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Sprint Cup
CUP: Roush Returns To Track
Jack Roush broke his back and lost his left eye in a July 27 airplane crash...
Team owner Jack Roush answers questions from the media on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series CARFAX 400 at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Jack Roush lost an eye and broke his back in his July 27 airplane crash at Oshkosh, Wisc., but on Friday the 68-year-old team owner returned to Michigan International Speedway, his first track visit since the accident.
“I’ve got a back brace on because I’ve got some trauma to my back, and I’ve got some nosepacking in my nose, so I’m breathing through my mouth and those are my two primary discomforts,” said Roush. “Everything will come back but the left eye. I’ve lost the left eye. And because my vision before the problem was 20/15, corrected, and my right eye was my dominant eye, was my primary eye, and so I’ll still be able to see more than I should.”
The co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing crash-landed his Beechcraft Premiere jet July 27, while attempting to land at Wittman Regional Airport, where he was scheduled to attend an air show put on by the Experimental Aircraft Association.
“It was basically a landing accident, based on a conflict in airspace with another airplane, after I’d been given clearance to land at Oshkosh, Wisc.,” said Roush.
Roush flies a variety of aircraft. The one he crashed was his primary jet.
“It was my flying-around airplane, it was my Premiere One. The airplane did a great job. It stayed intact. It’s got a carbonfiber fuselage. It stayed intact and kept me and my passenger relatively safe.”
Roush, who has more than 8,000 hours as a pilot, said he hoped to keep flying. “I think it’s very likely that I’ll fly,” said Roush. “I’ve got to get recovered. ... Wiley Post was a one-eyed pilot. There’s no restriction - maybe if you’re an airline pilot. There’s no reason I can’t fly with one eye.”
And Roush, who also survived an airplane crash on his 60th birthday, acknowledged his luck. “I feel very lucky,” Roush said. “I’ve had several bites of the apple here.”
Most of all, Roush said he was extremely proud of how his Roush Fenway Racing team functioned in his absence.
“I’m really proud of the way the organization has rallied,” said Roush. “We were gaining in our performance, moving from not where I wanted to be in the area of the top 10 and into the top five. ... Roush Fenway Racing will outlive me and it will outlive anybody else that’s with the company today. We’ve got the plans in place for that and this was a little test case. ‘How can you do it without Jack and not have it fail?’ Well, this is bigger than me. It’s bigger than anybody.”
And ever the racer, Roush is already thinking NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.
“The organization is very strong. We’re working at peaking at the right time of the year,” said Roush. “We’re approaching the Chase ... we have a very good chance of putting three cars in the Chase. And with the way that the cars are running right now, I think that we’re in a position to be better at the end of the year than we’ve been all year.
“And the point was, the momentum for that, the things that were in place were unaffected by the fact that I had a problem. And anybody could have had a problem.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
“I’ve got a back brace on because I’ve got some trauma to my back, and I’ve got some nosepacking in my nose, so I’m breathing through my mouth and those are my two primary discomforts,” said Roush. “Everything will come back but the left eye. I’ve lost the left eye. And because my vision before the problem was 20/15, corrected, and my right eye was my dominant eye, was my primary eye, and so I’ll still be able to see more than I should.”
The co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing crash-landed his Beechcraft Premiere jet July 27, while attempting to land at Wittman Regional Airport, where he was scheduled to attend an air show put on by the Experimental Aircraft Association.
“It was basically a landing accident, based on a conflict in airspace with another airplane, after I’d been given clearance to land at Oshkosh, Wisc.,” said Roush.
Roush flies a variety of aircraft. The one he crashed was his primary jet.
“It was my flying-around airplane, it was my Premiere One. The airplane did a great job. It stayed intact. It’s got a carbonfiber fuselage. It stayed intact and kept me and my passenger relatively safe.”
Roush, who has more than 8,000 hours as a pilot, said he hoped to keep flying. “I think it’s very likely that I’ll fly,” said Roush. “I’ve got to get recovered. ... Wiley Post was a one-eyed pilot. There’s no restriction - maybe if you’re an airline pilot. There’s no reason I can’t fly with one eye.”
And Roush, who also survived an airplane crash on his 60th birthday, acknowledged his luck. “I feel very lucky,” Roush said. “I’ve had several bites of the apple here.”
Most of all, Roush said he was extremely proud of how his Roush Fenway Racing team functioned in his absence.
“I’m really proud of the way the organization has rallied,” said Roush. “We were gaining in our performance, moving from not where I wanted to be in the area of the top 10 and into the top five. ... Roush Fenway Racing will outlive me and it will outlive anybody else that’s with the company today. We’ve got the plans in place for that and this was a little test case. ‘How can you do it without Jack and not have it fail?’ Well, this is bigger than me. It’s bigger than anybody.”
And ever the racer, Roush is already thinking NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.
“The organization is very strong. We’re working at peaking at the right time of the year,” said Roush. “We’re approaching the Chase ... we have a very good chance of putting three cars in the Chase. And with the way that the cars are running right now, I think that we’re in a position to be better at the end of the year than we’ve been all year.
“And the point was, the momentum for that, the things that were in place were unaffected by the fact that I had a problem. And anybody could have had a problem.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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