NASCAR sets four-car cap for Nextel Cup

NASCAR sets four-car cap for Nextel Cup

November 10, 2005
06:56 PM EST (23:56 GMT)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Big-money teams will be allowed to field only four cars under a cap limit set by NASCAR on Thursday, a move that infuriated the five-car Roush Racing organization.

The limit goes into effect next season, but NASCAR said it would work to set a timeline for compliance for teams with more than four entries. At present time, Jack Roush is the only car owner with five teams and all of them are in the 10-man Chase for the championship that crowns the Nextel Cup champion.

"It is hard for Jack not to believe that there is a laser bulls-eye on his forehead," Roush Racing president Geoff Smith said.

The move had been expected since last month, when NASCAR chairman Brian France said he was looking to limit the amount of cars one owner can have.

The announcement caught Roush by surprise, and his organization has complained it was being singled-out since then.

But until Thursday's announcement, no one was certain what the cap would be.

Smith said that Roush officials recently had a private meeting with NASCAR where they were told there would be some sort of "grandfather clause" that would allow them to keep their five teams at least through the 2009 season.

All of their current contracts with sponsors and drivers at least run through '09, but what happens when those deals expire remains somewhat murky.

"Our impression is if every one of those sponsors wants to continue past '09, they can," Smith said. "If some of the sponsors don't want to continue on but every driver wants to continue past '09, that would be OK, too. But its very unlikely that all of that will happen.

"But the bottom line is we will have to go to four. It won't be next year, it won't be for a few years, but we will have to get there."



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