NASCAR notebook: Roush takes blame for poor COT season

CONCORD, N.C. — Jack Roush admitted he screwed up.

The car owner said he wasn’t aggressive enough in his team’s Car of Tomorrow testing last season and it was the main reason why his teams struggled in those races.

Roush’s teams won just two of the 16 COT races last year.

“I was responsible for the Roush Fenway teams not going underground and go to tracks NASCAR didn’t sanction,” Roush said.

Roush deflected some of the blame toward NASCAR and said he was just following the rules. He said he was told by an unnamed official teams would be punished if they tested outside seven NASCAR sanctioned tests.

NASCAR never issued anything official on the subject and is even allotting teams tires to use in non-sanctioned tests for this year.

“I believed they were serious and were going to stop us from testing,” Roush said. “I thought it was only going to be a matter of time before the guillotine fell on those who were testing. I was wrong. I misread NASCAR. They wound up going with the flow and what teams wanted to do.

“But if I would have been in front of the line, I don’t think things would have worked out that way.”

Roush has changed his approach and said his teams have increased testing since last May and tested at Nashville Speedway this week.

“We think we are caught up on the deficit we had,” he said. “And we think we are ready to start on a level playing field.”



Challenging Darlington

Greg Biffle believes one of the biggest challenges for the upcoming season will be the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington.

NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway is being repaved for the first time since 1995 and Biffle believes the new surface will lessen the significance of tire wear and change the racing so that it’s similar to what happened at Las Vegas and Lowe’s Motor Speedway when those tracks were repaved.

“We probably will only have to change right side tires two or three times,” Biffle said. “What you guys know as Darlington is not going to be anymore. In my opinion, there ain’t no way it will be close to the same. The racing will still be good because we will run close to the wall. But it will be totally different.”

Biffle will be one of the first to test the track this spring.



Contract talks

Biffle said there have been contract negotiations between him and Roush Fenway Racing.

Biffle’s deal expires at the end of the year but he has expressed interest in remaining with the team. He has driven for the team for 10 years and said staying with Roush probably gives him the best chance to win.

“Where am I going to go?” Biffle said. “Let’s look at it both ways — if I had a chance to drive for Hendrick then I might consider it. But we all know that opportunity doesn’t exist. Other than that, I think all other teams are on our tier. I’m certainly not going to take a step backwards in competition for monetary value.”



Loosening the reins

Driver Carl Edwards said he was glad to hear the news that NASCAR is going to loosen up in handing down penalties and allow drivers to show their emotions more.

During the last few years, the sport has done its best to try and clean up incidents on and off the track.

Edwards was involved in one altercation when he and teammate Matt Kenseth were in a pushing incident following the fall race at Martinsville.

“I’m glad NASCAR is going to do that,” Edwards said. “Because there are days I am just fighting mad when I get out of the car. But it is good to have a job that you care that much about.”



NHRA in North Carolina

Speedway Motorsports chairman Bruton Smith went through a lot get the OK to build a 30,000-seat dragstrip near Lowe’s Motor Speedway and now he has a date for the first event.

The NHRA Carolinas Nationals will be held Sept. 11-14 and will be the first event in the new NHRA playoff system.