Roush Toyota feud could escalate

The Roush Racing, Toyota feud could be escalating. According to team owner Jack Roush a proprietary part belonging to a Roush-Fenway Ford turned up in a Toyota camp, sources say Michael Waltrip Racing, after a post race teardown. Roush cried foul and earlier this week threatened further action.

“We are considering legal action, or getting NASCAR involved," Roush was quoted as saying. Wednesday, president and chief executive officer of Toyota Racing Development Jim Aust said the part was a spring and as soon as it was learned that it belonged to another team, it was returned.

"I don't understand the whole procedure when a teardown happens," said Aust, referring to a post-race process in which several cars are torn down by NASCAR inspectors. "The only thing I know is it wound up with parts we had and they were returned to Roush."

Aust also said that no one at Toyota knows exactly how they ended up with the part to begin with. "It's unfortunate it happened the way it did. It wasn't anything intentional," Aust said. “There's no reason to be done intentional. I have no idea how it happened to begin with."

However, late Wednesday Roush Fenway president Geoff Smith said the part in question was not a spring but would not say what it was. "Jack is the only one to talk to at this time," Smith said “And he presently doesn't want to make any additional comments."

Formula 1 racing was rocked by a scandal in 2007 when one team was found to be in possession of a 780 page technical manual belonging to a rival team.

F-1’s governing body, the International Automobile Federation, fined the McLaren team a record $100 million in September 2007. The team was also stripped of their constructor (owners) points.