Roush Says Toyota Team Stole “Proprietary Part”
ESPN the Magazine has an interesting and explosive quote from Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush as part of its 10th Anniversary issue, which is on newsstands this week. Two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the magazine quotes Roush 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.” If Roush’s allegations prove to be true, this could become NASCAR’s version of the recent spy scandal that rocked Formula One racing, in which the McLaren-Mercedes team was caught with confidential, proprietary test information belonging to rival Ferrari.
Is there so much at stake that teams will start spying on other teams, stealing parts, and video taping test sessions ? Is this what you get with the COT (car of tomorrow) ? I know NASCAR is 50 years old and to say NASCAR grew to fast might not be completely accurate but I think it would be accurate to say in the last 10 years they’ve have grown a little to fast, and since Dale Sr.’s death the growth has exploded now I know you can’t stop the fans but long ago maybe 15 years ago NASCAR should have in some way limited what a teams need to spend on cars, testing, and Research and Development, teams have had to drag in BIG Sponsors to help with costs, its a vicious circle you need more from sponsors so sponsors want wins which every year costs more, I don’t know what the answer is now but early on NASCAR should have limited what a team can do to a car, NASCAR does beleive they have the answer now it’s the COT car. Only time will tell whether they’ve really contained cost for teams and made things better.
Filed under: NASCAR News, Roush Fenway racing, Sprint Cup Series, Toyota(TRD) | Tagged: auto racing sponsorship, automobiles, car of tomorrow, cars, chevy, contracts, COT, craftsmen truck series, dodge, engines, ESPN, ford, local race tracks, local racing, NASCAR, NASCAR Now, Nationwide series, pit road, pit stop, race, race fans, racecars, racing, Roush Fenway racing, sponsors, Sprint Cup, toyota |
The Garage Area 
Ya i was thinking about the same thing. I was also pondering putting some cash down on a nascar racing, it looks very interesting, nascar odds and stats and the nascar schedule could be used to determine who is good at certain nascar tracks, i came across http://www.nascapper.com and it sparked me interest.
Interestingly, though, if the Car of Tomorrow is meant to lower costs for teams, then it is unfortunate to see that it has actually contributed in tandem with rule changes to a less competitive field over the years. A higher level of competition would surely help bring more fans and sponsors, yet NASCAR’s anemic revenue figures over the last 5 years or so indicate that the car of tomorrow has not helped much. It’s a conundrum, to say the least. I wrote about this on my blog: http://CSBcomsportsbiz.com a little while back and drivers like “Junior” aren’t all that crazy about the new car design. I hear you, though… costs are rising for teams, especially as sponsors back out. NASCAR is, however, trying to counter this through more B2B efforts and by selling naming rights to more events and related activities (among other initiatives).
–Cam.