February 14, 2007 - Team owner Jack Roush and No. 17 DeWalt Fusion driver Matt Kenseth addressed penalties handed down by NASCAR earlier this week prior to the Daytona 500.

Jack Roush

JACK ROUSH – owner, No. 17 DeWalt Fusion – “Everybody knows that we had a problem with the first qualifying inspection with the 17 car. I haven’t been to the shop. I haven’t had face-to-face conversation with anybody on the team, including Robbie [Reiser, crew chief]. I’ve only talked to Robbie twice – I didn’t go back to the shop, I stayed down here; I had a number of things I needed to do between Sunday and now. But at any rate we’ve been found out of compliance with the car with regard to some holes that were taped over that opened up in qualifying. Robbie says that he didn’t intend that, that was not expected. I don’t have any reason to question what he’s told me. Certainly, had I been aware that there was question that we could’ve had the car be out of compliance or something like that, as innocent as it might seem, I would’ve said no, so I had no knowledge of it. Matt and I discussed it Sunday night, and he was not aware of it, so there was no intention from my part or from Matt’s part to do something that NASCAR could find disfavor with, and I believe that is also the care with Robbie. Until I have a chance to get everyone in front of me and do due diligence on who knew what, when, and the instructions were given on the preparation of the car, I won’t be absolutely certain of that. Over the years I’ve had two bad experiences with appealing NASCAR’s findings where I was absolutely certain and remained certain that I was right at the time, and to this day. And, of course, we didn’t get satisfaction on the makeup of the committee and the facts that NASCAR considered at that time. So, I’m pretty disposed to say that I don’t have any interest in appealing any decision that NASCAR makes. I’ve made my decision, I’m going to be a part of this business, it’s a great business, it’s a great sport, it’s the biggest success of my life that I’m able to be here and to share in the energy that so many great people built for so many years before I was of an age and had an opportunity to get involved. So, I’m respectful of that. I’m glad to be here. But whatever they come up with is okay with me so far, including the penalties that have been handed down in this circumstance. If you look at history, what they did with an occurrence that happened here last year and what the culpability was of the people involved, there would appear to be much more, if not innocent, certainly a less of a strategy to achieve an advantage that the variance might have given to the 17 car. So, it would appear to me, based on the nature of infractions in the past, that NASCAR’s determination to take 50 points from the 17 car and from Matt, before we’ve even gone to the first race, that appears to be severe. Certainly, it’s been unprecedented. But if you look and say what have been the precedents of NASCAR, what has been their history and their tradition, it has been to do unprecedented things, when it suits their purpose. So, you couldn’t say that you couldn’t have expected because under no scenario where they’ve done something like this, they continue to do things that are different and that are more severe as they relate to infractions than has historically been the case. I know that we don’t stand alone, that I don’t stand alone with the 17 car. In having a difficulty in qualifying, my understanding is there were four other entries that had issues, involving two other teams and, one of the penalties hasn’t been announced yet, but penalties on three of those were in line with the penalties that we got for our infraction. I suspect that we won’t prevail, but we’re very likely – I’ve got it up for review with Geoff Smith, our president, and with our legal staff, to consider what our best tack would be, but I’ve got no quarrel with the money that Robbie’s been fined, I’ve got no quarrel with the suspension of him not coming to the race track, I do have a problem with Matt and with the team and with the sponsor of giving up 50 points as we start this trek toward a championship drive for 2007.”

WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO LOSING 50 POINTS? “I’m unhappy about that.”

DO YOU FEEL THAT THE PENALTY FITS THE CRIME? “NASCAR can do whatever they want and they always do and I support that, the last thing we need to do as a democratic organization is the team owners or the drivers or the sponsors telling NASCAR what they should do with policies. I respect and support their prerogatives to establish policy as it relates to punishment and to the way that they tech and officiate the cars. But, the 40 points as it affects the potential outcome for the championship, the chase, for the 17 car is severe and I personally don’t feel that that punishment fits the crime, certainly not based on the precedence of what they’ve done in the past.”

DO YOU THINK THAT YOU’RE BEING MADE AN EXAMPLE OF? “I don’t think that I’m being made an example of given the fact that there are four other entrees that had a problem and all those, at least for the three other the penalties had been announced that appear to be in line with the punishment that they’ve levied on us, is in line with that they’ve done with the other three. But the penalties as they relate to points are unprecedented with regard to what they’ve done in the past, and the question we’ll ask is why now, why me?”

HOW DO YOU THINK MATT WILL HANDLE DRIVING WITHOUT A CREW CHIEF HE’S BEEN WITH FOR SO LONG? “The 17 team is a strong team with a deep organization. We’ve had the guys together for a long time. Chip Bolen, the engineer, has been increasingly active in the decision-making around the team. We’ve got Chris Andrews, our new engineering manager that was a crew chief in stock-car racing, in NASCAR Racing in recent history, so putting those two guys on the box, we’ll be just fine. The thing that happened with Chad Knaus last year, if everybody remembers, he was off for four weeks, it really launched them on a great trajectory to compete for a championship, which they were successful in. I guess they would’ve been okay with the 50 points, as it turned out, but there’s an opportunity there for Robbie to stay in the shop and to give greater attention to the cars for the next four races for the 17 than would’ve otherwise been the case. We thought about making our appeal early and seeing it we could get a variance for pending the appeal if Robbie could be at the Daytona, but if you look at what’s going to happen five races from now, assuming that we’re not successful and you mention the four-race suspension, the fifth race in the schedule is for a Car of Tomorrow race at Bristol and having Robbie involved with that with all hands on deck is really important to us, so I’m much happier to give up the Daytona 500 participation of Robbie than I am Robbie’s participation at Bristol, so we’ll let his suspension stand pending our decision to make an appeal, we’ll let it stand and let this be one race of the four-race suspension that we’ll have out of the way as we go off to Fontana.”

MORE ON THE PENALTIES. “I was not aware that there was anything with that car that was subject to question by NASCAR, either before or after the inspection process, before or after qualifying. As I stand here before you, the assurance that I’ve been given from Robbie was that he was not aware that the part – there was some taped panels that had been used in the wind tunnel for an evaluation that should have been pop-riveted when they got back to the shop, and the enclosure was secure and it was secure when it came to the race track, it was secure when it went through tech, and it was not secure when it finished qualifying tech. Robbie told me that it was an oversight on his part to not have that panel secured because it was something that they had experimented with in the wind tunnel, and they didn’t get it cleaned up.”

WOULD YOU BE OKAY WITH KNOWING WHAT THE PENALTIES FOR AN INFRACTION WERE ESTABLISHED? “They’ve got the opportunity and the prerogative and I think it’s been part of NASCAR’s strength and wisdom to be able to make corrections mid-course when it suits their purpose, either to level competition or to deal with somebody taking advantage of a situation that was not foreseen in the rule book. I don’t think that we need to nail them down to where they would have to say what the punishment was going to be for which crime and then make it stick for a year.”

WHAT WOULD’VE BEEN ACCOMPLISHED BY HAVING THAT HOLE UNCOVERED? “I’m not sure. I have not seen the car, I have not seen the area of the problem, I haven’t been up to the car since qualifying, so I’m as close to the car as I’ve been. My understanding is that if you balance the air between the underbody of the car and the inside of the passenger compartment, there’s some amount, small amount, of reduced drag that the car realizes. So there’s any number of different ways that if you were trying to work toward that end, that you could have covers that don’t fit tightly, that you could have panels that are not properly sealed, there’s any number of ways that you could achieve that if that was your goal. I’ve learned since the problem, I was not aware of it before the problem, but there is an understanding throughout the garage that if you expose the driver, let’s say, to some CO or to some underbody air through balance the chambers between the passenger compartment or cockpit and the underbody, but there is small diminishment in drag. So, the tighter you make the car, the more draggy it would be, and probably more downforce it would make, but I also haven’t talked to one of engineers about that. So, I’m in the dark as much about exactly what the specifics of the benefit was, as some of you are, but that’s generally what I’ve been told.”

ARE YOU STILL CONSIDERING APPEALING THOSE 50 POINTS? “We are considering appealing every aspect of the penalty. And pending a determination of what has been historically significant, and from our legal staff on what would be our strengths and weakness in arguments they would make, we’ll make a determination. They are not to appeal it as an individual element within the penalty phase.”

Matt Kensteh

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Fusion – ON DRIVING A CUP RACE WITHOUT LONGTIME CREW CHIEF ROBBIE REISER. “I’m going to miss having him here, for sure. I think it’s been almost 250 races or something like that we’ve raced together, so certainly this wasn’t something I expected or planned on. I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed for our sponsor and for our team in that we’ve got to go through this, but whatever they make the rules and penalties I guess we’ve got to live with and go on from there and learn from it and try to do better next time.”

DO YOU THINK THE PENALTY FITS THE CRIME? “No, but I understand, I guess. I talked with [John] Darby a little bit last night and the only thing that I kind of want to make clear is an infraction last year that somebody got suspended for, no points, all that, was 10 times graver infraction than this was. There was parts purposely built to move body panels around, all kinds of stuff, and we had a couple covers, or one cover, I don’t know if it was one or two, cover come off that was covering a hole up. It’s night and day difference. I think the points is pretty stiff, but yet if they do it the same for everybody, I guess I don’t have a problem with that, but it’s tough with what it was last year and what it is this year for how different the infractions were. It’s kind of like the difference between jaywalking and attempted murder, it’s a fairly big difference in what was wrong with the cars, so I feel bad about that but Mike Helton did get in front of us several times last year and say the penalties are going to be more sever as we go on, and if anybody’s intentionally trying to anything it’s going to keep getting tougher and tougher and tougher. I’m all for having a level playing field, but I’m not so sure that this was a big intentional thing by Robbie.”

WHAT ABOUT GOING INTO THE SEASON WITH MINUS 50 POINTS? “I just think you don’t really think about it. This year the Chase is different, there is absolutely no reward for being the point leader going into the Chase, you just have to be in the top 12 and if you can win some races you’ll have more points. This certainly hurts. I think going in minus 50 is not a good thing, but the way the Chase is this year, 12th is the same as first so we’ve just got to work really hard to get ourselves, hopefully, comfortably, in the top 10.”

WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU WANT TO GET TO THE FANS OF MATT KENSETH? “You’re certainly embarrassed about it. I didn’t know about it until I talked with Robbie Sunday night and he called said they had some trouble with the car. The fact is we’re all human, we’re all working as hard as we can and we try to do the best that we can. I don’t think that Robbie’s ever been known for cheating, I think we’ve always been known as honest straight shooters, along with the companies we represent. I think that’s a lot of the reason they like to represent us and be part of their organization. I don’t think any of that’s different. Robbie’s never been any trouble before, and like I say, the penalty is severe for as minor as the infraction was and for Robbie’s past history I think it’s pretty stout. But the one thing I do want to convey to my fans is that the infraction is totally different than some of the other ones, it’s just that NASCAR’s cracking down on every little thing, which in the long run, as long as you know that you’re not racing against people that are cheating then it’s probably good.”

ON GOING INTO THE DAYTONA 500 WITHOUT HIS CREW CHIEF. “It’s tough to know that he’s not going to be there, but the fact of the matter is that he’s not going to be there, so we’ve got to deal with it and move on and we’ll make it work. Chip and Robbie and I have been together since ’99 since we started this team with Jack, the four of us have been together the whole time, so we all know each other really well and Chip knows Robbie’s routine and vice-versa. I think it’ll be okay. It’ll be different, but I think it’ll be alright. The races are more won and lost putting the cars together and Robbie putting a group of people together, and part of the reason of having Robbie around is the great job he has done putting this group of people together and they really shouldn’t miss too much of a beat with him being gone. He’s still real involved in getting the cars ready and talking to the guys and he got all the stuff prepared before he left Sunday, so I think we’ll be okay.”

WILL WHAT’S HAPPENED TO YOU CUT DOWN ON OTHER TEAMS TRYING TO PUSH THE ENVELOPE? “I don’t know. It’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges because it’s so different. If a cover fell off, maybe last year maybe they’d never say anything about it, say, ‘Make sure that’s fastened better next time,’ so I think it’s not so much the garage changing and cheating more, I think there’s probably less cheating or trying to push the envelope or trying to work in the gray areas than there’s ever been. I think that there’s way less than there’s ever been, it’s just that they’re cracking down on every little thing. They want to make sure that the cars are exactly the same. The Car of Tomorrow has got, the whole chassis has got to get certified before you can race it. So I think it’s more just NASCAR trying to keep everything the same more so than anything changing in the garage.”

WHAT YOU APPEAL THE SUSPENSION TO HAVE ROBBIE BACK FOR THIS RACE? “I think Jack’s got the best plan. I’ve never heard, not that I’ve paid attention to all of them through the years, but I’ve never really heard of anything much different happening from the appeal process. I think that’s just in place because it has to be. So, I can’t foresee anything changing. I hope that we can appeal it and get the points given back or some of Robbie’s time or something, but chances are he’s still going to have some type of suspension to serve and I think that Jack is 100 percent right saying we are better off to get it out of the way as soon as possible before we get into some of the rest of the season.”

WITH WHAT HAPPENED TO THE 48 TEAM LAST YEAR AND THE SUCCESS IT THEN HAD, DOES THIS GIVE YOU A LITTLE HOPE, THAT ALL IS NOT LOST? “I told Chip that the pressure is on him. I said they did pretty well. I don’t know. To take somebody for a few weeks is different than taking them away for the whole season, and all the work a crew chief does isn’t done at the track on Sunday, it’s done all winter long and all week long and getting everything prepared, so all of that is still happening. I don’t think it’s going to be a huge burden on us, I think it is going to be some, we’re used to having Robbie around and he’s so great, especially calling the races and being there on Sundays, we’re going to miss that but the team is still there. It’s a team sport and to take one person out of there is not going ruin it, I don’t think, for four weeks, but certainly we’ll miss having him.”