NASCAR President Mike Helton (left) and NASCAR CEO Brian France meet the press on Friday at Phoenix. Credit: Autostock

NASCAR: Team cap not intended to punish

Four-car teams will be allowed to field part-time programs

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- If you don't understand NASCAR new policy limiting the number of teams an owner can possess, don't worry. Jack Roush doesn't understand it, either.

"There are no details," said Roush. "It has the feel that we're going to make it up as we go. The WWF has their ways of determining who is going to win and what the ranking is and maybe NASCAR behind the scenes is trying to do the same thing."

Jack Roush is the only owner who fields five full-time teams. Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images

In 2006, team owners would be limited to four Nextel Cup Series teams per organization. On Friday, NASCAR CEO Brian France said that doesn't mean that multicar teams aren't crucial to NASCAR's continued success. However, there has to be a limit to ensure the future of the sport.

"Down the road, several years from now, if we didn't do anything, you very well could have a situation where it's six, seven or more teams that are under a common ownership. While there's points of that they may not feel wrong, the barrier to a new car owner who's coming in is a daunting task to say, 'I've got to own how many teams to be competitive? Is it five? Is it six?'

"While we want a cap and we want to go in that direction, we don't want to put such a moat around the teams that they can't help assist us bring new owners into the sport. That's why it's kind of a work in progress."

For example, a team with four cars -- such as Hendrick Motorsports -- will be able to run a fifth team under a limited schedule. NASCAR President Mike Helton defined such a situation as one that is "getting a rookie ready for the following season, with a limited number of races attached to it."

Teams will also be free to be suppliers to other teams, such as engine deals that the bigger teams have with its smaller teams today.

Also, Roush Racing is going to be grandfathered in to this rule change, only being forced to go to four teams at an undetermined point, in the future. Currently, Roush has sponsor commitments for all its teams that run until at least 2008.

Still, Roush takes the rule change very personally.

Multi-taskers Teams that field more than one car in the Nextel Cup Series: Team Cars Roush 5 Hendrick 4 Gibbs 3 Childress 3 Ganassi 3 Penske 3 Evernham 2 Yates 2 MB2 2 DEI 2 Petty 2

"The thing they did by picking on five rather than four is they singled me out," Roush said. "I'm the only guy with five viable teams and the worst of all scenarios is we put all five of them in the Chase and, of course, that gave the bonus to our sponsors for the exposure that they got for being involved with us rather than somebody else and they want to diminish it to some extent.

"I take it personally. I do take it personally," said Roush.

France said he understands Roush's anger, but says this change was not directed at Roush's team.

"I can understand that," said France. "He is the only owner with five teams, so it's very understandable to think that he's disappointed.

"It's not focused on Jack Roush, because Jack Roush hasn't done anything wrong. He just happens to be the guy that has five and he stands out.

"We're looking at a policy for the whole sport, not just one team owner."

Meanwhile, Roush doesn't believe NASCAR is done suppressing owners.

"They've told me it's four," Roush said. "But they haven't said that they would never, never, never consider anything less because you could start that slide and then you could say, 'Well, it's got to be one team, one owner.'

France didn't shut the door on that concept Friday.

"We felt like four was the number that fit our short-term issues without trying to penalize too far what the owners who have multicar teams have done," he said. "They've played by the rules. They've competed fairly. They haven't done one thing in the wrong direction.

"We have considered three. We'll look down the road at if four is the right number. We feel like we're comfortable with that. If down the road, we think it may be different, we'll look at it."

While Roush is certainly beyond angry over this change, he also knows he, his sponsors and his drivers want to stay in the sport.

"I'm not sure what they're trying to do is legally right or is defensible in a court of law," said Roush. "But I want to be in this business. I don't want to jeopardize my sponsors and my drivers and our prospects in the near term.

"I choose not to fight right now, at least not when (the cap) is at four," he said. "You get an animal cornered, he can be a pretty meek animal, but he'll fight pretty hard when he's in a corner. I think that through this they really didn't want to corner us.

"Even though it was about Roush and it was about Mark Martin and it was about Matt Kenseth and it was about Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle -- that even though it was about all of that, they don't want to put us out of business."