You don't know Jack

Burton gives insider's take on stoic Roush Racing leader

Sometimes, with his straw hat, radio headphones and stopwatch all looped about his face, Jack Roush resembles what he once was -- a math professor.

He's not a big guy. His twill shirts and khakis are mix-and-match necessity. The eyes that peer through those dark-framed glasses can dissect or dismiss, and it's only a guess here, but fools likely cross his path at their own risk.

"I think that we sometimes have trouble in the garage because people think they know Jack and how he'd be to work for, but they really don't know Jack," said Jeff Burton, one of Roush Racing's four Winston Cup drivers.

While his owner lay hospitalized with injuries suffered in Friday's single-plane crash near Troy, Ala., Burton leaned against his interior hauler doors Sunday morning at Talladega and raised a few figurative shades on the entrepreneur who holds a graduate degree in scientific mathematics, and who built his racing kingdom from scratch.

"He's very compassionate and I don't think most people realize that," said Burton, who's in his seventh season with Roush. "I think most people look at him as an engineer, businessman, disciplinarian. And I know him a lot better than that. His persona and his demeanor are different than what I think he really is."

I expected a similar stereotype: humorless-ness, a blinders-on preoccupation. During Speed Weeks, I introduced myself to Jack and asked his opinion on Ford's perceived aerodynamic deficiencies.

"If it comes out that it was his fault, or whatever happens, he is an accomplished pilot. And he will be mad that he wrecked that airplane." Jeff Burton

"Who are you with?" he asked, trying to read the affiliation on the NASCAR-mandated ID card hanging around my neck. The reply, CNN, seemed to satisfy. I got paragraphic discourse on why Fords were disadvantaged, half of which escaped me, and I thanked him and moved on.

Immediately after the Daytona 500, where five Fords finished in the top 10 -- including Roush's Kurt Busch in third place -- I again caught Jack in the garage. This time I got a shorter paragraph; he turned to enter Mark Martin's hauler, and I thanked him.

"I thought you might be trying to get me to say something," he replied.

I burst out laughing. "No!"

He turned back, offered a conciliatory hug. And whether it was my hyena reaction, or just sympathy for a NASCAR neophyte, Jack has been refreshingly approachable ever since, willing to explain the most simple racing concepts; a willing foil for kidding.

"Jack has a side to him that unless he lets you into it, you never see it," Burton said.

During, the final, crucial 40 laps at Texas, I passed Jack in the pits. We were both radio-wired, couldn't have heard anything else. He was doing laps between his teams. Matt Kenseth led, Martin was top-five, and Busch was top-15 -- the absolute heat of battle. I smiled an acknowledgement. Jack replied by miming Edvard Munch's The Cry.

"He cares about people," Burton said. "He's very smart. He's very calculating. He doesn't make a lot of rash decisions. He really thinks things through."

Currently, all Roush drivers rank in the top 15 in the Cup standings. Kenseth, a two-time winner, is second behind Sterling Marlin. Busch is fourth, Martin is ninth and Burton, 11th, all of which lends poignancy to Roush's near-fatal plane crash. He suffered a closed head injury, multiple fractures of his left leg and ankle. Was celebrating his 60th birthday with friends, flying a private aircraft that he, a veteran pilot, hadn't flown before.

"If it comes out that it was his fault, or whatever happens, he is an accomplished pilot," Burton said. "And he will be mad that he wrecked that airplane."

Burton and Martin were already at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center on Friday evening by the time emergency personnel arrived with Roush. Martin, also a veteran pilot, had heard that their boss had been flying an ultra-light.

"Mark couldn't believe it to the point of wanting to look at him when he came in to make sure it was him," Burton said. "I was kind of on the other side of that. I can see Jack looking at an airplane saying, 'Hmmm, yeah, I'll fly it.'"

That same inquisitiveness has been a core ingredient in Roush's success. He's been a Cup owner since 1988, an engine builder and parts supplier forever. It's not a hobby; the Ohio native has dabbled in all sorts of motor sports since his days as a Ford employee, and he can dive under the hood with all his crew chiefs.

"Mark and I joked once, somebody asked us if he'd ever been on vacation," Burton said. "And Mark said to me -- and I've said it a thousand times -- the only way he'd go to vacation somewhere is if he could build his own boat and row the damn thing over there."

At Bristol, after Busch's first Cup win, word came in the press box that driver and owner were on their way upstairs for interviews. Denny Darnell, senior media relations manager for R.J. Reynolds' Sports Marketing Enterprises, covered the phone, and said something like, "Jack wants to know if someone can look up the results for Kyle's race in Florida," to all of us.

He referred to Busch's younger brother, who's cutting his driving teeth in other series.

"He did great last year through all of our struggles," Burton said of 2001, the nadir of Roush Racing's Cup history. "I was bad nervous last year about him really going nuts, but he didn't. He hung in there and just kept digging -- 'Guys, it's OK, we'll figure it out. How can I help you? What we can we do to make it better? What do we need to do with our engineering program, our bodies? Tell me what I need to do to help you.'"

His teams may have to boost their owner now. Medical uncertainty and danger remain, even as company officials offer daily, hopeful updates at www.rouschracing.com. As of Wednesday, Roush was listed in serious condition. He's already had two rounds of surgery. More is probable.

"It'll be interesting to watch him when he comes back," Burton said. "I have visions of this home-built wheelchair -- cause his leg is all messed up and he isn't gonna be hobbling around here -- and it'll be really interesting. We aren't going to put lifts on the back of our trailer. We're specially building them so that they only fit in Mark's trailer."

That Burton could joke 48 hours after near-tragedy bodes well. And his prediction may not be misplaced. Sunday morning at Martinsville, Jack offered, at my request, a verbal seminar on race engineering; even rooted his chief engineer, Terry Satchell, away from whatever he was doing so I could quiz him, too. We pow-wowed in Burton's hauler, where there are no fancy mirror etchings, carpeting, or appliances; only noise from the shock dynamometer.

"We don't have excess," Burton said. "We don't have the prettiest trailers. We don't have the prettiest shop. We don't have the prettiest stuff. We have very functional stuff that wins races."

Seven days later, he glanced out that same hauler's windowed doors.

"He won't like not being here," Burton predicted. "He really loves this. Most people just don't realize. ... His brother said to us the other night, talking to Mark, 'You guys, you've been around him a long time, but obviously not as long as me. I hope you realize how happy he is when he's with you guys.'"

Get well soon, Jack.

Denise N. Maloof covers NASCAR for CNNSI.com.

 

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