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."

“

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

”

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.

When a reporter pointed out that Roush Fenway would have to drop from five teams to four after the 2009 season, Roush said McMurray's No. 26 squad would not be prematurely marked for dismissal -- if it even left "the family."

At the beginning of this season, Roush Fenway manager Max Jones left the team to become a co-owner of Yates Racing -- another Ford team and Roush's partner in the Roush Yates Engines Company -- with Doug Yates.

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Roush plainly explained his philosophy in abetting that deal.

"It really has more to do with the sponsor relationship than the driver," Roush said of any potential team moves. "But one of the reasons that I fostered the relationship I've got with Max and with Doug was to be able to have a place to put a sponsor.

"We do help [Yates] sell their sponsorships, we do help them with their marketing programs, we do all the engineering [and] we do build all the cars. It's a closely affiliated relationship that maintains the barriers that NASCAR wants to put up for competitive considerations -- but it has not been determined that the 26 program or that Crown Royal will go.

"I've got two more years -- I've got the rest of 2008 and 2009 to sort that out."

McMurray's teammates said they knew of no inner workings that McMurray wouldn't be aware of, and Biffle even made light of the omission.

"Jack's like that -- I'm surprised he remembered four of us," Biffle said. "He introduces us at the Christmas party and forgets Matt [laughing]. I think it's just Jack -- I don't think there was an intention of singling out anybody.

"I don't know that Jamie has felt any more pressure than all of us. I've got a lot of pressure to not make mistakes and get good finishes -- I think we all do. We all feel the same pressure.

"We all have good contracts with a great sponsor, so when it comes time to figure out what we're gonna do to go to four teams, I'm sure there's gonna be an incentive package or program for somebody to move over to the Yates organization -- that's the obvious answer for us."

Kenseth said the subject has never come up in his presence.

"Obviously, there's some affiliation with Yates Racing so we've never talked about it internally," Kenseth said. "I've never been in any conversations internally about the future and what [Roush] plans on doing for teams.

"Obviously, some day they've got to get it whittled down to four, I just assumed one of the teams would end up probably over at Yates, but I don't really know."

Kenseth, without knowing exactly what Roush had said, actually put himself in McMurray's place.

"I kind of am in [McMurray's] shoes, honestly," Kenseth said. "Jamie and I, I think, have the shortest time left on our contracts at Roush and I think they both expire at the same time, so I think that we're kind of in the same boat.

"Greg and Carl just re-signed long-term and I'm not sure about David's situation, so really I'm kind of in the same situation. You're only as good as your last race. I don't think you're ever really secure in your job -- you have to perform all the time.

"It's a performance business and I think we all realize that."

Ragan, who is fifth in the Nationwide Series standings, said that was his biggest concern as he acknowledged the same timeframe Roush mentioned.

"I don't see [a short-term cutback]," Ragan said. "I think next year we're still going to have the five cars, and I really hadn't thought about that much at all. I think that's something that Jack Roush and [competition director] Robbie Reiser and [team president] Geoff Smith -- some of those guys -- are going to concentrate on, and the only thing that I need to concentrate on is our [Cup] car and our Nationwide program -- trying to find Victory Lane and be consistent."

Also
• Edwards signs three-year extension with Roush Fenway
• Deal to keep Biffle at Roush through 2011 | Deal done