DAYTONA BEACH, FL, February 7, 2018 – The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season gets started this weekend with The Clash at Daytona International Speedway. This non-points event features pole-winners from the 2017 season, along with former Clash winners, former Daytona 500 pole-winners who competed full-time last year, and playoff qualifiers from a season ago. This event has been run in one form or another since 1979. Ford has won The Clash at Daytona eight times by six different drivers

WHO’S IN?

There are six Ford drivers who will compete in The Clash, including all three Team Penske drivers in Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano.  Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick will be the Stewart-Haas Racing participants while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. carries the Roush Fenway Racing banner.

LOGANO GOING FOR TWO STRAIGHT

Joey Logano snapped a 13-year Ford winless drought when he won The Clash last year, making him the manufacturer’s first victor since Dale Jarrett in 2004. Logano found himself in the right place at the right time to take the win.  This was Logano’s first Clash win of  his career.  Four Ford drivers finished in the top six spots as Danica Patrick was fourth, Kevin Harvick fifth and Keselowski sixth.

ELLIOTT CLAIMS FORD’S FIRST CLASH VICTORY AT DAYTONA

Bill Elliott became the first Ford driver to win a non-points event in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on Feb. 8, 1987 in what was then known as the Busch Clash.  The format that year was a single 20-lap run (50 miles) with no pit stop required.  Elliott, who started on the pole in his No. 9 Coors Thunderbird after a blind draw, fell back to sixth on the start after Terry Labonte and Ricky Rudd were involved in an accident on the first lap.  On the ensuing restart, Elliott steadily reeled in leader Darrell Waltrip and passed him on lap eight.  Elliott led the final 13 laps and won with an average speed of 197.802 mph, a record that still stands for the event.  A week later, Elliott won his second Daytona 500.

DJ HOLDS OFF JR FOR SHOOTOUT TRIUMPH

Dale Jarrett won his third Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 7, 2004 in his No. 88 UPS Taurus, which represents the last time Ford has won the event.  The race was broken up into two segments – an initial 20-lap run followed by a 50-lapper to the finish – and marked the beginning of Nextel as series sponsor.  Jarrett and Kevin Harvick were side-by-side at the white flag, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave Jarrett the push he needed to complete the pass on the outside going through turn one.  The race finished under green with Jarrett holding off Earnhardt Jr. for the win.

FORD’S CLASH AT DAYTONA WINNERS

1987 – Bill Elliott

1992 – Geoffrey Bodine

1996 – Dale Jarrett

1998 – Rusty Wallace

1999 – Mark Martin

2000 – Dale Jarrett

2004 – Dale Jarrett

2017 – Joey Logano

*Courtesy Ford Performance

MOORESVILLE, NC, February 9, 2018 –

In 2017, NASCAR announced new Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series engine rules which would be implemented starting with the 2018 Daytona Clash.  This video reviews the new 2018 MENCS engine rules. Catch all the action of the Daytona Clash on February 11th at 3:00 PM ET on FS1.

MOORESVILLE, NC, February 13, 2018 –When it comes to racing at Daytona and Talladega in recent years no manufacturer has had more success than Ford, which goes into this year’s Daytona 500 with a seven-race restrictor plate winning streak (not counting Brad Keselowski’s victory in Sunday’s Clash).  And while anything can happen when cars are running two and three-wide at speeds around 200 miles per hour, the confidence level for extending it in 2018 is high.

“I think Doug Yates and his engines are the best superspeedway engines,” said Kurt Busch, who won last year’s Daytona 500 in Stewart-Haas Racing’s debut event with Ford and his first with the manufacturer since 2005.  “Ford seems to have the least amount of drag and with that comes the least amount of downforce. That means we will run well at Daytona and Talladega.  We swept the restrictor plate races last year and I don’t see that changing right now.”

And while that may sound like a bold statement, consider that Ford’s run of dominance hasn’t just been over the last two years.  Since Trevor Bayne took the Wood Brothers to Victory Lane in the 2011 Daytona 500, Ford has won 16 of the 28 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series events at Daytona and Talladega.

“I believe statistics don’t lie,” said Kevin Harvick, who won the Daytona 500 in 2007.  “I think speedway racing is an effort and when you look at the effort it’s not just an engine or just a body, it’s a total effort and I feel like the effort is high just from what we stepped into when we came to Ford.”

Eight different drivers representing six organizations have registered at least one win during the stretch, including four first-time winners — Bayne, David Ragan, Aric Almirola and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — proving that there is strength throughout the Ford program.

“All of our teams work hard and it’s been nice to see each of them get rewarded for that through the years,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance.  “We take a great deal of pride in the fact that we have multiple organizations capable of winning on any given week and the Daytona 500 is obviously one everybody wants.  We’d like nothing better than to see that streak get to eight.”

The one common denominator in all these wins has been under the hood as Roush Yates Engines continues its legacy of being a restrictor plate king.  Since Robert Yates and Jack Roush merged their engine operations in 2004, the group has won the Daytona 500 five times and has posted 20 series victories at Daytona and Talladega.

“It started early on with my dad.  He always loved going to Daytona because this is our Super Bowl.  If you’re involved in NASCAR, you want to be successful at Daytona and Talladega, so we’ve always worked hard at that,” said Doug Yates, chief executive officer, Roush Yates Engines.  “The wins we’ve had in the 500 show that we take it seriously, but it’s always about the next one.  We don’t think about the stats very much, we just think about the next race and work hard to be better than we were the last one.  That’s worked well for us, but we’ve got to keep going because those guys are coming after us.”

One driver who will likely be viewed as a favorite based off his two wins from a year ago is Stenhouse, who will be starting his sixth full season driving at the Cup level for car owner Jack Roush.

“I feel a lot more confident going into the 500 than I ever have,” said Stenhouse, who won the spring race at Talladega and the July Daytona event.  “I always went into the 500 thinking, ‘Hey, let’s get off to a good start.  Let’s have a good points race.’  I never thought about winning the 500.  After last season, I feel like going in that is the only goal that we have is to win and not just to get a good finish out of it.”

Another is Busch, who got a helpful push from Ryan Blaney to pass Kyle Larson on the final lap to win last year’s season-opener.

“To me, I feel more pressure because I want to defend it properly. I want to go back-to-back. I want to bring it home again for Monster, Ford and everybody at Stewart-Haas,” he said.  “You give it that same attention to detail that you give Daytona every year. If you have won it or you haven’t, you still go after it hard.”

The Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 18 at 2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)

FORD’S RESTRICTOR PLATE WINS SINCE 2011 (Points races only)
Feb. 20, 2011 – Trevor Bayne (Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway)
July 2, 2011 – David Ragan (Coke Zero 400, Daytona International Speedway)
Feb. 27, 2012 – Matt Kenseth (Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway)
Oct. 7, 2012 – Matt Kenseth (Good Sam 500, Talladega Superspeedway)
May 5, 2013 – David Ragan (Aaron’s 399, Talladega Superspeedway)
July 6, 2014 – Aric Almirola (Coke Zero 400, Daytona International Speedway)
Oct. 19, 2014 – Brad Keselowski (Geico 500, Talladega Superspeedway)
Feb. 22, 2015 – Joey Logano (Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway)
Oct. 25, 2015 – Joey Logano (CampingWorld.com 500, Talladega Superspeedway)
May 1, 2016 – Brad Keselowski (Geico 500, Talladega Superspeedway)
July 2, 2016 – Brad Keselowski (Coke Zero 400, Daytona International Speedway)
Oct. 23, 2016 – Joey Logano (Hellman’s 500, Talladega Superspeedway)
Feb. 26, 2017 – Kurt Busch (Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway)
May 7, 2017 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Geico 500, Talladega Superspeedway)
July 1, 2017 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Coke Zero 400, Daytona International Speedway)
Oct. 15, 2017 – Brad Keselowski (Alabama 500, Talladega Superspeedway)

* Courtesy Ford Performance 

MOORESVILLE, NC, February 24, 2018 – Ford Chip Ganassi Racing has announced the 12 drivers who will race the four Ford GTs at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this summer.

*Courtesy Ford Performance