INDIANAPOLIS -- On Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, owner Jack Roush was quick to defend his driver, Jamie McMurray -- right after he said he would not allow any of McMurray's four Roush Fenway Racing teammates to be pilfered from his team -- while pointedly omitting McMurray.

"Jamie is important to me," Roush said. "But today, Jamie is not the driver that's been productive, to the extent that the other four are. I look forward to, and certainly expect, great things from Jamie, but the productivity has not been there at this point."

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Jamie is important to me ... it has not been determined that the 26 program or that Crown Royal will go.

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JACK ROUSH

Roush was prompted to speak out when he was asked how manufacturers' possible cutbacks would affect the competitive balance among race teams.

"If one manufacturer continues to spend the same money, or more money, and everybody else contracts [their spending], then there'll be a huge benefit [to the most-financially able manufacturer because] they'll be able to recruit the best people and do more open testing and do things that would further unbalance things," Roush said. "If all the manufacturers would back down at the same time, which is not going to happen because one of them at least won't do that, as seen by me, that would be fine.

"But right now, with the line that I've drawn across the sand, nobody's going to take Carl Edwards from me, nobody's going to take Matt Kenseth from me, nobody's going to take David Ragan from me -- nobody's going to take Greg Biffle from me.

"If they do, if I get to the point that I can't match what somebody else will do, and I can't make it to the track because of the quality of my parts or my program, then I need to retire -- I need to go fishing.

"And I'm not ready to go fishing."

On the eve of Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, Roush Fenway has three drivers currently in the 12-man Chase for the Sprint Cup field: Edwards (three wins) in fourth, Biffle in seventh and Kenseth in eighth. Ragan is 15th, 98 points out of 12th.

McMurray, whose current contract runs through the end of 2009 and who last won in the 2007 Pepsi 400 at Daytona -- 37 races ago -- is 22nd in the standings, with only three top-10 finishes this season in the No. 26 Ford. (Continued)