Toyota using front-men to buy NASCAR talent

Rumor in the NASCAR garage is that although Toyota says they are not paying to steal the best talent in the NASCAR garage, they are. Instead of directly writing the check and paying the person they steal, they are using their teams as front-men to write the check.

"They're trying to hire away a lot of talent from a lot of different people by paying a tremendous amount of money," said driver Jeff Burton, a 14-year veteran of the Cup Series. "That's the feeling right now about Toyota, that they're coming in and they're going to buy their way in."

Driver Jimmie Johnson, who has spent six years on the Nextel Cup circuit said, "The money that's coming in is changing our sport and is putting a lot of pressure back on the car owners."

Car owner Jack Roush criticized NASCAR's decision to allow Toyota to compete in stock-car racing immediately after the announcement was made. Roush quickly was quoted in numerous newspaper articles saying that Toyota's lavish spending and technological onslaught would hurt the sport.

"If Toyota is allowed to bring in money that Ford and General Motors and Chrysler can't match, then NASCAR has got a real problem, not just the teams, but NASCAR," Roush said in an interview with The Virginian-Pilot in May.

"The fact is you don't sign drivers to very large contracts and you don't make commitments to run them in a race series without having funding," said Geoff Smith, the president of Roush Racing. "So, obviously, Michael took a checkbook to the dance, and somebody put money in that bank account."

It was reported that Jarrett was offered a salary of $20 million for two years, but Dan Davis, the director of Ford Racing Technology, said he heard a bigger number.

"We're pretty familiar with what was offered and looking at what was offered there is no way that Michael Waltrip could offer those things, so it came from somewhere else," Davis said.