Roush Yates Engines

Mooresville, NC (October 4, 2010)

With eight races left in the chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, Ford drivers arrived at Kansas Speedway on Friday prepared to show just how much power their FR9s are capable of producing. Kasey Kahne, driver of the number 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion, qualified on the pole with fellow Ford driver Paul Menard starting alongside him. Three other Blue Oval drivers qualified in the top ten, with Greg Biffle starting 5^th, Matt Kenseth starting 8^th, and David Ragan starting 10^th.

“We weren’t great in practice so we knew we needed to make adjustments to the car. Kenny Francis and Keith did a really nice job,” said Kahne. “I am glad we got the pole for Budweiser and for Ford. It’s exciting to have a couple of RPM guys on the front row and it’s just really nice for the whole company.”

After starting the race in the top positions, Ford drivers never wavered and Greg Biffle, driver of the number 16 3M/Sherwin Williams Ford Fusion, led the final 29 laps of the Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods to win the race. With twelve leaders and twenty total lead changes, Sunday’s race was nothing short of exciting and Biffle took advantage by gaining his sixteenth career win in his 287^th start.

“Everyone asked us last week if we’re out of the Chase, have we given up, whatever the case was. The 16 team will never give up,” said Biffle. “We’re just going to approach each race like we did today, qualify the best we can, do the best we can in practice, execute the best we can at the racetrack. This was the best car I’ve ever driven here and I have a lot of confidence going into Fontana.”

Biffle has won two races this season, including a victory at Pocono Raceway in August. He is 8^th in the points for the Chase for the Championship, leading Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards in 4^th and Matt Kenseth in 11^th position. Roush Fenway Racing is one of only two teams with 3 cars in the 2010 Chase.

“It’s very exciting to see Roush Yates Engines and Roush Fenway Racing back in Victory Lane,” said Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “Qualifying on the pole and winning the race shows exactly what Ford Racing and Roush Yates Engines are capable of. I look forward to watching the remainder of the Chase for the Championship and see no reason why the 2011 Sprint Cup Championship will not go to a Ford.”

Roush Yates continues to win in all divisions of motorsports with another victory for Billy Well’s driver Ivedent Lloyd at Ocala in the Dirt Late Model division this weekend. Jason Myers won the modified race at North Wilkesboro Speedway and Chip King won in the Blown Pro Modified division at the Shakedown at Englishtown. Roush Yates has over 80 wins so far this season and two championships in the TORC Off-Road series and the Sprint Cars on Dirt series.

To learn more about all of Roush Yates’ engine programs or how to update your engine with the Roush Yates’ Performance Upgrade, call Jeff Clark at (704) 658-1540 or visit www.roushyatesparts.com.

About Roush Yates Engines

Roush Yates Engines designs, engineers and crafts high performance racing engines with the power to perform and the horsepower and durability you’d expect from legendary NASCAR pioneers Jack Roush and Robert Yates. The partnership of power and precision has come from merging the knowledge and experience of two legendary engine builders, both with a passion for winning today and powering up for tomorrow. In 2009 Doug Yates purchased his father’s half of Roush Yates Engines to become a co-owner in the company.

As CEO, Doug Yates leads a staff of 180 engineers and technicians who design, assemble, test, and service racing engines at two separate state-of-the-art facilities in Mooresville, North Carolina. Here, the best minds and latest technology are hard at work producing nearly 1,500 racing engines each year for teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, ARCA, Grand-Am, FIA GT3, Dirt Late Model, Sprint cars, and NHRA Pro Stock. At Roush Yates Engines, the mission is Power Performance, which is achieved through innovation design, precision engineering, and skillful craftsmanship. Building the best engines in racing today, providing service that’s second to none, and honoring a commitment to research and development are the heart of Roush Yates Engines.

- Roush Yates Engines, Press Release

Ford Racing

This weekend marks the start of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and three Ford teams will be included in the 12-driver field as Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle all compete for the 2010 championship.

Earlier this afternoon, Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, and Jamie Allison, director, Ford North America Motorsports, held a teleconference to discuss their thoughts heading into the final 10 races of the season.

JACK ROUSH, Co-Owner, Roush Fenway Racing – YOU ARE BEING INDUCTED INTO THE MICHIGAN SPORTS HALL OF FAME TONIGHT.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT HONOR?  “I’ve been the benefactor of really great timing, arriving in Southeastern Michigan in the late 1960s right in the middle of all the muscle car wars that were going on between Ford and Chrysler and General Motors — with all of their small cars with big engines and all the technology that was coming to bear for the engines in the sixties, and that competition among the manufacturers.  I learned from the Ford engineering research people much of the information that has propelled me through my racing career, particularly as it relates to engines and the science of engine technology.  It was really great that I was able to work with the expert people I’ve been exposed to, and it’s a recognition that I’m very much honored by.  It was a little bit of a surprise given the fact that I’m a motorsports guy and Detroit is so much a stick-and-ball community.  This award and these inductees are in the more traditional sports.”

HOW DO YOU ASSESS YOUR CHASE CHANCES WITH YOUR THREE TEAMS?  “I’m really thrilled that we got three of our four cars in the chase.  We were naturally disappointed that we didn’t make a better run with David Ragan’s No. 6 UPS car, but having three in the chase is certainly a great accomplishment, which couldn’t have been realized without Jamie Allison and Andy Slankard of Ford Racing.  We’ve had a great science that’s been brought to bear by them and it has resulted in the improvement that we’ve had throughout the year and we feel that we’re peaking at the right time to make a championship run and hope to do really good things on track at Loudon.  We missed our setups a little bit at Richmond, not that we hadn’t tried hard, but NASCAR’s testing program prevents you from going to the race track that you’re gonna race at and we had carried some information that was thought to be useful based on some testing we did in the Atlanta, Georgia area but it proved not to be useful to us.  The cars that ran the best were the cars that hadn’t tested down there and relied on last year’s baseline setup information, that, of course, being Carl Edwards’ No. 99 car and Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 car.  Carl ran really good at Loudon in the spring and we look forward to carrying that setup information back to all three of our cars and use the simulations that Ford has provided for us to predict some things that can be even better to what we had then.”

JAMIE ALLISON, Director, Ford North America Motorsports – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS HEADING INTO THE CHASE FROM A FORD RACING PERSPECTIVE?  “All of us at Ford are really reinvigorated with the recent momentum that we’ve seen our Ford teams develop out on the track.  I have in my office a little board and on it we cite the top-finishing Fords for the season.  I’m looking at the last 12 races, which is when the FR9 came in at the first MIS, and over the last 12 races, we obviously had that one win with Biffle, but in 10 out of those 12 races we’ve had a top-five finish, and of those, four have been second-place, including a couple weeks ago with Carl at Atlanta.  So, clearly entering the chase, like in any playoff system, you want momentum on your side.  It’s invigorating and powerful to know you have momentum on your side and if you look at who is in the chase, and look at our drivers under the leadership of Jack, we have champions that are entering the chase who have been in a similar position.  They’re champions themselves with Carl being a Nationwide champion, Biffle a Nationwide and Truck champion, and Matt a Cup champion himself, and Jack with two Cup championships under his belt.  If you look at all this, you can’t help but feel invigorated and confident and feel like you’re in the best hands possible. Carl has accumulated among the most points the last couple of months, so he’s clearly on the upswing.  Biffle was clearly buoyed by the one win and we’re very excited.  Two years ago in the 2008 chase he won the first two races at Loudon and Dover, so he’s been there.  And with Matt, you can’t discount the fact that when you’re a champion, you’ve been there before and it helps a lot.  We also know that there are 10 races and it’s anybody’s game, but the key to this thing is consistency.  We’ve got to have top-five finishes and you’ve got to get a couple of wins and we’re confident under Jack’s leadership and these drivers that we have a good chance.  I’m excited.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – WHAT HAS CLICKED IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS FOR CARL AND WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN TO GET HIM OVER THE HUMP AND BACK TO VICTORY LANE?  “As we noted, he finished second at Atlanta and we probably just didn’t get our last tire-pressure change as good as the 14 car or we could have had a better result there.  This competitive package that everybody works with is very, very close.  You only have to be off a little bit or just a little bit better in one of the areas than your contemporaries and you have a chance to win, or if your pit stops are off a little or your fuel mileage or setup is off a little, and have everything else that you need, you won’t realize that result.  We’ve been knocking at the door.  I think truth in fact that Carl has had the most points of anybody in Sprint Cup racing over the last five races, so we’re anxious to carry that momentum.  As far as what’s happened, we’ve worked with the science part of our predictive simulations with our Ford partner and have arranged a package that we think is very competitive looking at the races that are remaining in the chase here, and we’re gonna rely very heavily on science to help us figure out how to offset the lack of testing opportunities that we have, and I’m very confident about it.”

JAMIE ALLISON CONTINUED – “I’d like to add just a couple of things.  There has been a little bit more emphasis on qualifying.  Obviously, Carl snagged the pole down at Richmond and he was on pole at The Glen.  It obviously gives you track position because if you’re in the back and get shuffled, you don’t really have a chance to get up front, but if you start up front and you cycle your way through, you maintain your position up front.  Between the application of science, and don’t underestimate the fact that since the FR9 has come on in full mode since the first Michigan, coupled by the science and a few adjustments here and there, it has really helped invigorate the program.  We’re excited and feel we’re peaking at the right time.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – “We’ll stand our base here and get the top fives everywhere that we can, which will hopefully be most of the time for our three chasers, and when it falls in your lap and the other people have their issue – when the pit stops work out the way you want, when you’ve taken two tires and it’s the right call, or four tires and it’s the right call, you’ll win your race.  That’s the only thing we’re waiting on for Carl is just to have the things line up where the result we’re looking for can’t happen based on what everybody else does around us.”

JAMIE ALLISON CONTINUED – WHAT DO YOU SEE IN JACK ROUSH AS HE LEADS HIS TEAM ON A CHAMPIONSHIP EFFORT?  “I don’t know if words can describe the leadership impact of Jack.  I was just down in Concord with Jack last week.  We try to come down on Mondays after the races when Jack conducts an all-driver, all-crew chief, all-engineers meeting.  My team is there and I happened to make it down last week and had a conversation with Jack.  I felt so assured and so confident because he was relaying to me the chase mode rules, the rules that he has parlayed onto his team about how we’re going to conduct this chase.  It’s about leadership.  Yes, we have the assets.  Yes, we have the drivers.  Yes, we have the engineers.  Yes, we have these cars.  Yes, we have the science, but you need a conductor.  You need a leader in every organization and I just got a sneak peak of why Jack is gonna be honored tonight and why Jack has been as successful as he has, and why Jack has earned over 400 wins in his professional road racing and NASCAR career.  These things don’t happen by circumstances.  They happen by deliberate leadership.  Last week, as I said, when he was relaying to me his leadership meeting, the chase rules and how we’re going to go out and give it the best shot we have it was very powerful and assuring to me.  We’re very lucky to have Jack.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – IS IT HOW YOU HANDLE THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE IN THIS SPORT?  “NASCAR has traditionally taught people that have been successful at it, and they’ve reminded people for a time that weren’t successful, that you have to respect all the history, you have to respect all the able teams and the good drivers that have been associated with those programs for the things they’ve done correctly and for the things that have not worked so well.  Yes, as much as we’re all interested in trying to find that next new thing, that next innovation, that next thing that will give us an advantage, we cannot lose track of the things that history has taught the people who have preceded us.  That is the challenge – when do you hold nearest the things that have worked best in the past, and when do you make the lunge for the inclusion of things that you think will mark the course for the future.  Having really bright scientists, coupled with able and wise and experienced crew chiefs and engineers – engineers at this point, and a lot of them in our program have more than a decade of experience with the team doing things that are relevant to what we do – so it’s a blend of the old and the traditional and unimpeachable things of the past, and the things that are new and trendsetting.  As we look at what’s in the future for NASCAR, at some point we’re going to have a blend of Ethanol fuels and we’re going to have fuel injection and the inclusion of some computer on board to control the fuel system at least, so that will be a blend of science that we don’t have much history about, but, at the same time, we’ve got to come back for the things that are relevant and not go against the things that have been correct and useful in the past.”

JAMIE ALLISON CONTINUED – “Jack said it all.  He’s in a better position to articulate the impact of the little things, but we’re dealing with the highest professional level of racing that exists anywhere, and it is about the minute details.  Yes, obviously our engine had to be up to par and it is, but what separates winning from not winning is the opportunity itself.  You can’t predict when a caution is gonna come out.  You can’t predict whether someone is going to take four or take two, but if you do everything that you are in control of well, then the rest of the circumstances will take care of themselves.  Under Jack’s leadership and the Roush Fenway team, the RPM team and the Wood Brothers, although we have only three cars officially in the chase, every single Ford entry on the track has their headset on and tuned into the fact that we are all together to make sure that a Ford has the best chance of winning and winning the chase.  So we don’t just have three guys trying to win the chase, we have all of the Ford entries trying that when an opportunity presents itself, if there is any way they can support a Ford win, we have the Ford team on this.  I’m excited and looking forward to it.  We’ve got 10 races to see how it turns out.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – DO YOU FEEL LIKE A CAT WHO HAS NINE LIVES?  “I’ve had much more luck in terms of surviving things that could have ended my time much earlier.  I had a car wreck when I was 16 years old that could have been bad.  I was not injured.  I had a race car wreck when I was 30 that could have been bad, but was not serious.  And I’ve had two airplane crashes in the last 10 years, so I’ve had much more good fortune and many more bites of the apple here than I should have expected, but for the time that I’ve got left and for the things that I’ve learned, I intend to make the biggest contribution I can to our broader society, to the business community that I’m involved with in Detroit with Ford and the automobile industry, and, of course, the racing community and the things around NASCAR.  I’m extraordinarily grateful for the time I’ve got, but I don’t presume that I’ve got another successful outcome to another traumatic accident like I had with my last airplane incident.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CONFIDENCE YOU HAVE IN YOUR THREE CREW CHIEFS IN THE CHASE AND THE PRESSURE THAT’S ON THEM?  “I talked about old things and traditional things and new things and forward-thinking science things.  We’ve got an arrangement with two of our four crew chiefs, and two of our three crew chiefs that are in the chase and mechanical-engineer based that have worked in the racing business all of the time since they got out of school, and they’re partnered with two other crew chiefs who have spent their time at the race track while the other two were getting their mechanical engineering degrees.  They were working as car chiefs and chief mechanics and, in one case, as a crew chief.  So we’ve got a blend of old and new and I’m very confident that they will help one another and they’ll motivate one another, and they’ll help one another get aligned if they get confused about what they’re looking at or the direction that they should go.”

THE TWO WITH MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEGREES ARE BOB OSBORNE AND GREG ERWIN, CORRECT?  “That is correct.”

DO YOU FEEL JIMMIE JOHNSON IS FINALLY VULNERABLE?  CAN SOMEBODY KNOCK HIM OFF?  “He is the reigning champion and certainly carries a lot of momentum going forward, and Chad Knaus has done a nice job, and the entire Hendrick organization and Chevrolet engineering team behind him have done a commendable job, but this is very, very tight competition.  It’s very close.  It’s a battle of inches and as somebody said, if you go for two tires when four tires is the call, depending on what other people around you do, you can’t be successful on that day.  There will come a time, and there has been a time for me when we’ve had more success than reason would dictate and other times when we seemingly couldn’t get a break.  If Jimmie Johnson goes through a period where he has better success on things that don’t have a foreseeable outcome than reason would dictate, then he’ll be a clear favorite for the championship this year.  And if he has reasonable and average luck, I think he’s got not much better than an average chance than a number of teams, including our three, to win the championship.  It’s not his to lose, it’s his to win – the same as it is for everybody else – and I think it’s gonna be a great competition.  It’s gonna keep people close to the fence and keep a lot of interest in the races as they unfold here in the chase.”

ARE YOU DOING EVERYTHING NOW THAT YOU WERE DOING BEFORE THE ACCIDENT AS FAR AS YOUR INVOLVEMENT WITH THE TEAM?  “Physically, I’m back to 100 percent.  I did lose the use of my left eye through my facial injury, but my right eye corrects to 20/15, which is the same as it was before.  I’m driving a car.  With another pilot with me I’ve flown two airplanes since the accident and I’m on a complete, normal schedule for me with my involvement with my engineering company in Michigan and my interaction with Ford on many fronts, and, of course, with my race teams in North Carolina.  If the question is, ‘Am I back?’  I’m back and I was really off stage for less than three weeks as I went through my surgeries.  I think I’m back up to full potential. I know I was on a treadmill for a reasonable period of time last evening, which is a Sunday evening for me if I don’t have a race.  I’m sleeping well and eating well.”

WHEN WAS THE FIRST TIME YOU FLEW AGAIN AND WAS THERE ANY HESITATION?  “There was no hesitation for it.  It was the Friday evening before the Atlanta race and it was in a J3 Piper Cub with a friend of mine in Atlanta.”

ON THE TRACK, THERE WERE 7 WINNERS IN THE FIRST 16 RACES AND 9 WINNERS IN THE LAST 10.  ANY FEELING OF WHY THINGS HAVE OPENED UP?  “As the year goes on, I think everybody hones in on what they’re doing that has worked well and moved away from the things that haven’t worked as well.  You start off at Daytona in February and everybody is leading in the points, and you’ve got all your expectations about what is going to happen, and as the races unfold some of the new things you’ve brought to the table haven’t worked.  You’re able to glean from the things that work and don’t work what direction you need to go and then as the year progresses you rely more on the success you’ve had than the idea of reaching for something that’s new and different.  At least that’s the way we conduct our affairs, and I suspect most team do.  The margin for victory, I think, has decreased throughout the year and the number of people that were in contention has increased for every race.  That narrowing and that tightening of the competitive extremes will be even more restricted and more limiting as we go forward.”

AFTER HAVING GONE THROUGH SOMETHING LIKE THE PLANE CRASH AND GET BACK WITH THE TEAM DO YOU RELISH THIS A LITTLE MORE OR LOOK AT IT AS BUSINESS AS USUAL?  IS IT LIFE-CHANGING FOR YOU?  “The thing that has impressed me, in both of the airplane wrecks I’ve had something happened.  I wasn’t doing something that was reckless.  I wasn’t doing something that was mindless. I simply got in a situation where I had no margin and something happened that was a sure enough accident that followed, so the thing that maybe had affected me as I look at the people that work for me or that work with me, that get them involved with something that they hadn’t foreseen that results in a bad situation, I’d like to think that I’m more sympathetic to their circumstance than I would be if I hadn’t had my own problems that resulted in something that was not good for me in terms of an outcome.  As far as the race teams are concerned, when I’ve been able to get back to the race tracks – in both cases when I’ve been able to go back and interact with the guys in the meetings and the shops – I’ve taken a deep breath and savored the moment and said, ‘You know, this might not have happened except for my good fortune and making it through my trial and tribulation here.’  But once I’ve taken my deep breath and celebrated the moment that I was back, it’s been business as usual for me.  But I’ll say that things for people that have truly been blindsided by something that happened beyond their expectation, I’ve been more sympathetic than I would have been before.  And to my detriment I would say that I probably hadn’t been as sympathetic over things that were happening beyond peoples’ control and their management.”

WHERE IS THE LINE BETWEEN RELYING ON SCIENCE AND RELYING ON YOUR GUT?  WHERE DOES THE HUMAN ELEMENT PLAY?  “I continue to tell the crew chiefs after virtually every management meeting when we talk about the things gone right and gone wrong, I remind them that they are the captains of their ship.  At the end of the day, everybody that stands behind them, including myself, are advisors.  There are data points for them and at the end of the day they need to take the art, which carries with it all the history and the understanding of things that are just unimpeachable in terms of absolute truths that go with our racing, they have to blend those with the things that science would tell you is going to happen or that would have predicted a bad result if you have a bad result.  So you have to blend the science and you have to blend the art or the history, and that winds up being the crew chief’s responsibility.  Now, if you’ve got a crew chief that’s engineering based, that has a mechanical engineering degree, which I have two of them right now, it would be easier to see those guys as being more science-oriented than the crew chiefs with traditional experience, but that has not been the case.  If you look at the circumstance where the setups that go into the cars – springs, bars, shocks, wedge, cross-weight, and that sort of thing – that the engineering-based crew chiefs are as mindful as historical facts as the guys that just have the traditional crew chief backgrounds.”

Roush Yates Engines

Mooresville, NC (September 13, 2010)

Roush Fenway has fielded at least two cars in the Chase every year since the format began in 2004. In addition, they have placed more cars in the Chase field (17) than any other team. Roush Fenway is just one of two teams who have three cars in this year’s Chase. Richard Childress Racing’s three chase contenders Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, and Clint Bowyer will be hard to beat, but Ford drivers feel good about their chances of putting the blue oval on top this season.

“All of us at Roush Fenway have been working hard and I don’t believe we have won an amount that’s representative of that hard work,” said Chase contender Greg Biffle. “The goal is to win the Championship. There are a couple of things we’ve been working on and it starts with that engine – the FR9 that Doug Yates and those guys have been developing. I think that helps us everywhere, so, right off the bat we unload and we’re a little faster.”

Biffle won earlier in the season at Pocono, giving Roush Yates Engines their first points paying win with the new FR9 engine.

Known for their power and performance in all series of racing, Roush Yates Engines earned multiple wins this weekend.

Chris Buescher drove his No. 17 Roulo Brothers-prepared David Ragan Fan Club-Shriners Hospital Ford to Victory Lane, earning the second ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards win of his career Sunday afternoon at Toledo Speedway. After starting 23rd, 17-year-old Buescher worked hard to race his way into contention and win the Northwest Ohio Ford Dealers 200.

“It was nice to come back to Toledo,” said Buescher. “We got our first win here in the spring. We’ve had races where we’ve been really competitive but had bad luck; so we were just really happy to pull it off today.”

This is the second win of the season for Roush Yates Engines in the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards. With just three races left, Roush Yates driver Frank Kimmel is fourth in the point standings, racing for his tenth ARCA Championship.

Another big win for Roush Yates Engines came in the Sprint Car 410 Series. Bobby East won at Dells Raceway Park, giving Roush Yates their first ever win with the 410 Sprint Car engine. East led over half the laps in his first asphalt winged race in the MustSeeRacing Biobased-USA Xtreme Sprint Series and he credits the unmatched performance of his new engine package for the incredible victory.

“It’s really exciting to win my first winged race,” said East. “I kept moving my wing back as the race went along, and the car kept getting faster. This was a new experience for me, but I’m hoping to have the opportunity to do more of this winged racing in the future.”

USAR Pro Cup Series driver Benny Gordon raced to Victory Lane in the American Freedom Spectacular 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night. In the World 100 at Eldora, 130 Dirt Late Models raced for just 24 coveted spots. Roush Yates Engines had two heat race wins and started four cars in the top twelve. Scott Bloomquist was the top finishing Roush Yates car, earning second place.

About Roush Yates Engines

Roush Yates Engines designs, engineers and crafts high performance racing engines with the power to perform and the horsepower and durability you’d expect from legendary NASCAR pioneers Jack Roush and Robert Yates. The partnership of power and precision has come from merging the knowledge and experience of two legendary engine builders, both with a passion for winning today and powering up for tomorrow. In 2009 Doug Yates purchased his father’s half of Roush Yates Engines to become a co-owner in the company.

As CEO, Doug Yates leads a staff of 180 engineers and technicians who design, assemble, test, and service racing engines at two separate state-of-the-art facilities in Mooresville, North Carolina. Here, the best minds and latest technology are hard at work producing nearly 1,500 racing engines each year for teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, ARCA, Grand-Am, FIA GT3, Dirt Late Model, Sprint cars, and NHRA Pro Stock. At Roush Yates Engines, the mission is Power Performance, which is achieved through innovation design, precision engineering, and skillful craftsmanship. Building the best engines in racing today, providing service that’s second to none, and honoring a commitment to research and development are the heart of Roush Yates Engines.

- Roush Yates Engines, Press Release

Doug Yates - Photo Credit: Harold Hinson Photography

Greg Biffle’s win on Sunday in the Sunoco Red Cross

DOUG YATES, Engine Builder – Roush Yates Engines – YOU MUST FEEL A GREAT SENSE OF SATISFACTION TO GET THIS FIRST WIN WITH THE FR9 IN A RELATIVELY SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME IT’S BEEN COMPETING ON TRACK, CORRECT?  “Since we’ve been on the track across the board, which is basically Michigan in June, we’ve had some great runs.  We were second at Michigan with Kasey and had a great run going at Loudon and had some problems, and a second at Daytona, second at Chicago and a third at Indy, so you could definitely see the progress and the improvement from the engine and the cars.  Everything is coming together for the whole organization and Ford Racing.  But I tell you what was probably as gratifying as anything is that, as an engine guy, going to Pocono is a real challenge.  Lots of guys always ask when you go there, ‘What’s the key to success at Pocono?’  Obviously, you’ve got to get around the corners, but you’ve got the longest straightaways in NASCAR, so to have the first win for the FR9 engine at a track like Pocono really makes a statement for the engine, and for all the hard work the guys at the engine shop have put in, and for Ford Motor Company that helped develop this FR9.”

GREG BIFFLE SAID AFTER THE RACE THAT THE FR9 GOT THE ULTIMATE DURABILITY TEST AND HE WAS SURPRISED IT WAS STILL RUNNING AFTER THE RACE.  HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO TEAR DOWN HIS ENGINE AND SEE HOW IT HELD UP?  “We’re processing it as we speak and we’re real anxious to see how it looks.  Every week on a regular basis we have a meeting on Thursday to go over and review all the parts of all the engines.  Greg has run a lot of races and won a lot of races, so he knows to what extent he used the engine, so I’m anxious to see if his feedback was accurate.”

YOU GUYS STRIVE FOR 100 PERCENT DURABILITY, BUT WAS THERE ANY MORE SATISFACTION IN THAT IT WAS GREG THAT WON ON SUNDAY, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE HAD AN ENGINE ISSUE JUST A COUPLE OF WEEKS EARLIER?  “The life of an engine builder is difficult some days and the days that you have a failure are heartbreaking.  The thing I was proud of was we stayed the course.  There was a conversation of going back to the old engine or changing course and we said, ‘Listen, we’ve got to stick to it and we’ve got to work through our problems.’  So to come out and win, and to win with Greg and the 16 team, is very satisfying because you want to prove to the guys on the team, and the sponsor, and the driver, that we’re behind them and working hard and we’re giving it our best effort.  We’ve had a couple of problems here, but we’re competing at such a high level that you can’t leave anything on the table.  You can’t back off and just get through the race to be okay.  We go there every week to win and to give our best effort, and we kept pushing forward and pushing through and that’s what I’m very proud of – everybody from the race team for keeping the confidence within the engine shop, and the engine shop itself to not back up and not back down.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

Ford Racing’s ‘FR9’ engine will take another step toward full implementation this weekend as all cars under the Roush Fenway and Richard Petty Motorsports umbrella will be running the new piece at Talladega Superspeedway.  This will mark the first points race in which a majority of Fords in the field will have the ‘FR9’.  At Daytona, teams ran it in practice, qualifying and the Gatorade Duels, but only Bill Elliott, Matt Kenseth and Elliott Sadler ran it in the Daytona 500.

Ford Racing engineer David Simon spoke about the progression of the ‘FR9’ and how much longer it will be until the engine is racing with all Ford teams on a regular basis.

DAVID SIMON, Ford Racing Engineer – THE FR9 IS BACK AT TALLADEGA THIS WEEK.  WHO WILL BE RUNNING IT? “We’re running the FR9 in all of the Roush Fenway and Richard Petty Motorsports cars.  It’s really the first across-the-board running for the FR9.  We ran them at Daytona, of course, in the Shootout across-the-board, but this is really the first full race for it as the primary engine for us.  The reason it’s a milestone is that we’ve gone through the validation process on the plate package, so, at this point, we’re ready to race the FR9 full-time in restrictor plate form.  We’re going through the same process on the open engine.  We ran it in the 21 car at Texas and we’ll be running it in the 43 car at Darlington, and then at the All-Star race we’ll have them in all the cars there as well.  In the second half of the season, as the validation process gets completed, the FR9 will become the primary race engine for us in the open and plate races.”

DRIVERS ARE ASKED REGULARLY ABOUT WHEN THE FR9 WILL BE IN THE CARS FULL-TIME.  IS THERE ANY FRUSTRATION AT ROUSH YATES THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS ENGINE HASN’T GONE ANY FASTER? “We’re not frustrated by it because we have a plan and we laid that plan out long ago last year on how to roll the engine out, and we’re actually on schedule.  In that respect, we’re really satisfied with the way the FR9 is getting rolled out.  At the same time, we know people are anxious for it, so I guess that’s a good thing.  People do want to see it out there racing and there’s a lot of money and resources invested in it, so we’re anxious to get it out on the track, too.  But we’re on schedule and not frustrated.”

HOW HAS THE VALIDATION PROCESS GONE ON THE OPEN FR9 ENGINE THAT THE WOOD BROTHERS HAVE BEEN RUNNING ALL YEAR? “The validation process has gone fine.  We do a lot of work back at the engine shop, so typically we’ll catch anything that might go wrong back there when we do our durability testing, so the stuff that’s gone to the track we’ve been pretty happy with and so far we haven’t had any issues in the open races with that package.  It’s been a great help that the Wood Brothers have been able to run it all year.  They’ve been a great asset for us in that respect, so the validation process is going well.  We’re on schedule for the rollout with the open package and, barring any hiccups here in the next couple of months, we’ll be racing it pretty much the second half of the season.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 3^rd)

WHAT ABOUT THE LAST LAP? “It was unbelievable crazy.  Restart after restart and we were digging and clawing.  Lane choice had a lot to do with it.  I couldn’t get anybody to push me.  It looked like the 33 spun his tires on that one restart.  McMurray spun his tires on that last one and I was able to get him straight and push him, but I’m just so happy.  The guys worked so hard over the winter on this 3M Ford Fusion, and our engine department – Doug Yates and all those guys – worked so hard on this engine getting it tuned up for the 500-mile race.  I’m just so proud of them.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WITH THE HOLE? “That sucked, and then I can’t believe I didn’t hurt the right-front.  I was hitting that thing because my car was sliding up the race track and I was doing all I could do, but I’m just elated we came out of here without tearing that car up.  We were completely sideways, on the apron, the 33 in the back of me, the 29 cut me off.  It was pretty incredible.”

JOHN ANDRETTI – No. 34 Window World Cares Ford Fusion (Finished 38^th) – “We were running the race to be there at the end and, unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of the race still left to go.  Evidently, the track came up.  The 48 went through it and evidently I went right after it and it not only cut the tire, but you could hear the tire go and then the inner liner right behind it.  At that point, you’re just a passenger.”

DID IT FEEL LIKE DRIVING OVER A POTHOLE OR SOMETHING? “No, I’m busy looking ahead because I want to make sure if I see any smoke that I’m not driving into the middle of an accident.  I wasn’t really expecting there to be a hole in the track.  I can’t say absolutely that’s what happened, but my Window World Cares Ford was pretty good.  It wasn’t like I was plowing and waiting to pit or something like that.  We didn’t have any vibrations or anything.  It was fine.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Finished 8^th) – “I’m happy with the result, but wasn’t very happy with our weekend overall.  We started the day way, way off and it was just a battle the whole time.  We got lucky.”

HOW DID YOU HANDLE THE PATCH AND ALL THE RED FLAGS? “We ran about 25^th or 30^th all day, so all of those green-white-checkers helped us and gave us an opportunity to make some moves there at the end and kind of go crazy.  I just got a run down the back and was able to get three or four-wide up against the wall, and I got some help.  I got my momentum up there and got lucky to get a few spots.  We didn’t race our way to eighth and didn’t really deserve eighth.  I just got lucky.”

BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Finished 27^th) – “That was my fault down there.  I ran in on whoever I was following toward the middle and I had to check up a little bit, so when I started up Logano was on me.  I’m sure Eddie told me, but I didn’t hear him.  What are you gonna do with a green-white-checker?  It’s just one of those things.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE PAVEMENT COMING UP? “I hated to see that.  I wanted the race to go on and keep running, but we did the best we could and we’ll do it again.”

KASEY KAHNE – No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Finished 30^th) – “I hate it for the Budweiser team. We ran up front most of the day, but got shuffled back. It was all about getting in the right line out there today, and it just didn’t work out at the end. It’s just disappointing that our day ended with a wrecked car.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 16^th) – “I feel like we had a much better car than a 16th-place car, but with speedway racing, sometimes things are out of your control. Donnie Wingo made the right call to take two tires there at the end, and I think that we had a car that could have won had things gone our way there at the end. But we weren’t in the right lane and all of those guys were coming hard. It was a good effort by our UPS team. Our guys were really quick in the pits and were able to gain us spots on most of our stops. We just didn’t get the finished that we wanted.”

ROBERT RICHARDSON JR. – No. 38 Mahindra USA Tractors Ford Fusion (Finished 31^st) – “Everybody went over that bump in the middle of one and two and got out of shape, and then tried to regroup, but some people were putting their nose where it shouldn’t have been and one thing led to another.  A couple of cars ended up getting wrecked and we were one of them.”

DID THAT PATCH GIVE YOU TROUBLE? “Absolutely.  I wish they would resurface the whole race track, but we played the cards we were dealt and played it to the best of our ability.  We came away with a wrecked race car, but we had a lot of fun today.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Finished 32^nd) – WHAT HAPPENED ON THE SPIN? “I’m not really sure.  I was under Jeff and I’m not sure if it was that pothole there or not, and it doesn’t really matter, but I just got a little tight.  I didn’t want to get up into Jeff, and I don’t know if Kyle was right behind me, but I just lost it.”

PAUL MENARD – No. 98 Peak/Menards Ford Fusion (Finished 13^th) – “It was a solid day.  When the sun was out we weren’t as good as when it started to go down.  The track got a little more grip and that’s what our car needed.  It was a long day and you think about a 500-mile race and it all comes down to two laps at the end.  It was make or break at that point and it seems the guys running up front go to the back and the guys in the back go to the front.  I just had a good restart and hooked up with the 17.   He made a couple holes on the outside and I just followed him through and passed quite a few cars.”

GREG BIFFLE PRESS CONFERENCE –

“It was a great day for the 3M Ford Fusion.  The best car I’ve really had here at Daytona in quite some time, probably the best car since I sat on the pole in 2004.  The car drove really, really good.  There was the middle part of the race there where I lost a little track position, but really just ran in the top six the entire day once I got there – top eight.  Pit stops were phenomenal, again.  My 3M guys – Pitbulls – I gained five spots on one and then gained three on the other to take the lead off of pit road and beat the 33 out.  It was unbelievable what they did.  There at the end on the restarts, I guess I couldn’t get anybody to push me.  It seemed like maybe they were spinning their tires on the restart or what, but the outside lane just kept getting a run there.  Those guys were better at getting to the throttle.  Truex gave me a huge shove down the back and we broke away.  I was just hoping we could get to the white flag.  I was half a corner away from winning the Daytona 500.  Jamie spun his tires on the final restart and I was able to push him easy until we got straight and continued to push him all the way to turn one.  It was the first time in Speedweeks I pushed a guy in the corner down there in turn one and two, trying to keep him straight, trying to push him around the corner, and then got locked on him down the backstretch and just shoved us both by by a huge amount.  I feel good about helping Jamie get clear and get out front.  I just wish maybe I would have waited until the backstretch to make my run on him.  I had a huge run going and I just couldn’t clear him.  I couldn’t get by him.  I tried it on the frontstretch and gave Junior and all the guys an opportunity to get back up beside us.  I’m just real happy to finish third, go on to California, and I’m happy I had an opportunity to win the Daytona 500.”

WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO DO ON THE BACKSTRETCH, PUSH HIM OR PASS HIM? “I was trying to get us both out front, so that I’d have a shot at making a move on him on the last lap.  I just wanted to get clear because second-place in the Daytona 500 isn’t too shabby, either.  It’s certainly not like winning, but that’s the best spot to try and win from is following the leader.  I was glad I was out of that gaggle of cars because when we’re three-wide and people are slamming each other, then we’re in big trouble.  But if we can get singled out, we can push out there.  That’s when you get your best opportunity to push by him.  I just made my move too soon.  I tried it on the front and it was a mistake on my part, probably.  I should have waited until down the back.  I should have just pushed him around one and two again, and maybe even pushed him down the back and then try it over here on the short chute.”

WITH SO MANY RESTARTS AT THE END WERE YOU GETTING THE SENSE YOU WERE NEVER GOING TO BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH TWO LAPS WITHOUT SOMETHING HAPPENING? “Yeah.  I was just hoping something would happen when I was out front and I just took the white.  That’s what I was hoping for.  It did where I was out front and in a regular green-white-checkered I would have won the race here tonight, but I’m with Junior.  I think maybe two attempts or something at the green-white-checkered.  Three might be a little excessive.  We kind of got caught there because the one attempt wasn’t considered a green-white-checkered because it was under the normal amount of laps.  That made it kind of extraordinary, so I think we could have done it two more times, so it was kind of unusual the way it happened here tonight.  But a couple times you need to try and get it to finish under green.”

DID YOUR HEART SINK WHEN YOU WERE LEADING AND THE CAUTION CAME OUT BEING SO CLOSE TO THE WHITE FLAG? “Yeah, I was thinking, ‘Why do I have to be the first casualty of the rule change?  To be the guy that didn’t get the win?’  It’s just the way it is.  Like Junior said, we’ve got to race by the rules and that’s what they’ve determined we’re gonna do.  We would have been fine if a couple of the guys on the restarts there wouldn’t have spun their tires and we got a better push.  Everytime I got going there nobody was behind me, and then Jamie spun his tires, but that’s the way it is.  We’ve got to go by the rules and, yeah, I wish I was out there spraying some of that champagne right now.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT JAMIE WENT THROUGH LAST YEAR?  YOU MUST BE HAPPY FOR HIM. “I’m so happy for him.  I went straight to Victory Lane when I got done with my interviews.  I felt like I was a big part of getting him up there because he spun his tires like crazy, and I got against his bumper and was against his bumper all the way through second gear, third gear and fourth gear, and I pushed him across one and two, which I hadn’t pushed anybody all night, and I just really eased his bumper and stayed locked on him.  I was able to stay against him down the backstretch and we just took off.  It was pretty cool.  I feel like I’m one of the guys that helped him get his first Daytona 500.  I was trying to get out front.  Like I was said, I think I really made a mistake by trying too early.  I maybe should have stayed behind him until maybe going down the back or something, but I’m really happy for him.”

WAS IT BETTER RACING BECAUSE OF THE RULES? “I think it was.  I think we felt like we could push and shove more and I think there was more of that today.  It’s unfortunate that they’re gonna pave this race track because the grip level is about perfect.  I mean, the cars slide up the race track, you can’t go around this thing wide open like you can Talladega and just stay in line.  You’ve got to come off the gas a little bit and get back in the gas.  It is rough on the bumps, it is tough on that, but I think the rule package is good.  The cars race around here really good, and it’s gonna  be completely different when they pave it.  The rules package will probably change again because the speed will be much, much higher.”

DO YOU THINK THE PATCH CHANGED WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED? “I don’t think so.  I know when I was hitting it, I hit that thing three laps in a row and then the caution came out.  I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to quit hitting that thing because I know it’s gonna blow a right-front tire out or screw the splitter up,’  but like Junior said you get down in there and you’ve got the wheel in it and you’re against a guy, you can’t see it.  You kind of know where it’s at and you run through it.  When I was leading I never went through it, but when I was back there I went through it.  But I don’t think it changed the outcome at all.”

THIS IS NASCAR’S MARQUEE EVENT AND FANS WERE LEAVING.  ARE YOU CONCERNED FAN ATTENDANCE MIGHT SUFFER? “It was unfortunate for the fans and the people watching on TV that we had to have that big delay.  Nobody certainly wants to sit around and wait all that time, but it was nobody’s fault that the race track came apart.  It wasn’t neglect or anything else.  Like Junior said, it was our cars beating on the race track and it can only take so much.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT JAMIE AND HIS SITUATION LAST YEAR? “We do stuff away from the race track quite a bit – Jamie and Christy and Matt and Katie, so the three of us do different stuff.  We go on ski trips and out to dinner and do different things, so I probably hang out with him more than any other driver.  So I was really excited being his former teammate.  This is a big, big win for anybody’s career.  You’ve got to be happy for anybody that ever wins this race, and I was especially happy with the four guys I was up there beating and banging with. I would rather see Jamie win than those guys for being a teammate, and now I can get him to take me out to dinner and pay for it.”

HE WAS KIND OF A MAN WITHOUT AN ISLAND LAST YEAR. “He was on an island, but we certainly didn’t leave him hung out to dry.  He had all the information and all that, but we knew he was leaving at the end of the year.”

THOUGHTS ON A MARQUEE OWNER WINNING AGAIN THIS YEAR IN CHIP. “I think it’s great for those team owners to end up with wins like that and trophies like that.  I know Jack cherishes that win that Matt was able to get him last year.  The owner goes through the same thing as the driver.  People come here for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years without ever winning, so it’s just as special for those owners to win here.  Like Junior said, that’s a great organization.  They’ve worked really, really hard and it’s not only the owner, it’s the crew chief, it’s the team, it’s the guys at the shop, it’s that whole organization.  It’s such a morale booster for them all the way through.  It’s a neat deal.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler and Bill Elliott will all be racing with the FR9 while the other 10 Fords in the field with have the previous 452 model.

“We’re pleased that we’ll be able to put the FR9 in a couple extra cars for the Daytona 500,” said Dave Simon, the Ford Racing engine engineer who worked with Doug Yates on the development of the FR9.  “Based on completing the mileage on one of the engines, looking at wear condition on some of the others, and based on the performance of the engine during the qualifying races, we felt that providing additional FR9 engines will help give us additional boost for the 500. “

This will mark the second straight restrictor plate race that Kenseth and Sadler will run the FR9.  Both drivers debuted Ford’s first purpose-built NASCAR engine at Talladega last fall in the Amp Energy 500.  Kenseth was in position to win the race as he was running second until being forced to pit for fuel in the closing laps.  He finished 24th while Sadler ran up front all afternoon and finished ninth.

The only other time FR9 competed last year was in the season finale Ford 400, where David Ragan finished 34^th.

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

· All teams under the Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, and Wood Brothers Racing banner ran the FR9 in practice and Daytona 500 qualifying last week, and will use it in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races.

· The only Ford team that will run FR9 exclusively all season is Wood Brothers Racing and driver Bill Elliott, who is running a limited schedule in 2010. A determination on if any other Fords, besides the 21 car, will run the FR9 in the Daytona 500 will be made after the Duels.

· Front Row Motorsports and the Latitude 43 team of Boris Said will run the 452 engine (previous engine) throughout 2010.

· All five Fords that competed in the Budweiser Shootout DID NOT have the FR9.

Doug Yates - Photo Credit: Harold Hinson Photography

DOUG YATES, Roush Yates Engines –

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOW THE FR9 HAS PERFORMED SO FAR HERE AT DAYTONA? “We ran the FR9 last fall at Talladega and were really pleased. Matt was running second until the end when we ran out of gas, so we had a shot to win the race, but, so far, I think we’re pretty pleased. The Wood Brothers had a great qualifying run and qualified fourth. They put a lot of effort into qualifying, so that’s what we use as our barometer for how the engine is and how it’s doing. Saturday night in the Shootout, the guys did not race the FR9. They raced the 452 (old engine) and they looked really strong, and today in the first practice for the qualifying races tomorrow the engines and cars looked real good. We’re really optimistic about what we’ve seen so far. Of course, we’d like to come down here and sit on the front row, but that’s behind us and now it’s time to go see if we can’t win another Daytona 500 like we did last year with Matt.”

WHY NOT RUN THE FR9 IN THE SHOOTOUT? “Part supply is one thing. It takes time to build up an inventory and that’s something we’ve been trying to really be smart about. There are economic concerns there and financial things you have to work through as well, but the other thing is that the 452 engine – which some refer to as the old engine – runs really well. We had a shot to win the race with Greg Biffle and Kasey Kahne, and Carl led the whole first segment, so we’re in a really good position to be able to go back and forth between the two engines and try to take our time and make sure that when we do release it and run it across the board that it is 100 percent bulletproof and will get the job done.”

IS SPEEDWEEKS A LUXURY IN THE SENSE YOU CAN RUN BOTH ENGINES IF YOU WANT? “At Speedweeks you really get two races. NASCAR allows you to run two engines and by the time the 150s are over, you’ll have about 400 miles on that engine, so that’s almost like running a short race like down here in the summer. We’ll take those engines back home and diagnose how they look and dissect them to make sure everything is good. We’re gonna get a chance to run the 500 with the Wood Brothers and get a full race on it. Right now, we’re sitting on the fence on whether to pull the trigger on racing a couple more or not, but we’ll make that decision after the 150s.”

YOU’VE BEEN COMING HERE A LONG TIME. WHAT’S THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO YOUR MIND WHEN YOU DRIVE THROUGH THAT TUNNEL EVERY YEAR? “The first thought is what a privilege it is to be here. This is an historic place. It’s the birthplace of NASCAR and where the France family had the vision to build this place. We’re all honored to walk in the gates and from being here as a young boy with my dad, and watching him build the engine that won Richard Petty’s 200th race, and watching Richard Petty beat Cale Yarborough to the line here in July. I didn’t get to go because I was young, but my dad got to eat lunch that day with President Reagan, and that was so special for him. I’ll never forget that the guys who owned Petty’s team at the time, they were so excited they let us stay in their suite down on the beach. For us, we’re kind of at the back of the station wagon, so that was a really special moment.”

YOU WON SOME RACES HERE WITH YOUR DAD AS WELL. “Those Daytona 500s that my dad and I have won here are really special. In ’92 with Davey, ’96 with Dale and 2000 with Dale, those are all special times and there for a while it was every election year we got a 500 win. It came harder, but it also came often and now I kind of forgot how that tasted until last year with Matt. To be in Victory Lane with Jack Roush for his first 500 win was something really special, and I’ll never forget him telling me, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize how big of a deal that was and now I do. Thank you.’ That was really cool because since my dad isn’t here at the race track, Jack kind of fills that role for me and I really want to see him have a lot of success and see us together have a lot of success. I love this place. It’s one of those tracks where when you come away you can be so frustrated, but you can’t wait to have another shot at it. It is the Daytona 500. It is our Super Bowl, and I think people need to realize how special it is.”

WHILE YOU HAVE ALL THESE ENGINES IN THE RACE ON SUNDAY, YOU ALSO HAVE THE YATES RACING NAME ASSOCIATED WITH A TEAM AGAIN IN FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS. WHAT IS YOUR ROLE IN THAT ORGANIZATION? “First of all, it was nice to see what Max Jones and I did with Yates Racing to be able to carry on the 96 and 98 points could go to Front Row Motorsports and Bob Jenkins. What a great story. NASCAR is really an opportunity, just like my dad had an opportunity to come in and own a team Bob Jenkins is getting that now. He has three cars in the race and there are 13 Fords in the race, and I think that’s the largest car count Ford has had in quite some time. It’s nice to see those Fusions out there on the race track and Ford doing so well as a company, but as far as Bob’s role – first and foremost, I’m the engine builder. If he needs any advice or wants to bounce anything off me, of course I’m there, but primarily it’s Bob’s ship and I’m there when he needs me.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

Ford’s new FR9 engine will make its first non-restrictor-plate appearance this weekend when it powers David Ragan’s No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion in the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The FR9 debuted (in Ragan’s No. 6 and Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion) a few weeks ago at Talladega Superspeedway. Ford Racing Technology North American Operations Manager Doug Hervey talks about the FR9’s first open-track race.

DOUG HERVEY – North American Operations Manager, Ford Racing Technology – “The new engine will be in the No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion with David Ragan.”

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IT WILL RUN ON AN OPEN TRACK. LOGISTICALLY, IS THAT A BIG CHANGE FROM ITS DEBUT AT TALLADEGA, A RESTRICTOR-PLATE TRACK? “It’s a different durability cycle that we had to run, and we wanted to make sure that the cooling system was optimized for the performance of the engine, in terms of its power output. And we feel somewhat pleased with how its gone so far, so we’re going to introduce it this weekend at Miami-Homestead Speedway for Ford Championship Weekend.”

THIS WILL GIVE YOU A HEAD START ON 2010, CORRECT? HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT? “Well, it gives us a good look at how the engine will perform on the track. You know, the engine has been tested on a dyno with race-durability runs – so, it has simulated racing, but it hasn’t been out in the environment. This is going to great. This is going to be a good test for us to see how the engine performs on track, because during the dyno-simulations runs we can’t simulate the “dirty air,” if you will, and all the environmental conditions that the engine will see. So, this will give us a good barometer for where we are at with the engine.”

WHAT WAS LEARNED ABOUT THE NEW ENGINE AFTER THE TALLADEGA RACE? “We learned that our pre-race durability testing and reliability testing was spot-on. When we tore down the motor we looked at certain areas of the motor, and they looked great from an inspection standpoint. So, we were very pleased with the tear-down results of the motor, and we are looking forward to doing power development with the motor as we go forward.”

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING IN THAT POST-RACE INSPECTION THAT YOU DIDN’T EXPECT TO FIND? ANY SURPRISES? “No. It was actually exactly what we had hoped we would see, so there were no surprises. Actually, we were pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t a small area that needed some tweaking or some modification, so if there was a surprise, that would be a good surprise, because we didn’t see any of that. From the restrictor-plate version, we were very happy with the motor.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

2009 NSCS Matt Kenseth - (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR)

After a 14th-place finish at Martinsville, Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT Team head south to Talladega Superspeedway for the fourth and final restrictor-plate race of the season.

Talladega Superspeedway
2.66 Mile, 188 laps, 500 miles
ABC – 1:19 p.m. EST – Prerace – 12 p.m.

At Talladega…

Starts: 19
Wins: -
Top 5: 3
Top 10: 6
First time: 4/16/00 (18)
Last time: 10/26/09(17)

KENSETH AT TALLADEGA

This will be Kenseth’s 20th start at Talladega Superspeedway, where he has an average finish of 18th. Kenseth has totaled six top-10 and three top-five finishes in nine seasons at the track. He finished top six in three straight from the fall of ‘05 through ‘06, and the 2006 season marked the only time in his career he has finished top 10 in both races there in the same season. However, he has not finished better than 14th since, including four consecutive finishes outside the top 15.

ENGINE DEBUT

Kenseth along with Roush Fenway teammate David Ragan will debut the new Ford Racing “FR9“ Engine this weekend at Talladega. Code-named “FR9,” this new piece is the first purpose-built NASCAR racing engine to ever come out of Ford Motor Company. Its design has been spearheaded and developed by famed engine builder Doug Yates and Ford Racing engineer David Simon.

OUT FRONT

Despite having never won at Talladega, Kenseth has led in 14 of his 18 starts at the World’s Fastest Speedway, including nine laps there in the spring.

LOOKING FOR WIN NO. 1

Talladega is one of 11 active tracks on the circuit where Kenseth has yet to win a Cup race. Kenseth’s 18 wins have come at 11 of the active tracks and at Rockingham (where the series stopped racing after 2004.) In addition, Kenseth has led at all 22 tracks with the exception of Sonoma.

QUOTING MATT…

“Talladega is a lot like going to a 200-mph go-cart track. Everyone’s cars handle there and you run wide open all day. At Daytona, the corners are much tighter and the surface is worn out, so handling is really important, but at Talladega it is much more about drafting and getting into the right position. The challenge is not getting in a wreck. You also have to have your car in the right place, with the right cars, so you don’t get hung out and lose a lot of positions.”

FAST FACTS

· Kenseth has an average finish of 18th at Talladega.

· Kenseth has six top-10 and three top-five finishes at Talladega.

· Kenseth has led in 14 of his 18 starts at Talladega.

· Kenseth and Roush Fenway teammate David Ragan will debut the new Ford Racing “FR9” Engine this weekend at Talladega

- Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

Ford’s new “FR9” engine will debut this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway in two cars – the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion driven by Matt Kenseth, and the No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion of David Ragan.

Brian Wolfe, director, Ford North America Motorsports, and Doug Yates, co-owner, Roush Yates Engines, held a teleconference earlier today to discuss the “FR9” rollout.

BRIAN WOLFE, Director, Ford North America Motorsports – “Obviously everyone at Ford and Roush Yates Engines and Roush Fenway and Yates Racing are all very excited to see the debut of the FR9 this coming weekend at Talladega. It’s a great engineering feat, I would say, and I just can’t wait to see it out in competition.”

DOUG YATES, Co-Owner, Roush Yates Engines – HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET THIS ENGINE ON THE TRACK THIS WEEKEND AT TALLADEGA BEFORE THE DAYTONA 500? “It’s really important to get a good look at it before the end of the year in competition. We’ve had it on the track testing. We tested at Daytona with the tire test in September and had some good results, but to actually see some race competition in preparation is really important, so we can come back and tweak on the things we need to improve to get ready to go down to Daytona for Speedweeks.”

DID THAT PLAY A PART IN YOUR DECISION TO BRING IT OUT THIS WEEK? “Yes, absolutely. The engine really looks great in both open and plate format, but for the start of the season we’re looking at starting at Daytona racing the FR9, or at least qualifying with the FR9, and for that reason we felt like Talladega was an important date for us, so that drove some of the decisions.”

BRIAN WOLFE CONTINUED – CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE PROCESS OF HOW LONG IT TAKES TO DEVELOP SOMETHING LIKE THIS? “When you talk about coming up with the new architecture, and with the new rules on the current engine that are based off the production Windsor block, 4.380” bore centers and we’re running about a nine-inch deck height on that thing. The new rules push us out to about a four-and-a-half inch bore center. But with that, it also took us away from the production block constraints, production cooling systems, etc. There were a lot of things we had to machine that production-based architecture to make it into a viable race motor. So when you put the things together and ask, ‘What do you want to accomplish with it?’ A lot of it will go back to how it’s going to perform as installed in the vehicle, from the cooling system performance, lubrication performance, and the critical valvetrain dynamics. When you run these push-rod engines at the speeds they’re running, they have to live for very long periods of time, so those all become critical factors. I think the teams do a pretty good job between the CAE work, the computer and engineering, and the lab work that they do to put the valvetrain setup together, and how the lubrication system is going to work. But then we start going beyond that to the breathing characteristics of the engine, how you’re going to arrange the porting precisely, both on the intake and the exhaust side. They start to develop through those things and the guys did a really, really good job. But then when you start to go to put it into a race car, there are other systems that you have to worry about that support the engine itself. The old engine really used conventional motor mounts mounted to the block, whereas the new engine will go to a conventional race setup of motor plates. So that will probably affect the way that the front-end chassis will respond to some extent. The way the loads will go through the engine are a little bit different. So you’ve got to make sure all those supporting systems are good, but then the other need, from my perspective, if you’re looking at it truly from a financial perspective, when the current engine performs as good as it does from a peak power, an average power, and a fuel consumption perspective, it’s so good that you don’t say, ‘Well, we have a big competitive disadvantage because of the current engine, so we’ve really got to get this new one in and maybe take a little risk here and there, or obsolete a lot of good parts to get that new engine in production.’ So those two factors come into play, too. We don’t want to obsolete a lot of good parts that are very competitive just to say we launched the new motor, and also, as competitive as it is on the track, you don’t want to take any little risk in areas you maybe don’t have fully understood or validated because you’re already at a very competitive level. I think Dave Simon, our lead Ford engineer working with Doug’s team, would say that the new engine’s biggest challenge is that the current engine is so very, very good.”

DOUG YATES CONTINUED – “It’s been an honor to work with Ford on developing this engine. The first part of my career, and most NASCAR engine builders, we were given a block and heads and manifold and we’d take that and develop it and improve on it, and from the time I started in 1990 until now, these engines have gained about 250 horsepower in the format they’re in, so to be able to take a clean sheet of paper and design an engine with the features that you’ve always wanted in an engine – to improve on the things that you’ve already made better – was really exciting and an honor to work on this project. Our whole team at Roush Yates is real excited about getting it out there, and it is an exciting time to be a part of Ford Racing.”

HOW RELIABLE WILL THE FR9 BE IN THE EARLY GOING? “That’s always the nervousness about anything new that we do, whether it’s a new piston or a new camshaft, not to mention a whole new engine, so that’s the reason why we want to get it out there this weekend. It’s a good time of the year. The Chase is set and there are some cars that are racing for wins, and we’re racing also to gain some knowledge for 2010, and part of that knowledge is getting this engine out there and testing it. We have tested the engine quite a bit. Like I said, we ran a Daytona tire test and basically 500 miles on this engine, and then here in our shop we have a dynamometer that we can load up and run race track simulations, and we do that quite often, so this thing has been through a lot of testing. But once you get it in the car, you experience different things, so we’re looking forward to getting it out there and racing and then getting home and dissecting it and tweaking on it from there.”

HOW READY WOULD YOU SAY IT IS NOW? “I feel really good about the engine. After the Daytona test we saw some things that after a normal race weekend we would come back and adjust on – the valve spring load loss was a little bit more than what we would like to see. We made some adjustments around the valvetrain, and with our test requirements here in-house, I feel really good about going to the race track this weekend with it. Would I be more nervous if this was the Daytona 500 in 2010? Sure, but I feel pretty good about the engine.”

BRIAN WOLFE CONTINUED – “The thing is you never want to jinx anything, and you always want to take the approach that we’re very cautiously optimistic, but I think the big key is through the years and years of racing experience that Doug and his team have built up, they do build confidence from laboratory tests of non-firing portions of the engine to durability runs to simulate on-track performance to actual on-track test sessions, where they will bring the engine back and tear it down to look at critical factors. Every one of those steps has been followed coming out with this, so there isn’t anything else I know we would do to get more ready at this point than we already are.”

DOUG YATES CONTINUED – WHEN WILL THE ENGINE BE AVAILABLE TO ALL FORD TEAMS? “Right now, this is obviously the first race and the 6 and 17 cars will be racing it. We’d like to get it in some open competition before the end of the year, and then from there we’ll evaluate the engine parts and make some good decisions on moving into 2010. But we probably won’t start out across the board next year. The beginning of the season is so critical to gain points and to secure your position, that we’ll gain some more experience with it and then try to introduce it across the board sometime around mid-season.”

SO IN 2010 YOU WILL RUN IT WITH THE EXISTING ENGINE? “Yes, that is the case right now. As we ramp it up and we get more parts in-house, and we gain more confidence in the reliability and the performance of the engine, we’ll start bringing it out in more teams across the board, and work our way into having all the teams running the engine, hopefully, by mid-season.”

DOES THE NEW ENGINE CHANGE THE CENTER OF GRAVITY WITH THIS NEW CAR? “NASCAR took the engines back at the second Michigan race and they weighed them and they checked them for performance on the engine dynos, and, actually, we have the lightest engine in the field today, which is good. That’s a good advantage for our teams, but what we did with the new engine – it’s about the same weight – but the cylinder heads are lighter and the front-end accessory drive is lower, so the CG (center of gravity) of the engine is lower and we do feel like that will be an advantage for us moving forward. The mounting of the engine, like Brian said earlier, is a little different so it’s gonna be a challenge for the teams to go back and forth between the two engines, but we are optimistic that the center of gravity of the new engine is gonna be advantageous for our teams.”

WHEN YOU DID THE DAYTONA TEST WAS IT WITH THE SMALLER PLATE THEY’LL USE THIS WEEKEND? WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? “No, it was not with the new plate. I think what we were trying to find there was an rpm range and the rpm range we ran at the test is gonna be similar to what we’ll see this weekend at Talladega, so I feel like the testing was valid. Getting on the race track and checking all the car systems was important as well, but it’s a great question. It’s gonna be interesting to see how the racing is with the smaller plate this weekend. We’re looking forward to it.”

WILL ANY OF THE FORDS AT THE DAYTONA TEST ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY HAVE THE NEW ENGINE? “No, they will not. The scheduling of that was really tight for everyone, especially for the new engine.”

DO YOU DELEGATE SOME OF YOUR TEAM STUFF TO WORK WITH THE ENGINES? “I’m actually looking forward to being able to focus on the engines moving forward. I think it’s a good situation with Richard Petty Motorsports and Ford embracing them as well as myself and our team here at the engine shop. We’re looking forward to the future. Really, these organizations have grown so much and you have such a great staff of people, and that’s what it’s really about – it’s collecting a good team. It’s not about one person anymore, but Ford has been a great part of my family and my dad’s part of this sport, and I couldn’t be prouder to be able to help them with designing their new engine.”

COSWORTH BROUGHT OUT AN OPEN-WHEEL ENGINE YEARS AGO AND IT HAD PROBLEMS IN THE FIRST RACE. IS THIS GOING TO BE A GOOD TEST FOR THE FR9 AT ENGINE OR WILL A BETTER TEST COME AT A DIFFERENT TRACK DOWN THE ROAD? “I think Talladega is a great test for it because you’re basically wide-open the entire race, so it’s a lot of rpm’s. These engines at Talladega in restricted format turn 9,000 rpm, which is amazing. When NASCAR brought the COT on and they put more gear in the car so the drivers would have better throttle response, as an engine builder it was really concerning and we had a lot of work to do to take an engine that used to turn 7,000 rpm and make it turn 9,000 rpm. So this is a very demanding track and it’ll be a good test for the engine this weekend. Years ago, we didn’t really have the dynamometers to do endurance testing like we do today. We’re lucky and very fortunate to have a dyno in-house that you can program any race track in the world and let it run. The thing it can’t do is the centrifugal load, so fueling and some oil in the valvetrain area is hard to simulate, but with enough history we kind of know what those requirement are, and I think we’ve come a long ways. I’d venture to say the Cosworth guys would say technology has come a long way since they brought that engine out.”

BRIAN WOLFE CONTINUED – CAN YOU UPDATE US ON THE STATUS OF THE PETTY/YATES TALKS? “We do know that the negotiations are going very well with Yates Racing and RPM. Both sides are very excited about the opportunities, but the final I’s dotted and T’s crossed has not been completed yet. All parties are working together, assuming that there are no real hard rocks in the road yet, so we’re just really excited about the opportunities going forward.”

DOUG YATES CONTINUED – “I’d like to add to that. I don’t know if people remember this, but back in 1984 when Richard Petty won his 200th race at Daytona, my father was the engine builder. He built Richard’s 199th and 200th win, and I was there that day as a young man, so this is a pretty special relationship with the King and the Yates’ and, hopefully, we can work together and power them to some more victories.”

THERE WAS SOME TALK THE ENGINE WOULD DEBUT EARLIER IN THE YEAR. WHAT PUSHED IT BACK? “This has been a great experience, but there is a lot to be done when you bring a new engine out. We were ready to go to Daytona in July, and we actually had some parts that came in that were wrong, so that got pushed back. But when we did further testing, we found that we were not as ready as we thought we were, so that was a bit of a blessing. Then we were set to go to an open race and we found some things that were just a little bit concerning on the valvetrain, so it’s just an iterative process of developing an engine. We’ve gained a lot of knowledge and now we’re ready and ready to move forward with this piece. Like I said earlier in the conversation, on the current engine if we change a piston or a camshaft or any component, we go through a lot of testing to make sure that it’s ready to go on the race track. Our number one job starts with reliability as NASCAR engine builders, and we have a lot of checks and processes and procedures to ensure that’s there before we roll something out. It’s probably a bit different than we used to do it 10 or 15 years ago, but there were some issues along the way and this is probably to be expected with bringing out a whole new product.”

BRIAN WOLFE CONTINUED – WHAT DOES FIRST ‘PURPOSE BUILT’ NASCAR ENGINE MEAN? “All of the previous engines all the way up to the current engine we’re running is based on production architecture, so the bore centers, the standing deck height, the cylinder head – the original architecture that was derived from – were all off of production cars. So things like cooling system optimization, preparation of the valvetrain – things that you adapted going forward to get the results that we have now, those constraints are gone. So when you’re looking at a cooling system, that gives Doug’s team a chance to work with the engineers and all the modern tools that say, ‘If you’re gonna put the water jacket wherever you want them to optimize cooling performance on the track and heat transfer away from the engine, both the frictional portions of the engine, the bottom and the combustion heat transfer as well, how would you do that?’ The reason that becomes very critical is it starts to affect other systems on the vehicle, and as you have a more efficient heat transfer from the combustion system, you can run the water temp a bit higher, which allows you to put a little bit more tape on the front grille, which allows your downforce and your aerodynamics to be a bit better on the race track. When we say purpose-built, it ties back to the fact that this engine is designed right from a clean sheet of paper to optimize how we need this race engine to perform, and is unconstrained by any of the production boundaries that the current engine had to deal with.”

DOUG YATES CONTINUED – COULD NASCAR SLOW THE CARS AT TALLADEGA AND DAYTONA BY USING GEARING INSTEAD OF PLATES? “Not actually. What we have to do is cut about 200 horsepower out of the engine or more, actually. The only way to cut the power is to restrict the airflow or put more drag on the car, or a combination of both, but the gearing alone would not slow the cars down enough. Unrestricted engines make about 900 horsepower and the plate engines make about 450 horsepower, so it’s a big difference between the two configurations and the gear alone would not be able to do it. Actually, NASCAR has us running above the peak power today, so, really, the only way to slow the cars down is to somehow cut the power or increase the drag.”

Matt Kenseth and David Ragan will be the first two drivers to have the new Ford “FR9” engine under race conditions when they hit the track this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. Both drivers recently provided their thoughts on debuting Ford’s first purpose-built NASCAR racing engine.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RUNNING THE FR9 THIS WEEKEND? “I’m looking forward to running it, but whenever you’re one of the first guys to run something new to come out there’s always that risk of not finishing or something happening to it, but yet it’s something we need to get in the cars if we’re planning on implementing it for next year. We need to run it this year, so if there are any problems, we can get them worked out during the off-season. They said the new plate engine is running better than our old plate stuff, so I wanted to run it at Talladega for sure. The open stuff, I know, they’re still working on a little bit. I don’t know if we’re gonna get a chance to run that or not, but I know the restrictor-plate stuff they’ve been real happy and excited about running, so I’m looking forward to trying that.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion – ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT BEING THE FIREST ONE TO RUN THIS ENGINE IN A RACE? “They’ve got dynos and computer technology that they can simulate a race at the engine shop and never even see the race track, so I’m not concerned at all about the performance or the engine life that the FR9 will have. I think we’re in a lucky situation just to be able to run the new engine. I’m sure there are gonna be some small bugs to work out, but we look forward to getting in and getting going. I think it’s gonna be a fun weekend. Our cars are always fast there and if we get to where we have just a little bit more speed, we’re gonna be a car that can certainly win. I think that the Roush Yates guys and Ford have done a good job in getting this engine to go. That’s why we’ve been so late in getting the car ready, and just because they want to make sure everything is ready to go, so it’s gonna be a fun weekend.”

ARE YOU EXPECTING A LOT MORE HORSEPOWER WITH THIS NEW ENGINE? “The horsepower is not a big difference. The horsepower of our current engine is very strong. It’s certainly not the engine that’s been beating us every week. I think we still have to work on getting through the corners, but I think this motor is gonna be easier to work on. I think some of the parts are better, some of the cooling system is better, some of the internal things that I frankly don’t know much about will separate this engine from the others. So, I don’t expect to see when we step on the throttle all kinds of new horsepower. I think it’s better, but the horsepower we have now is pretty good.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

DEARBORN, Mich., October 23, 2009 – The wait for Ford Racing’s new engine is over.

After months of anticipation, Ford Racing announced today that the “FR9” engine will make its debut under the hood of Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion and David Ragan’s No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion in next week’s Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

“I’m very excited about the debut of the FR9,” said Brian Wolfe, director, Ford North America Motorsports. “All of us are anxious to
see it in competition for the first time.

“Those of us who have been involved in this project agree that one of the biggest hurdles we’ve faced in making this transition to the FR9 this year has been the fact the current Ford engine is still so competitive, along with the economics of obsoleting the inventory of
the current engine and parts. This has been a tough year for us and our teams on the track, especially since we had such a strong 2008, and the priority for everyone this year has been solving the on-track performance, which has slowed down the rollout of the FR9.”

Code-named “FR9,” this new piece is the first purpose-built NASCAR racing engine to ever come out of Ford Motor Company. Its design has been spearheaded and developed by famed engine builder Doug Yates and Ford Racing engineer David Simon.

“This puts us on a level playing field with the rest of the competition and it’s something we’re excited about working on,” said
Yates, who has been involved with the project since it began three years ago. “Right out of the box the engine is really impressive
power-wise.

“We feel like it’s going to give us some advantages aerodynamically where, perhaps, we can tape the cars up more and run the engines
hotter. The oiling system is designed for a racing engine and, to this day, the current engine has done a great job for many years, but
we’ve got to remember when I started 20 years ago the block was already in existence. So a lot of things have changed,” continued
Yates. “The demands have changed. The RPM and the power levels have changed tremendously, and to have an opportunity to have something new and move forward makes this an exciting time to be part of Ford.”

While having a blank sheet of paper to build a new engine from scratch was something the team embraced, it also meant those initial decisions had to be right.

“The biggest challenge was probably deciding on the framework of the engine – making the big decisions on port arrangement and valvetrain layout,” said Simon. “In some cases we went and got data that we needed to make decisions, but that’s the most nerve-racking part.

Once you set the course for the project and what the engine is going to look like, then you have to go with it. If you get that wrong,
you’re going to be behind the 8-ball for the rest of the program.”

Some of those crucial decisions included an all-new platform for “FR9” with no carry over components or dimensions from the current
production-based 351 engine. Elements such as the induction exhaust, valvetrain, cooling, lubrication and sealing systems have all been improved for greater efficiency and performance.

“The potential of this engine going forward is far above the current engine, which is towards the end of its development curve,” said
Simon. “Another improvement with FR9 is it has been designed to improve manufacturability and serviceability, offering the engine
builders savings in labor and cost.”

While the restricted version of the engine will debut next week, it has yet to be determined when “FR9” will hit the track at an
unrestricted venue. One thing, however, is for certain – the “FR9” is here to stay.

“It’s a reflection of the great effort by the Ford engineers, by Doug Yates and his people, by my guys, and a vendor or two that we
consulted with. Together they have brought cutting-edge technologies and cutting-edge thinking for casting layouts and torque loading, and for the way the stress and the fatigue will be carried throughout the structure,” said Jack Roush. “We expect the castings to be more durable. We expect the valve seat life and the piston life to be improved and we expect a better result from the drivetrain. We look for decades of usefulness with the FR9. I feel sure it will contribute greatly to our teams and to Ford’s future success in the
sport.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release