Much like his race team, Jack Roush appears back up to full speed. He's once again a fixture at the race track. He's driving a car. He's overseeing his regular meeting of drivers, crew chiefs, and engineers, which Ford Racing boss Jamie Allison attended last week. He's even twice flown airplanes, in each instance with another pilot in the cockpit, the first time the Friday evening before the Atlanta race in a J3 Piper Cub.

That was Roush's first airborne foray since he crash-landed a private jet at a crowded regional airport in Oshkosh, Wis., on July 27. The accident, which the NASCAR team owner attributes to air-traffic confusion, led to more than two weeks of hospitalization and cost Roush the use of his left eye. It was the second airplane crash Roush had survived in eight years, but when the time came to get back in the pilot's seat, he didn't give it a second thought.

“

I think I'm back up to full potential. I know I was on a treadmill for a reasonable period of time last evening, which is a Sunday evening for me if I don't have a race. I'm sleeping well and eating well.

”

-- JACK ROUSH

"There was no hesitation for it," he said.

He's taken a physical beating and survived another near-death experience, but Roush is back at it as his Roush Fenway operation begins pursuit of a third Cup championship this week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Even though his organization has recorded only one victory this season, Roush has three of his drivers in the title hunt, with Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle all in contention to add another trophy to those won by Roush drivers in 2003 and 2004.

And the car owner will be right there with them. This most recent crash took a severe physical toll on the 68-year-old Roush, who suffered a compression fracture in his back and a broken jaw in addition to the loss of his left eye. Those injuries were still very evident when Roush, wearing a back brace and with his nose clogged with medical packing, returned to the race track for the first time since the accident at Michigan International Speedway on Aug. 13.

Now? Speaking with writers on a conference call this week, Roush sounded like the Jack of old, regaining his strength just in time to watch his drivers vie for a championship.

"Physically, I'm back to 100 percent," he said. "I did lose the use of my left eye through my facial injury, but my right eye corrects to 20/15, which is the same as it was before. I'm driving a car. With another pilot with me, I've flown two airplanes since the accident, and I'm on a complete, normal schedule for me with my involvement with my engineering company in Michigan and my interaction with Ford on many fronts, and, of course, with my race teams in North Carolina. If the question is, am I back? -- I'm back, and I was really off stage for less than three weeks as I went through my surgeries. I think I'm back up to full potential. I know I was on a treadmill for a reasonable period of time last evening, which is a Sunday evening for me if I don't have a race. I'm sleeping well and eating well."

Kenseth, who claimed Roush's first NASCAR title in 2003, knows his boss is lucky. But he's also not surprised to see Roush back on the job so soon after his most recent crash.

"Not many people walk away from one plane crash, much less two," Kenseth said. "Yeah, he's lucky to still be with us, [to] be able to walk away from all that stuff. I can't say I was really surprised he got back to the track as quick as he did. He loves being at the track, he loves being at the shop, being in the middle of all the business and all the decisions and stuff. I wasn't surprised he was back as quick as he was. He always loves racing, the business end, the competition end. That's what he enjoys doing."

Roush was also involved in a crash in 2002, when the home-built kit aircraft he was flying struck power lines and landed upside down in a lake in Troy, Ala. He survived thanks to the efforts of Larry Hicks, a former Marine who lived nearby and pulled the unconscious Roush out of the water. Looking back, Roush said his accidents haven't been the result of reckless action, but circumstances where the margins for error narrowed considerably. That's helped him to view his employees at the race track in a different light.

It's also led him to savor the experience -- for a little while, at least, until it's time to go back to the work of trying to win races and championships at NASCAR's premier level. This is Jack Roush, after all.

"I'd like to think that I'm more sympathetic to their circumstance than I would be if I hadn't had my own problems that resulted in something that was not good for me in terms of an outcome," he said. "As far as the race teams are concerned, when I've been able to get back to the race tracks -- in both cases when I've been able to go back and interact with the guys in the meetings and the shops -- I've taken a deep breath and savored the moment and said, 'You know, this might not have happened except for my good fortune and making it through my trial and tribulation here.' But once I've taken my deep breath and celebrated the moment that I was back, it's been business as usual for me."