Jeff Owens: Lessons from 2002 crash will help Roush Fenway Racing rally around injured team owner
Jack Roush jokes with drivers Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth during Media Tour at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in January. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Illustrated
COMMENTARY
Roush Fenway Racing has been through this before.
Learning that their boss and team owner has been seriously injured in a plane crash is not something NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and teams are accustomed to, despite the fact that most of them spend a considerable amount of time in the air, flying from race track to race track.
Yet, Roush Fenway Racing has been through it twice now in eight years.
Jack Roush was involved in a nearly fatal plane crash in April of 2002 in Troy, Ala., near Talladega Superspeedway.
Eight years later, a plane piloted by Roush has crashed again, this time during landing Tuesday in Oshkosh, Wis. Roush is hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. while being treated for facial injuries suffered in the crash.
What are the odds of the same guy surviving two frightening plane crashes in the same lifetime? For Roush, a man who has made his living around fast cars in a dangerous sport, that’s akin to winning dozens of races on fuel mileage and rain delays.
A second frightening crash is a startling blow to Roush and his hundreds of employees at Roush Fenway Racing.
Yet Roush and his teams will respond the same way they did in 2002 – by rallying around their leader, using the accident as inspiration and forging ahead with the business at hand, which is trying to win races and a championship.
Roush’s crash in 2002 occurred when his lightweight aircraft hit a power line and landed upside-down in a lake. He suffered life-threatening injuries, including a closed head injury, but thanks to a heroic rescue by Marine Corp veteran Larry Hicks, he survived and made a remarkable recovery.
Roush was hurt so badly – including a severely broken leg and complications from being submerged underwater for an unhealthy period of time – that his doctor estimated that only five out of 100 people would have survived.
But as former Roush driver Jeff Burton said at the time, “Jack is a tough [SOB]. If there’s anybody who can survive and come through this 100 percent, it’s him.”
Roush not only survived, but also held a press conference eight days after the crash and was back in charge of his team and at the track in a few short months.
His recovery likely will be much quicker this time, and his team again likely won’t miss a beat.
Roush has built one of the largest and most successful operations in NASCAR, fielding top teams in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series.
Three of his four Cup teams are currently in the top 12 in points and battling for a spot in the Chase For The Sprint Cup.
And though the organization is having a bit of an off year, having not yet won a Cup race, it has shown some steam in recent weeks with Carl Edwards finishing second at Chicago and Greg Biffle third last week at Indy.
Buoyed by a new Ford engine and the tireless efforts of all four teams, Roush Fenway appears headed for a turnaround. It would not be surprising to see Edwards, Biffle or Matt Kenseth win in the next few weeks.
Though Roush will be sorely missed while he recovers from his injuries, the crash won’t be a setback for the organization, which is one of the deepest in NASCAR and has capable leaders like team president Geoff Smith and competition director Robbie Reiser, not to mention a host of veteran crewmen and crew chiefs.
In 2002, Roush Racing was in the midst of one of its finest seasons when Roush’s plane went down.
Prior to the crash, Kenseth had won two races and teammate Kurt Busch one. Four weeks after the crash, Mark Martin won for Roush at Charlotte.
Kenseth went on to win five races that year and Busch won four. They combined to win four of the last five races of the season and Martin finished just 38 points behind Tony Stewart in the race for the championship.
The following year, Kenseth gave Roush his first Cup championship and, a year later, Busch won the inaugural Chase.
As Roush recovered from his injuries and the death-defying experience, the organization he built never missed a beat, continuing to win races and challenging for the series championship.
“The reason that we are here is because of Jack,” Burton said a day after the 2002 crash. “I don’t think people realize that everything he has built, it started from racing.”
“If I know Jack,” Kenseth said shortly after Roush’s first plane crash, “he’d be upset if we didn’t get down to business and go on with racing as hard as we can.”
Roush and his organization proved that in 2002. As he recovered, Roush vowed to come back stronger than ever, and he did.
“I won’t pull back, I won’t work any less hard, I won’t be any less competitive, I won’t be less than I can be every day of my life,” he said eight days after the 2002 crash. “I’ll do everything I can with all the areas and opportunities in front of me. That’s my standard.”
It is still his standard today.
Roush Fenway Racing will be fine while its leader and co-owner recovers from his latest brush with death.
And when he returns, he and his organization will be as strong as ever.
