Roush denies cheating accusation
Car owner Jack Roush strongly denied any intentional wrongdoing Friday in the wake of NASCAR penalties that knocked driver Carl Edwards out of first place in the Sprint Cup points and put crew chief Bob Osborne on a six-week suspension.
“Jack is mad,” a visibly upset Roush declared as he strode to a podium at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., to respond to Toyota official Lee White’s claim in a published report that Edwards’ No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing team had intentionally taken the cover off the car’s oil tank to gain an aerodynamic advantage.
“He’s a real nice guy,” Roush said of White, a former Roush employee. “I respect him, but he’s also a great racer and would seek any advantage he might think he had an opportunity for.”
The car failed postrace inspection last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after NASCAR inspectors found there was no cover on the oil tank. The Roush team said the cover came off when a bolt failed during the race, maybe from vibration.
White had a hard time believing that could happen.
“I guarantee you the cover bolts didn’t fall out, because if they fall, the engine leaks and you can’t run,” he said in a story in USA Today. “If you want something to fall off, you fix it so it can.”
•Jeff Gordon, bouncing back from a hard crash in Las Vegas, felt a whole lot better after winning the pole for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“I was sore, but none of the soreness affected me in the race car,” Gordon said after posting a fast lap of 185.251 mph on the 1.5-mile Atlanta oval, besting the 184.852 of teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Martin Truex Jr. made it a sweep of the top three places for Chevrolet with a lap of 183.807.
Truck Series
Benefitting from an astute call from the pits, Kyle Busch held off Ron Hornaday Jr. at Atlanta Motor Speedway to win the American Commercial Lines 200, the second straight victory for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points leader.
Champ Car
The owners of the Champ Car World Series have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy just two weeks after agreeing to an open-wheel unification plan with the Indy Racing League.
The filing in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis states that Champ Car has spent tens of millions of dollars in the past four years to maintain the series.
The bankruptcy filing will not affect the IRL deal, said Jeff Hokanson, a Champ Car lawyer.