DAYTONA, FL, January 9, 2018  –The Roar Before the Rolex 24 added a new twist to the event for the 2018 IMSA season. A special qualifying round happened this past Sunday morning that determined the order of choice for garage and pit selection for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The No. 66 Ford GT of Joey Hand /Dirk Müller / Sébastien Bourdais won the event and locked in the first selection, while teammates Ryan Briscoe / Richard Westbrook / Scott Dixon drivers of the No. 67 secured the third selection in the process.

Tune in January 27th, 2018 for the Rolex 24 At Daytona as Ford Chip Ganassi Racing goes for the back-to-back wins in this.

*Photos Courtesy of Ford Performance

MOORESVILLE, NC – March 6, 2018 – NASCAR announced the 20 finalists for consideration as part of the 2019 Hall of Fame Induction Class . Nine of the men have Ford Motor Company ties, including seven repeat nominees and two newcomers in John Holman and Ralph Moody.

Those back on the ballot from last year are current Ford team owners Jack Roush and Roger Penske; 1992 NASCAR Champion Alan Kulwicki; 19-time Ford Cup winner Davey Allison; Buddy Baker, who had 19 wins for a variety of teams including Bud Moore and the Wood Brothers; two-time champion engine-builder for David Pearson in 1968-69 with Holman-Moody, Waddell Wilson; and Ricky Rudd, the sport’s Iron Man, who had 23 wins in more than 900 starts, including stints with Bud Moore, the Wood Brothers and as an owner/driver.

DAVEY ALLISON

Davey Allison made 191 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts and all but eight of them were behind the wheel of the No. 28 Texaco Havoline Ford. He ran six full-time seasons when the series consisted of 29 races while running in parts of three others, and wasted little time in grabbing headlines. After car owner Harry Ranier hired him for the 1987 season Allison took off, qualifying second for the Daytona 500 and then grabbing the pole one week later at Rockingham.

Allison won 19 times overall, four of those with Ranier and the rest under ownership from fellow Hall of Fame Nominee Robert Yates, who purchased the team in 1989.  They won the 1992 Daytona 500 together and were in a battle with fellow Ford drivers Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki for the season championship, but an accident during the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway ended that bid.

Davey, the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison, won his last race on March 7, 1993 at Richmond International Raceway. He died on July 13, 1993 from injuries suffered in a helicopter accident at Talladega Superspeedway.

BUDDY BAKER

Buddy Baker’s best season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series came in 1975 when he and NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee Bud Moore teamed up to win four times, which included a season sweep at Talladega Superspeedway. Baker extended his Talladega win streak to three the following season with Moore, but saw his bid for four in a row end with a second-place run in the fall of 1976.

Baker, who won 19 races overall during a 33-year career, made it back to Victory Lane with Ford six years later when he won the Firecracker 400 at Daytona in 1983 with the Wood Brothers. He drove two seasons for the family-owned operation, posting one win, two poles, and 24 top-10 finishes in 42 starts.

ALAN KULWICKI

Alan Kulwicki may have won only five races in his shortened Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career, but in winning the 1992 series championship over fellow Ford drivers Bill Elliott and Davey Allison, he established a legacy that continues to shine today. As an owner/driver, Kulwicki changed the thinking of how a race team could be successful as he took a small underdog race team and beat the bigger organizations through hard work and determination.

After an accident at Dover with only six races remaining put him 278 points behind, Kulwicki clawed his way back into the title hunt.  Entering the season-finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kulwicki found himself second in the standings, but ended up taking the title in his No. 7 Hooters Ford ‘Underbird’ after leading one more lap than Elliott, who ended up winning the race. The fact Kulwicki led the most laps gave him the necessary bonus points to win the championship by 10 over Elliott.

Kulwicki, who is one of only seven drivers to win a Cup title with Ford, didn’t have a chance to defend his championship after the plane he was flying in crashed on approach to Tri-Cities Airport on April 1, 1993, killing him and three others on board.

ROGER PENSKE

Roger Penske has won 104 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races in his career and 58 of those have been with Ford. Since returning to Ford at the start of the 2013 season, Penske has put together a three-car operation that has won 31 times on the Cup side, and an equally successfully NASCAR XFINITY program that has 34 wins and four owner’s championships.

Penske made an immediate impact with Ford when he first joined the manufacturer in 1994, winning eight times with driver Rusty Wallace. The duo ended up winning 23 races from 1994-2001 and finished in the top-10 of the point standings every season. Penske has one Cup championship, winning that with current driver Brad Keselowski in 2012, and has made it to the playoff finals with Joey Logano twice.

JACK ROUSH

No owner has won more stock car races in NASCAR’s top three touring series than Jack Roush, and he’s done it all with Ford. Since becoming involved in the sport as an owner in 1988, Roush has gone on to post 324 victories in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series combined. In addition, he has won at least one championship in each series and eight overall (2 Cup, 5 XFINITY and 1 Truck).

He made MENCS history in 1998 by becoming the first owner to expand to five teams, and proved that model could work as evidenced by the fact that each of them qualified for the Chase in 2005. That gave Roush half of the playoff field, which was only 10 at the time. He and NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin are regarded as one of the top owner-driver combinations of all-time, having amassed 82 victories in NASCAR’s top three series together.

RICKY RUDD

There may be drivers who have won more races, but when it comes to pure toughness it’s hard to put anyone above Ricky Rudd. Whether it was putting tape over his eyelids after a harrowing crash at Daytona or surviving burns to his backside during a sweltering day at Martinsville, Rudd continually showed what made him a NASCAR staple from 1975-2007.

He set the sport’s all-time record for consecutive starts at 788 – starting every race from 1981-2005 – until Jeff Gordon broke it in 2015, and ranks second on NASCAR’s list for career starts with 906. Rudd registered 23 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories and went to victory lane 15 times with Ford. His biggest win undoubtedly came in the 1997 Brickyard 400 during a stretch where he filled the dual roles as owner and driver. His success and consistency are also remembered by the fact he had a streak of at least one series triumph for 16 consecutive seasons (1983-98).

WADDELL WILSON

One of the legendary operations in Ford Performance’s NASCAR history is Holman-Moody, and Waddell Wilson had a front row seat as a key contributor with that organization. He made his reputation as one of the top engine builders upon joining the team and producing the power that took Fireball Roberts to victory lane in the 1963 Southern 500 at Darlington.

As the sixties wound down, his stature grew even more as he was part of the Ford crew that helped Mario Andretti win the 1967 Daytona 500. Wilson, who also worked with current NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen during his Holman-Moody days, closed out the decade in grand fashion as he built the power that took David Pearson to consecutive Cup championships in 1968 and 1969. That marked the second and third titles for Ford overall, and the first time the manufacturer captured consecutive crowns.

JOHN HOLMAN AND RALPH MOODY

Even though they are on the ballot individually, it seems appropriate to write about them together because they were synonymous with Ford in the 1960s as co-owners of the manufacturer’s main factory-backed organization.

It’s the place where NASCAR Hall of Famer Robert Yates got his start and where fellow nominee Waddell Wilson honed his engine-building skills. It’s also where legendary drivers like Bobby Allison, Mario Andretti, Jim Clark, A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, Junior Johnson, Parnelli Jones, Fred Lorenzen, Benny Parsons, David Pearson, Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, Bobby Unser, Joe Weatherly, and Cale Yarborough took turns behind the wheel.

They were responsible for providing the engines that powered the fast Ford of Pearson to consecutive championships in 1968 and 1969 in what is now known as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Overall, the organization won 96 races and in 525 all-time starts finished in the top 5 a total of 284 times (54 percent).

Voting Day for the 2019 class will be Wednesday, May 23, 2018.

*Courtesy of Ford Performance

SIX STRAIGHT TALLADEGA WINS FOR TEAM FORD

*Images courtesy of NASCAR Media

LE MANS, France, June 18, 2018 – For the third consecutive year, a Ford GT driver trio is on the GTE Pro podium at the Le Mans 24 Hours

Joey Hand (US), Sébastien Bourdais (FRA) and Dirk Müller (GER), drivers of the #68 Ford GT who captured a victory here in 2016, returned to the podium with a strong, third-place finish in 86th running of the world’s toughest endurance sports car race.

The trio was in the mix of the battle for the top spot early in the race with the winning No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR when an ill-timed safety car caught #68 and the other leaders in the pits, causing the rest of the GTE Pro field to be nearly a lap down the rest of the race.

“It was great to be back at Le Mans, said Bourdais, the native of Le Mans who missed the race with injuries last year.  “It was a tough race, but we maximized everything as a team. And for that I am super proud of everyone at Ford Chip Ganassi Racing.  We did all we could and finished third, so that’s the cards we were dealt.  We’ll take them and move on.

“A good day at the office I would call it,” said Müller. “Being on the podium at Le Mans is almost like winning because this race is so special and unique.  P3 I know, but I am still smiling.  For the 68 Ford GT, a victory in 2016 and a third place today means a lot. I look forward to coming back next year and going back up two more spots. It was great job for all the boys who did a great job, and for our WEC boys, I am glad they got good points today.”

“We maximized our potential,” said Hand. “We always work to have really good race car.  It takes having a really good race car to win here, and we did.  We have no damage on our car at all.   We just got caught out a couple times there with safety cars and that hurt us, and we couldn’t make it up.  I have been here four times and been on the podium three of them, so that’s pretty cool.”

The #68 Ford GT did battle at length with the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR for much of the second half of the race along with the #67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell (GB), Andy Priaulx (GB) and Tony Kanaan (BRA), who just missed a podium with a fourth-place finish.

That fourth place helped the #67 trio score major points in the WEC championship, moving them into third place.

“For me personally this has been a good Le Mans,” said Andy Priaulx. “I had a lot of fun in the car, a lot of time in the car (8.5 hours) and I am driving with a brilliant team. I wouldn’t say we had the speed to win but we had the team to win. We could’ve done it today, but we were very unlucky with an early safety car, which put us two minutes behind and it’s so hard to get that time back. We got back up into the top two or three positions then we had more bad luck with a safety car. Despite this we had a great race. The car was great, the team did a brilliant job and we finished fourth in a race that is very difficult to finish at all.

“We scored some good points for the WEC Championship (third place) so we’re back on the scoreboard and we will come back fighting.  Harry (Tincknell) was the normal Harry: awesome, faultless and super quick. It was great to have Tony (Kanaan) with us too. It’s never easy to join a new team and race around Le Mans but he trusted us all and we became a strong team very quickly.”

The #66 Ford GT, raced by Stefan Mücke (GER), Olivier Pla (FRA) and Billy Johnson (US), was the top Ford qualifier in third, and was very competitive early before an on-track incident caused the car to go off-road and be damaged, losing significant time in the pits.

The trio, which won the WEC season-opening race at Spa, battled back to finish seventh in class, scoring valuable championship points.  They now sit fourth in the standings.

“We gave it everything today,” said Pla. “We pushed so hard as we had to recover when we lost two laps early on (due to suspension damage suffered when Billy Johnson had contact with a prototype). We had high expectations for this race. The Porsche was strong, but we had a good car for the battle and all I can say is thanks to the guys on our car because they did a fantastic job.

“Apart from that costly contact, nobody put a foot wrong so it’s disappointing that we spent the race fighting back rather than fighting from the front.  Stefan (Mücke) as always did a great job and now we’ll focus on the WEC Super Season. In terms of the WEC Championship we actually finished fourth today so, added to our win at Spa, we have a good amount of points to build on throughout the rest of the season.”

The #69 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe (AUS), Richard Westbrook (UK) and Scott Dixon (NZ), who were trying for a rare 24-hour double after their victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona earlier this year, were running sixth with two hours to go before being hit with gearbox issues. The team repaired the car to allow it to finish the race.

“I think we battled hard. We certainly just seemed to lack a little bit of the pace through the night,” said Briscoe. “I think with our set-up and the combination of losing a little bit of track position, that hit us twice as hard when you lose the safety car lines. We lost touch with the leaders, but we were racing hard and hanging in there. We were going to have a great battle right until the end with Corvette. I had a really fun race. It just love driving on this race track. It’s so intense. It’s such a competitive field, literally pushing you out there to drive as hard as you can for 24 hours.”

Although not a victory, Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports, was impressed with the team’s effort today.

“You want to win every race you compete in, but to come here, the world’s hardest sports car race, and see the effort that Ford Chip Ganassi Racing put in was great,” said Rushbrook. “They fought hard all day, finished third on the podium for the third straight year and for the third straight year all our cars finished.  It’s unfortunate that most of the GTE Pro field got caught out by that early safety car because it changed the dynamic of the race. But we have to be proud of what this team did.”

“We brought competitive cars here and I was happy with that aspect, but this is a race where you need a little bit of lady luck on your side, and unfortunately this time around we didn’t have that,” said Chip Ganassi, owner, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. “We got separated from the pace car on one occasion, and then held back in a few of the slow zones, and that was costly. The leaders didn’t have to deal with that, and they benefited from the situation. I was a little disappointed with that, but that’s the way it goes here. Le Mans picks its winner. And it just didn’t pick us this year.”

*Courtesy of Ford Performance

FORT WORTH, TX – October 31, 2018 – All three of NASCAR’s top touring series will be in action this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway as the Playoffs hit high gear in the next-to-last round.  Here’s a look at where Ford drivers stand going into each event, in addition to some memorable Cup moments through the years.

ROUND OF 8 MENCS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 4 Advance After Phoenix)
1st – Joey Logano (locked in to Championship 4)
4th – Kevin Harvick (+25 ahead of cutoff)
5th – Kurt Busch (-25 from final transfer spot)
7th – Clint Bowyer (-42 from final transfer spot)
8th – Aric Almirola (-50 from final transfer spot)

ROUND OF 8 NXS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 4 Advance After Phoenix)
7th – Cole Custer (-23 from final transfer spot)
8th – Austin Cindric (-43 from final transfer spot)

ROUND OF 6 NCWTS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 4 Advance After Phoenix)
4th – Grant Enfinger (+2 ahead of cutoff)
6th – Matt Crafton (-10 from final transfer spot)

FORD IN THE MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES AT TMS

• Ford is tied for the most all-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins at TMS with 13.
• Joey Logano (2014) and Kevin Harvick (2017) have Ford wins at the track.
• Jack Roush is tied for the most wins among car owners at TMS with nine.

FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT TMS

• Ford leads all manufacturers with 12 NASCAR XFINITY Series wins at TMS.
• Six current Ford Cup drivers have at least one NXS win at TMS (Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Trevor Bayne and Kurt Busch).
• Mark Martin won the first NXS race at Texas and leads Ford with three series victories overall.

FORD IN THE NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES SERIES AT TMS

• Ford has 3 series wins at TMS.
• Kenny Irwin Jr. won the first series event held at TMS in 1997.
• Ford’s last series victory at TMS came by Greg Biffle in 2000.

17 WINS AND COUNTING…
Joey Logano’s dramatic win Sunday at Martinsville is the 17th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win for Ford, making it the third-best season in terms of victory in the modern era (1972-present).  Only the 20 wins in 1994 and the 19 victories in 1997 are better than what has been accomplished so far in 2018.

FORD WINS – SEASON
20 – 1994 (31 races)
19 – 1997 (32 races)
17 – 2018 (Through 33 races)
16 – 1992 (29 races)
16 – 2005 (36 races)
15 – 1998 (33 races)

PLAYOFF WIN SENT HARVICK TO CHAMPIONSHIP FOUR
One year ago when NASCAR came to Texas Motor Speedway it saw Kevin Harvick pass Martin Truex Jr. with 10 laps remaining to win and advance to the Championship Four.  The Playoff race was Harvick’s first Cup victory at the speedway in 30 starts and his second since he and Stewart-Haas Racing joined Ford at the start of 2017.

LAST LAP PASS LEADS LOGANO TO VICTORY
Joey Logano’s first Cup win at TMS came in 2014 in a race that was delayed until Monday because of rain.  Logano dominated much of the second half, but a caution with two laps to go forced a green-white-checker finish.  He started third on the restart after the leaders stopped on pit road, and was able to get past Jeff Gordon on the final lap to claim victory.  Logano led 108 of the final 116 laps to claim the first of five wins that season.

A TEXAS TWO-FIRST
A couple of firsts happened on April 6, 1997 as Texas Motor Speedway hosted its inaugural Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event and Jeff Burton took his first checkered flag. Burton, led by crew chief Buddy Parrott, passed Todd Bodine with 58 laps remaining and beat fellow Ford driver Dale Jarrett to the finish line by four seconds.  The race was slowed by 10 cautions, which included a multi-car accident in first turn of the first lap.  Burton went on to win 21 career series races with 17 of those coming in a Thunderbird or Taurus.

SADLER WINS FIRST RACE WITH RYR
Elliott Sadler passed Jeff Gordon with 27 laps remaining and then held off Kasey Kahne in the closing laps to win the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 on April 4, 2004.  Sadler, in his second season with Robert Yates Racing, hugged the inside lane over the final three laps as Kahne worked the outside.  When the two cars came off turn four for the final time, Sadler had a lapped car in front of him and that allowed Kahne to make one last charge.  Despite gaining crucial ground through the tri-oval, Kahne came up half-a-car length short as Sadler crossed the line first to gain his second of three career series wins.

FORD MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS AT TEXAS
1997 – Jeff Burton
1998 – Mark Martin
2001 – Dale Jarrett
2002 – Matt Kenseth
2004 – Elliott Sadler
2005 – Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards
2008 – Carl Edwards*
2011 – Matt Kenseth (1)
2012 – Greg Biffle (1)
2014 – Joey Logano (1)
2017 – Kevin Harvick (2)
* Denotes season sweep

*Courtesy Ford Performance

ROBERT YATES | A LEGEND

 Career Highlights:

• NASCAR Championship Team Owner for Dale Jarrett- 1999
• Premier NASCAR Engine Builder with 77 wins – 1967-1988
• NASCAR Championship Engine Builder with Bobby Allison – 1983
• NASCAR Engine Builder for Richard Petty’s 199th and 200th win
• Daytona 500 Engine Builder and NASCAR Team Owner- 1969, 1982, 1992, 1996, 2000
• 3 time Winning Daytona 500 NASCAR Team Owner – 1992, 1996, 2000
• 2 time Winning Brickyard 400 NASCAR Team Owner – 1996, 1999
• 57 Wins and 48 Poles as a NASCAR Team Owner

Awards:

• Recipient of the Bill France Award of Excellence – 2000
• Recipient of the Buddy Shuman Award for lifetime achievement in NASCAR – 2007
• Recipient of the Bruton Smith Legends Award – 2010
• Inducted into NASCAR Auto Racing Hall of Fame
• Inducted into NMPA Hall of Fame 2010
• NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee – Class of 2018

Robert Yates worked in the sport of stock car racing for nearly 40 years building a legendary career, becoming part of  NASCAR history along the way. The Yates name became synonymous with “Speed” and “Horsepower”.

For four decades, Yates was one of NASCAR’s premier engine builders, officially becoming a NASCAR owner by opening Robert Yates Racing (RYR) in 1988. In 2004, Yates and Jack Roush decided to team up and forge a partnership to form Roush Yates Engines, becoming Ford’s exclusive engine builder for their NASCAR teams. In 2007 Yates retired from racing, but continued his involvement in Roush Yates Engines. A new business venture brought Yates out of retirement in 2010 and back to NASCAR to form Robert Yates Racing Engines. The company was named the exclusive North American provider of the NASCAR-Approved Spec Engines.

Robert’s fingerprints have left an unforgettable impression on millions of fans and thousands of colleagues in and around the sport of racing. His career as master engine builder,  championship car owner and mentor was his passion.

Being inducted into the Class of 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame was a lifetime achievement for Robert and the Yates Family. He will always be remembered for delivering the legendary “Yates Horsepower”!

MOORESVILLE, NC, May 1, 2018 – Ford Chip Ganassi Racing was happy to see Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule in 2018.

For one, the race is just hours away, instead of days from, the Indianapolis-based team. Secondly, each driver has a history at the tricky track.

Both Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs finished in podium position in Long Beach a little more than two weeks ago, with Hand and Müller finishing third in the No. 66 Ford GT while teammates Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook finished second in the No. 67 Ford GT. All four drivers have career wins at Mid-Ohio in various series.

Briscoe, who knows the track from his IndyCar days, says mental toughness as well as track knowledge will play into results on race day.

“With multi-class racing, that balance between aggression and patience will be key,” Briscoe said. “There are some pretty tight and twisty parts of the track that will make passing difficult.”

All four drivers have career wins at Mid-Ohio.

“I’m really, really looking forward to going back to Mid-Ohio,” Müller said. “We raced there for ALMS (The American Le Mans Series) both Joey (Hand) and myself and we had really good races there. It’s a challenging one. It’s a short, tricky track. I’m expecting cooler weather. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing is always very prepared and wants to be one step ahead of everyone, so we’ve already had one good test there. I can’t wait to get back. It’s a phenomenal place and always good for a good crowd. We’ll want to put on a good show.”

*Courtesy of Ford Performance and IMSA