I am (as you could probably tell) a Tony Stewart fan, I am a NASCAR fan, I love the entire race day feeling. That being said I am not
- A manufacturer fan
- A conspiracy theorist
- A drama fan
Jack Rousch is a great showman, a shrewd businessman, and a connesuer of talented drivers. His personal history is as great as the sport itself. He is however a drama queen and an ass. And he is (in my opinion) all three of the above stated things that I am not.
When JGR went over to Toyota I wasn't going to throw away my favorite driver and team because of the change in a manufacturer, this is America and what makes us great is the fact that ANYBODY has a chance at making it to the top of their endeavors.
For Rousch to piss all over Toyota before they even had a competitive team in the sport was classless and abhorrent.
For him to intimate that the incident happened this year when Toyota has been a bit more competitive and has fielded more teams , casting doubts on other teams success before acknowledging that the incident happened last year when there were only 2 Toyota teams is dirty pool .
I am not a fan of either Robby Gordon or Mike Waltrip Racing but both guys and their teams have reacted well above board while being in the sights of Mr. Rousch.
For Rousch to allege theft of a part is not in itself a bad thing. If you can prove someone intentionally intended to deprive you of something that is yours forever then you would be a putz if you were not mad.
If you cannot prove that someone STOLE the item in question (it has been said that the post race tear down process is flawed and many times parts have been deposited in the wrong piles after inspection) If this was the case then there is no case, (and NASCAR needs to monitor this process more closely) and if the part was returned to you after the team allegedly found the mistake as has been reported then again there is no case.
Theft of intellectual property is in and of itself an unenforceable rule in NASCAR. Be it by "finding another teams part in your pile or be it firing or letting an employee go and expecting them to "forget" everything that they learned while in your employment. Are you kidding me???
NASCAR knows it and basically told Jack Rousch that and now Jack Rousch wants to take a page out of Al Gores green notebook and is mulling over a possible lawsuit. I hope that if he does, NASCAR dusts off the statute of "conduct detrimental to stock car racing" and uses it in this case.