Ford team-owner Jack Roush [#6,16,17,26,99] will use B.F. Goodrich and/or Hoosier tires to test his Car of Tomorrow fleet on non-Nextel Cup tracks in coming months. The team owner believes Roush Fenway Racing is slightly behind rivals that are skirting the spirit of NASCAR’s testing policies. By rule, Cup teams are limited to a handful of closely-monitored official tests. Teams must test together at the same Cup venue, and on Goodyear Eagles. But several organizations have gotten around that limit by using Goodrich and/or Hoosiers for unofficial testing at outside tracks. NASCAR wanted to start everybody in the Car of Tomorrow on an even basis, with [the same] four or five tests, Roush said at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Well, the teams that have been successfulthe Hendrick organization, the Gibbs organization and the Childress organizationhave tested their cars multiple times a week. They’ve gone to tracks outside NASCAR’s control with tires that were not from Goodyear. Right now, Goodyear is sitting on millions of dollars worth of tires that are growing obsolete and hard in their warehouses. Teams have gotten around NASCAR’s policy by buying other people’s tires and testing at tracks that aren’t on the Nextel Cup schedule. I got behind on that; I didn’t do that. But two weeks ago I hired six people and dedicated a tractor-trailer, and I’ve gone public. OK, I’m getting in the testing game, too.’ If you don’t want us to test, have us sign something in the application. Something that says, We agree we won’t test with Goodyears or anybody else’s tires, except for the tracks that NASCAR approves.’ But they didn’t do that; they left the door open and we got behind¦ but we’re going to catch up. Strictly speaking, there’s nothing illegal about what the Hendrick, Gibbs and Childress teams are doing. Jeff Gordon, who’s won two CoT racesteammate Jimmie Johnson has won two and Kyle Busch the othersaid Hendrick Motorsports shouldn’t apologize for its CoT success. If the Roush teams aren’t doing that, then that’s their mistake, the series points-leader said. We’re doing everything we can to be competitive and we’re not doing anything wrong. It’s definitely playing a role in helping us get to where we are.(Ford Racing)(5-29-2007)
