Big checks from Toyota a threat or mere myth?

CONCORD, N.C. -- His trademark fedora might as well be the red, white and blue top hat worn by Uncle Sam. From his first days as a Ford engineer, Jack Roush has been a staunch proponent of American enterprise. Years ago, when one of his employees showed up for work driving a yellow, Japanese-made pickup truck, Roush paid the man in yen.

Now it's not yen, but U.S. dollars that have the NASCAR team owner concerned -- specifically, the vast quantities of them that the world's second-largest carmaker is allegedly spending to lure top talent into its fold. Toyota doesn't make its Nextel Cup debut until the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, but tales about the size of its checkbook and the sheer amounts of cash it's lavishing on people have already reached mythological proportions.

"It's like Bigfoot. You hear folklore," said Mike Accavitti, director of motorsports operations for Dodge. "It's like, 'They gave this guy $10 billion and free engines for the rest of his life!'"

But to Roush, it's no joke. He's made over $220 million in 18 seasons as a car owner on NASCAR's premier series, but says Roush Racing turns a profit of only 3 to 5 percent each year. So what happens if a Toyota team, backed by a manufacturer that isn't suffering from the financial crunch plaguing domestic carmakers, approaches a top driver like Matt Kenseth or Greg Biffle and offers to double his salary?

"At the end of Greg's or Matt's contract with me, if they want to offer them twice as much money, which they have the ability to do ... I've got to come back and have an influx of money coming from another direction that causes me to operate in the red by what I have to spend versus what I raise," Roush said. "If I have to go 20 percent upside down, I'm faced with the same scenarios I had when I came in in 1988: How long can I stay, and what's my confidence that it's going to turn around?"

Yet whether Toyota is really using outrageous salaries to stock its Nextel Cup outfits is a matter of debate. The most vocal criticism has come from those affiliated with Ford, which lost driver Dale Jarrett and his UPS sponsorship to Michael Waltrip's startup Toyota team. In a Jan. 17 New York Times report, Ford Racing head Dan Davis called Toyota "predators," claiming he had heard Waltrip signed Jarrett for $20 million, and that another Toyota team, Red Bull, lured engineer John Probst from Ford by doubling or tripling his salary.(Continued)