Sox owner near NASCAR deal
The principal owner of the Boston Red Sox could close a deal next month to buy half of Roush Racing, one of the most prominent teams in NASCAR, officials said yesterday.
Negotiations between John Henry and Jack Roush , the owner of the racing team, are in their final stages, and if all goes well, details could be disclosed before the Daytona 500 race on Feb. 18 , said Mike Dee , the president of Fenway Sports Group , which handles Henry's non baseball sports ventures.
That disclosure came hours after Roush told a group of reporters in Charlotte, N.C., that a deal was close and could be unveiled in Daytona on Feb. 14, comments that apparently caught the Red Sox off guard.
"Obviously we're not going to refute what Jack said," Dee said in a telephone interview yesterday evening. "Our goal has always been to try to have this all completed by the start of the racing season, and racing season starts Feb. 18, so that would be consistent with the goal that we have been trying to work toward."
Both sides have acknowledged the negotiations for months, but neither has commented on the value of the deal, which a Boston Globe report last September put at roughly $50 million . Roush Racing reportedly brings in about $190 million in sales annually and has roughly 500 employees.
But that kind of money apparently is not enough to keep a team competitive in NASCAR. Roush told reporters yesterday that Henry's investment would help him remain competitive against
Having ties to the Red Sox would also help all of NASCAR grow in the Northeast, where racing is not followed as closely as it is by fans in the South, Roush said.
"That could offset some of the financial energy that a company like Toyota could bring as they bring the resources that they have not garnered from the sport, but from the success of their automobile business elsewhere," he said.
Keith Reed can be reached at reed@globe.com. Globe staff reporter Michael Vega contributed to this report. 
