Daytona 500 winning car owner Jack Roush was angry about big wreck
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush apparently was irate over the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-Brian Vickers accident on lap 124 of the Daytona 500 Sunday that damaged several cars, including those of Roush Fenway's Jamie McMurray and Carl Edwards.
Several times during the winner’s news conference Monday morning, Roush declined to talk in depth about the accident, which was triggered when Earnhardt Jr. went below the yellow line (he said he was forced there) and then came back up and touched Vickers’ No. 83 Toyota.
When NASCAR officials called the event because of rain with Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth in the lead, Roush was still furious over the accident.
"I was pretty upset, and I’m not going to talk about it, but I was pretty upset about one of the wrecks that occurred last night,” Roush said. “I was in a state over that. And I looked around, and we’d won the darn race. … Because the state I was in, I had not considered the fact that it was going to take three hours to dry [the track].”
Vickers and Earnhardt Jr. blamed each other for the accident, which has stirred debate over whether Earnhardt Jr. should have been penalized for aggressive driving. Both cars were a lap down.
Roush was at the NASCAR hauler when the race was called and was asked if he was there to talk about that accident.
“I am resolved not to talk about that wreck that’s going to be debated long and wild and weird,” Roush said. “I was fraught with emotion over it. I was not believing I was seeing what I was seeing.”
Kenseth barely got by the accident, just missing Vickers in the 10-car pileup. The car in front of him, driven by Kyle Busch, was wrecked, as was the No. 99 of Roush Fenway’s Edwards, who was behind him.
“It was lucky that [Kenseth] missed with one car in front of him being wrecked out of the race and one car behind him being wrecked out of the race," Roush said. "There was incredible luck that he got through that and was able to win this race."
