Under fire team owner Jack Roush and his driver Carl Edwards have responded angrily to criticism concerning Edwards' oil tank lid infraction at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
With rival drivers, team owners and even manufacturers making some highly critical public remarks about Roush-Fenway Racing and their actions during the UAW-Dodge 400 weekend Edwards and, in particular Roush himself, were in a feisty mood when they addressed the media at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday.
“I swear it was not an intentional thing,” Edwards said. “It doesn't change what I'm gonna do; I just drive the race car as fast as I can. It's not my responsibility to tighten that bolt.”
Regarding the criticism from his fellow drivers, Edwards was unfazed.
“You can tell a lot about people by the way they act,” Edwards said. “People get worked up about it; we've got ‘em where we want ‘em. It's not a big deal to me personally; it's almost comical.”
Roush saved most of his ire for Toyota General Manager Lee White, who stated in an interview with the
USA Today newspaper that the team was deliberately cheating. Visibly upset at White's claims Roush went so far as to say that he, along with Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne, would all take lie detector tests to prove their innocence.
“We're not culpable," Roush said as he took a swipe at Toyota's claim to have tested their cars in the wind tunnel specifically with the oil tank lid taken off. “It was not our intent. We did not have the expectation that that thing would come off, but apparently there's enough cheaters out there that have been playing in this area that they know absolutely for sure how much it's worth and the fact that there's an advantage.”
