Toyota team owner Waltrip refutes 'espionage' charge

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Michael Waltrip gave a less sensational version Saturday of how his Toyota team came to be in possession of a part belonging to one of Jack Roush's Ford teams, saying that what Roush asserted was "intellectual espionage" was merely a mistake.

"We didn't know anything about having it until January when they called and said, 'You have our swaybar,' and we said, 'We do?' We told them that we would find it and give it back to them and that's what we did," Waltrip said before practice Saturday for today's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at the .526-mile Martinsville Speedway.

The comments came a day after Roush painted a far more sinister picture of the incident, saying the part was stolen, the team that stole it tried to have parts made to fit onto it and that he feared letting on that he knew they even had the part because he figured "it would wind up in the river" rather than be given back.

Roush said he considered getting a search warrant to take to the shop and find the part, but one of his employees called the team without his knowledge and the part was returned.

Roush described the exchange as a "clandestine meeting" between team members at 6 a.m., but Waltrip and others have made the situation out to be less like a best-selling spy novel and more a simple case of a part ending up with the wrong team by accident.

"We wound up with a swaybar there somehow," Waltrip said. "I promise you no one went to their tool box and swiped it. This is not intellectual espionage."

Roush claimed the swaybar had a paint job that identified it as belonging to Roush Fenway Racing, and that the paint had been sandblasted off before it was returned.

"I don't have knowledge of any of that," Waltrip said. "I heard it was painted blue and when we figured out that it wasn't ours, then it was set off to the side."

Pole-winner Jeff Gordon added: "I really hope Jack's not taking it that serious."

Craftsman Truck Series: Dennis Setzer assumed the lead when Kyle Busch had to brake to avoid a crash in front of him, then held on through numerous restarts to win the Kroger 250 Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

Saturday's victory was the first for Dodge since the late Bobby Hamilton won at Mansfield in 2005.