mabarker
11-21-2008, 02:05 PM
BY MIKE BRUDENELL • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • November 21, 2008
I hadn't planned to talk with Jack Roush again for a while, since the Sprint Cup season is over, with Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson capturing his third consecutive series title. But when Jack, who resides in Northville, called Wednesday from the West Coast, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to converse with one of NASCAR's great team owners, someone who is passionate about the sport and life in general.
As usual, Jack gave credit where credit is due. He's an old-school guy -- tough and fair.
"Jimmie (Johnson) did a great job in the Chase," Jack said. "He deserved the championship. Of course we finished with a flourish. Everybody ran well. I don't know where Carl found the fuel to get to the finish line. But he's easier on the brakes and gas pedal than most."
Roush driver Carl Edwards won the Ford 400 season finale at Homestead, Fla., his ninth victory of the season, with a gas tank drier than a bone in the Mojave Desert.
I have flown with Jack in his P-51 Mustang war plane, written about his plane crash in Alabama in 2002, when he almost drowned, and his recovery from head, rib and leg injuries. In the spring, we're planning to go go-kart racing.
Roush, 66, is a human dynamo, but at the bottom of it all, he's first and foremost a decent human being.
As NASCAR teams in the Charlotte, N.C., area continue layoffs while the Detroit Three plead their case to Washington, Jack said he would have to "displace" half a dozen employees involved with his test program as a result of NASCAR banning testing at its sanctioned tracks in 2009. But his core staff -- those involved with his Sprint Cup and Nationwide team operations at his race shop in Concord, N.C. -- "will remain intact," he said.
"If we let our manufacturing base divide and fall, it won't be in America's best interests," Roush said. "We would be leaving America's best years behind us. We need to preserve this (auto) industry where people here and around the country make their living. If we don't, the taxpayers are going to carry a much heavier load."
Jack Roush is one of a kind.
"Keep in touch," he told me as he prepared to fly back to Detroit from the L.A. Auto Show, where he had been for a preview of the new Ford Mustang.
Jack, you bet.
I hadn't planned to talk with Jack Roush again for a while, since the Sprint Cup season is over, with Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson capturing his third consecutive series title. But when Jack, who resides in Northville, called Wednesday from the West Coast, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to converse with one of NASCAR's great team owners, someone who is passionate about the sport and life in general.
As usual, Jack gave credit where credit is due. He's an old-school guy -- tough and fair.
"Jimmie (Johnson) did a great job in the Chase," Jack said. "He deserved the championship. Of course we finished with a flourish. Everybody ran well. I don't know where Carl found the fuel to get to the finish line. But he's easier on the brakes and gas pedal than most."
Roush driver Carl Edwards won the Ford 400 season finale at Homestead, Fla., his ninth victory of the season, with a gas tank drier than a bone in the Mojave Desert.
I have flown with Jack in his P-51 Mustang war plane, written about his plane crash in Alabama in 2002, when he almost drowned, and his recovery from head, rib and leg injuries. In the spring, we're planning to go go-kart racing.
Roush, 66, is a human dynamo, but at the bottom of it all, he's first and foremost a decent human being.
As NASCAR teams in the Charlotte, N.C., area continue layoffs while the Detroit Three plead their case to Washington, Jack said he would have to "displace" half a dozen employees involved with his test program as a result of NASCAR banning testing at its sanctioned tracks in 2009. But his core staff -- those involved with his Sprint Cup and Nationwide team operations at his race shop in Concord, N.C. -- "will remain intact," he said.
"If we let our manufacturing base divide and fall, it won't be in America's best interests," Roush said. "We would be leaving America's best years behind us. We need to preserve this (auto) industry where people here and around the country make their living. If we don't, the taxpayers are going to carry a much heavier load."
Jack Roush is one of a kind.
"Keep in touch," he told me as he prepared to fly back to Detroit from the L.A. Auto Show, where he had been for a preview of the new Ford Mustang.
Jack, you bet.