ON BUSCH'S DECISION TO LEAVE ROUSH RACING
KURT BUSCH – No. 97 Sharpie Taurus – “I’m still contractually obligated to drive this car in 2005 and in 2006. I told Jack that. I signed with a different team for 2007 because of opportunities and timing. I believe it was good for Kurt Busch, but I’m still obligated to drive this car, which I told Jack I’d do, and he jumped the gun on things, so we’ll see where it shakes up from here.”
JACK SAID THAT YOU TOLD HIM THAT IT WAS AN OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME. WHAT MAKES IT THAT? “It’s really a matter of surrounding yourself with the right equipment in a timing manner. I believe with the way that I’m set up right now we still have a shot at winning the championship this year, as well as 2006. When 2007 arrives, it will be a whole new opportunity to see what I can do to win races.”
HOW MUCH OF THAT TRANSFERS TO CREW CHIEF JIMMY FENNIG? “Jimmy Fennig is the key ingredient that makes this 97 car run. It’s why I want to stick around for another year. It’s why I want to give 2006 to Roush Racing. And if we can’t work it out, then we can’t work it out. But, Jimmy Fennig is a true champion in everybody’s mind. I was able to bring him that. He’s got stats that rival the best, and right now he is the veteran crew chief of the garage area.”
WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT JACK JUMPED THE GUN? “I let him know that I’m contractually obligated, I’m happy to fulfill those obligations to drive for Roush racing for ’05 and ’06, and it’s Jack’s decision. We’ll see what happens.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT TUESDAY’S MEETING? “I think it went smooth. I can’t speak on Jack’s behalf, I’d just be speculating. It was something to where I told Jack he’s given me everything that he’s given me in Cup racing, and he has. It’s been a great start. I’m looking forward to a new opportunity.”
WOULDN’T IT BE BETTER IF YOU ACTUALLY WERE ABLE TO GO OVER THERE AND START NEXT YEAR? WOULDN’T IT BE BETTER FOR EVERYBODY? “You could speculate that. For me, I’m happy wherever I go. Two thousand six is a question mark, but I know that I’ve got a great opportunity to win races with both programs.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR NEW OPPORTUNITY? “It’s too early to talk about ’07 stuff. Right now, I’ve got 2005 to drive for this championship. We’re in good position. We’re fifth in points, we’ve got five races to go and then we jump into the Chase. So, that’s where we sit. It’s hard to go into the future.”
DID YOU TALK TO ROUSH AT ALL TO SEE WHETHER YOU COULD WORK OUT AN EXTENSION TO STAY THERE, STARTING IN 2007? “Those were things that were discussed. Contracts seem to start earlier and earlier. Geoff Smith came to me with that question, and I’ve been waiting to hear back, and so we talked about things, but everybody’s got to look out for themselves. I know that Geoff Smith was, I know that Jack is, I know that Roger did, and I know that I did.”
HOW DO YOU KEEP THE CHEMISTRY TOGETHER FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? “The chemistry is great with our program. We’re a strong team, on what we did last year, at this point. And just the speech and the motivation that I gave them today, they know that it wasn’t them, they know that it wasn’t me, they know that it’s not Roush Racing, they know that it’s this business. And, they’re here to give 100 percent, just like I’m going to give 150 percent to try to win this championship this year, and for ’06.”
WHAT WAS THE SPEECH YOU GAVE THE TEAM TODAY? “The crew understand that they have a job to do, and I’ve got a job to do – let’s go focus on that.”
FANS ARE TALKING ABOUT THE MONEY AND WANT TO KNOW DID YOU LEAVE FOR THE MONEY? “Obviously, that’s a speculation. I can’t comment on what the terms are and contractual obligations, but what I can tell you is that I am contractually obligated to drive 2005 as well as 2006 for Roush Racing. It’s up to Jack for 2006, and I’ll move over to Penske Racing South in 2007.”
DID YOU TALK TO MATT KENSETH AND GREG BIFFLE? “I did. I talked with Kenseth, a champion in 2003, a guy that I’ve looked up to since I’ve been to Roush Racing. I looked up to Greg Biffle when I came here in the Truck program. I’ve looked up to Mark Martin since I was a kid racing cars. I had a great talk with all of them. They’re all in their opinions, and we had a great discussion with all of them and I’m just happy tat they were cordial with it, and now we move on to our next portion of this season, which is this championship run.”
WHEN WERE YOU FIRST CONTACTED BY PENSKE? “I can’t disclose that right now.”
WAS IT A HARD DECISION FOR YOU TO MAKE? “Very difficult. It was more of the crew, and, of course, Jimmy Fennig was the toughest person, and he was the first person I told about this whole situation. And bringing it about in this time of year gives everybody ample opportunity to work in the direction they need to go. But right now the 97 team is focused on winning this year’s championship.”
WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE JIMMY WITH YOU? “That’s up to Jimmy Fennig. I can’t speculate on what he’d like to do.”
JACK ROUSH – owner, Roush Racing – DID TUESDAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT CATCH YOU BY SURPRISE? “Yes.” CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED ON TUESDAY? “On Monday I had an indication through my secretary who schedules my day, Tuesday is a business day in North Carolina. A message came back that Kurt wanted to see me early on Tuesday, that he had a commitment, he had to leave and he wanted to see first thing Tuesday. So, I arrived at the shop expecting to see him. At 8:05 we were together in a conference room, and he told me that he recognized that he would not be in this business if I hadn’t have found him and/or had competition where he was able to show what he could do. That we discovered him, basically, and that we’d surrounded him with people that had supported his talent and created the opportunities for him, and even though sometimes he hadn’t recognized that he needed those people for what they could do for him, so we agreed on that. And the third thing he said, and it came right of the blue, he said, ‘But I am faced with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,’ I don’t know what he had been faced with before with the things that just preceded that, but he said, I’m faced now with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something that I think I must do, and I think it’s time for me to go. He said, I don’t want to negotiate with you for 2007. I said, Okay. And he said, I want to be released for 2006. I said, Not okay. I said, You’ve got commitments to me and I’ve got commitments to sponsors, and I said, We’ll have to work our way through this, but the thing I’ll give you today is that, speaking for Jack, personally, you shouldn’t expect a release for 2006.”
HAVE PLANS FOR THE FUTURE BEGUN? “Sure. We’re having discussions with our sponsors which are center to it, Newell Rubbermaid and Diagio, to discuss what they would like to have and what they would see going forward. And, right now, there has not been a decision made about 2006, but I stand ready to say 2006 is important, 2006 is important to me and my sponsors, and I’m anxious to keep my commitment to Kurt and have him keep his commitment to me, unless something changes and is brought to my attention.”
MARK MARTIN – No. 6 Viagra Taurus – “As long as people do – this is me, of course – as long as people do as they said they would do, then anyone who makes a choice to do something different, as long as they fulfill obligations, then it’s a free world and they should do that. No one should necessarily feel like they need to stay with one team for 18 years like I have. If they feel like their career would be better served do something else, then they should – as long as they fulfill what they signed. And, in Jamie McMurray’s case, I don’t think he even asked for a release. I think he hoped for one, but I don’t think that Jamie even asked for one. In Kurt’s case, he asked for one, but, at this point, hadn’t demanded it, so, I think, maybe, possibly, slighter bigger deal made of all that than needs to be because these guys decided that they would like to do something different from what they’re doing, and actually haven’t said anything about not fulfilling their obligations.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO DRIVE FOR JACK ROUSH? THERE ARE A LOT OF TOP-NOTCH DRIVERS RACING THERE. IT IS SURPRISING WHEN A CHAMPION LEAVES FOR A SMALLER TEAM. “You’re going to have to ask Kurt about his motivations for wanting to do something different. Obviously, I don’t think has anything to do with the performance. He’s got top-notch car and team, and I’m sure that Kurt will tell you that he feels comfortable with that. It’s a great place to work if you’re very involved. From a driver’s standpoint, if you’re involved with the race car, it’s a great place to work. If you show up at the race track with a helmet-and-bag-kind-of-guy, it’s probably not better than most, because the opportunities here are that you can make a difference in the outcome of your career by having a say and being able to have impact on what happens with your team, with your hardware, with your equipment, and everything. That’s the strong point, that’s what makes this place great for Matt Kenseth. It made it great for Jeff Burton. It made it, obviously, great for me, although in the earlier years I had less influence on things than I have had in the later years, but that was all part of the growth process. That was before we had multi-car teams or when we had one additional car and Roush Racing was trying to get their legs under ’em.”
ARE THERE TOO MANY BIG DRIVERS THERE? IS THERE A POINT OF NO RETURN WHEN THERE CAN BE TOO MANY BIG NAMES? “I think you’re over-analyzing here. I think that Kurt Busch has looked at this thing and decided that he might like to do something different with his career. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that?”
WHAT ABOUT JIMMY FENNIG, THE CREW CHIEF OF THE NO. 97? YOU WORKED WITH HIM BEFORE. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO KEEP CHEMISTRY WITH THE TEAM IN A SITUATION LIKE THIS? “That would be the only challenge, I think, right now, is to keep the team charged up behind Kurt. Beyond that, it’ll be a non-issue for the team’s performance. Everyone seems to not understand that it doesn’t matter what you climb in, you want to win the same. No matter what you’re going to do tomorrow, and no matter what you did yesterday. From a driver’s standpoint, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. That does not matter. It doesn’t have any impact on what kind of effort that the guy gives. They all have huge egos. They all want to win every time they climb into anything, and, if anything else, they’d rather win in a situation that looked less promising. So, I would imagine that Kurt Busch would want to win every race the rest of the year and say, ‘See, I can get this done even though…’”
WHY HAVE YOU BEEN SO LOYAL TO JACK OVER THE YEARS? “There’s a lot of small reasons, but I think if you go all the way to root, I think that it is the way I was raised. There was one thing that my dad told me when I was a little-bitty guy, and I said, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And what it was, it was hurting my dad, it was not the right thing for my dad, and he said, ‘Because I gave my word.’ And, to be real honest with you, I’ve never been anywhere near the end of a contract. I’ve never been closer than two and a half years from the end of a contract. That’s good strategy by Roush Racing and Geoff Smith. That’s only a symptom, but the real root is that you do what you agree to do, and that’s it. And, for me, I’ve never wanted to do something else bad enough to not re-do my deal for a longer term for a better deal – which they always do. See, most contracts, whatever term they are, go full term. Mine has never gone more than two-thirds of a term, and then I’ve gotten a new contract for a better deal.”
BUT IT’S NOT THE CONTRACT THAT’S KEPT YOU WITH JACK. “No.”
YOU HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH JACK THAT’S BIGGER THAN THE CONRACT. “Yeah. Yeah, because I don’t have a contract for ’06 and don’t care if I ever have one. That’s correct. But in ’92 that might’ve been a different story, four years in with Jack Roush. You see what I mean? Before, four years into the thing, that might have made a difference. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t need any more contracts, and I’m hoping that Jack would feel the same way. I’m not saying we won’t have, because our company is run by an attorney, so I’m sure we will have, but it wouldn’t matter if we did or not. Because that takes time to build.”
DID YOU KNOW THAT KURT WAS UNHAPPY? DID YOU SENSE THAT THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN? “I know Kurt has been a little bit frustrated, because what has happened with Kurt Busch is his career has progressed faster than the business side can keep up with. He’s operating under a sponsorship that was laid out before he was champion, not after he was champion. So, it takes time. There’s a lag, especially when you come up the ladder as fast as Kurt did, there’s a certain lag. These are long-term contracts with sponsors, and there’s a lag. You don’t get the payoff for performance until later. That’s a fact. I’ve experienced that. But mine wasn’t as fast as his, and so I understand that. That is something that will drive you crazy.”
DID IT SHOCK YOU WHEN YOU HEARD THE NEWS? “Well, I didn’t see it coming. I thought because Kurt was really the model teammate, better than you could dream of having, that I guess I mistook that for also being a life-timer company guy, because he’s been so good about things, and such a good teammate on and off the race track. I’m a big Kurt Busch fan. There’s nothing that Kurt Busch could ever do that could change my feelings toward him. I’m his number one fan and always will be. So, I may not even be objective in answering these questions, because I’m a Kurt Busch fan. He may make a mistake here or there, but he doesn’t do a lot of wrong in my eyes, because I’m a big fan of his.”
HAVE YOU TALKED TO JACK AT ALL? “I talked to him Tuesday afternoon and he was putting on a strong front. And that’s the only time I talked to him. I called him, concerned about how he was doing, and he seemed to be putting on a strong front about it. This is a big, strong organization, and it can survive a lot of different blows. You know, he went down in a lake and temporarily drowned not too long ago, and we survived that – just to put it in perspective.”
