You can guess, but until it happens you just don’t know. Some obviously guess right, and some don’t.
Kind of reminds you of how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop, huh?
Maybe Mr. Owl has an answer for the Roush Camp too.
Filed Under: Carl Edwards, Damn Good Points, Drivers, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, Nascar, Nextel Cup, Roush Racing #16, Roush Racing #17, Roush Racing #26, Roush Racing #99, Teams
Trackback URL for: Jack Roush Playing Favorites Amongst His Roushketeers?
Loading...
