Big checks from Toyota a threat or mere myth? (cont'd)

But salaries in NASCAR are closely-guarded secrets, and much about what one manufacturer knows about another, Accavitti said, is often little more than hearsay. Toyota officials won't deny that wages are one way to attract key personnel, but add that the money for those wages is coming from the teams, not the manufacturer itself. And as for rumors of those massive paychecks, Marty Gaunt can sum them up in one word.

"Can I say bull----? Can you print that? Obviously, you're always going to hear that. I think we heard it before when other manufacturers came on. But some of the numbers people are tossing around are totally absurd," said the general manager of Team Red Bull, the operation Davis accused of buying Probst.

"Obviously, it's a good marketplace right now for anybody who's looking at going to a different establishment or team, because there are so many teams out there. But by no means are we going to pay an inflated price to get an employee over, because then they're coming for one reason and one reason only, and that's for the money. You cannot build a good team like that. We are here to build the long-term vision of what Red Bull has for this race team. So it's bull----."

Added Toyota team owner Bill Davis: "Felix Sabates and Rick Hendrick and Robert Yates, I can talk about a lot of people that pay a hell of a lot more money than I do. A hell of a lot more money. And will pay whatever it takes to go hire somebody," he said.

"I don't know what those other two [Toyota teams] are paying, and I don't care. I know where our salary level is at, and it's, I think, within reason. Our guys certainly aren't underpaid. But we don't go offer somebody a whole ton of money to come work for us."

That doesn't dissuade Roush, whose engineering company has a branch in Japan, and says Japanese are "more aggressive" in business than Americans are. He remembers when he first broke into NASCAR in 1988, with three key employees -- driver Mark Martin, crew chief Robin Pemberton, and general manager Steve Hmiel -- and enough money saved up that he could race two years without sponsorship if he needed to.

The amount of money he received from Ford that first year, he said, was 5 percent of his operating budget. The next year it increased to 10 percent, a number that's remained steady. He believes Ford can push that number to 12 or 14 percent next year, but won't be able to match what Toyota is putting into its teams. Long-term, he believes that could drive some organizations out of the sport.

"There's a huge difference. You say Dodge or Chevrolet has to put twice as much money into their teams, that means they either have to spend twice as much in total, or they have to support half the number of teams, which has its own consequence," Roush said.

"One way or another, if they come in and do what they've historically done in other series, the model changes enough that somebody's going to have to pony up to the bar and pay a lot more money, or there are going to be fewer teams to support. Either one of those circumstances are bad."(Continued)