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E-mail: dan@danspitstopracing.com
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dan
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Ford Racing
Ford Introduces the first 2013 NASCAR Stock Car.. putting the "Stock" Back in Stock Car Racing
2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Cars
• Mustang added another series victory to its 47-year racing resume with today’s first NASCAR-sanctioned race win as Carl Edwards took home the checkered flag in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas.
JAMIE ALLISON, Director Ford Motorsports - "A historic moment today by Mustang ... We are all proud of Mustang first win in NASCAR Nationwide race. This victory by Carl Edwards puts his name into the record books among the many great drivers who have won in Mustangs since it debuted in 1964. It was always said Mustang was 'born to race,' and this victory, along with the victories Mustang has won in drag racing, sports car racing and rally racing over the years, just further proves that point."
Other Mustang Motorsports Milestones:
• A little more than a month after its April 17 introduction, Mustang was on the race track as a pace car leading the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Before the year was out, Mustang was a winner in competition, finishing first and second in class in the 1964 Tour de France international rally.
• By 1965, Ford was involved with cars competing in the National Hot Rod Association’s Factory Experimental, or A/FX class, as the 427-cubic-inch single overhead cam V-8 made a potent powerplant in Holman & Moody’s A/FX Mustangs. Ten of these Mustangs were built, and five of them qualified in the Factory Stock Eliminator field at the ’65 NHRA Winternationals. Bill Lawton drove his Tasca Ford Mustang A/FX to victory in the car’s very first race.
• In 1965, Carroll Shelby, responding to Ford’s challenge to build a winning road racing program, introduced the Mustang GT-350 – a stripped down Mustang 2+2 with modified suspension, shocks, steering, brakes and Ford 289-cubic-inch V-8s – for Sports Car Club of America competition. Jerry Titus, Bob Johnson and Mark Donohue drove GT-350s to national titles in 1965, and the GT-350 went on to win SCCA B-Production national championships for three straight years.
• To performance enthusiasts, 1969 was dominated by the hottest Mustangs ever — 428 Mach 1, Boss 429 and Boss 302. Three modified examples of this fearsome threesome were taken to the Bonneville Salt Flats in search of speed records. Driven by Mickey Thompson, Danny Ongais, Ray Brock and Bob Ottum, they collected 295 United States Auto Club-certified records, including a 24-hour run on a 10-mile course at an average speed of 157 miles an hour.
• In 1970, Bud Moore’s team raced against one of the most competitive Trans-Am fields of all time with six factory teams. Parnelli Jones and George Follmer fulfilled the promise of a year earlier by winning six races and the manufacturers’ championship as Jones took the drivers’ title.
• Mustang was a favorite of short-track stock car racers through most of the seventies. In 1972, Dick Trickle raced a Mustang to a national record of 67 short track feature wins in one season. And in drag racing, drivers like Connie Kalitta, Shirley Muldowney and Don Nicholson kept Mustang in the winner’s circle.
• Pro Stock gained popularity, and by 1975 a now-familiar name was in the record books. Bob Glidden drove a Ford Pinto to his first Pro Stock championship in ’74, and then switched to Mustang for ’75, winning four national events and his second NHRA championship — Mustang’s first Pro Stock title.
• John Force, perhaps the most dominant racer of a single race series, broke his own NHRA drag racing record by winning his 12th national crown in his Ford Mustang Funny Car in 2002 and registered his 15th series championship last season.
TEXAS FORD FAST FACTS
• There are 13 Fords participating in the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Andy Lally (No. 71 Interstate Moving Services Ford) and David Starr (No. 95 WRL General Contractors Ford) are making their Ford debuts for TRG Motorsports this weekend.
• Lally, Starr and Travis Kvapil (No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford) all must qualify on speed.
• Trevor Bayne is returning to the track he made his Cup debut at last season, finishing 17th in the fall race with the Wood Brothers.
• Ford has 9 all-time NSCS wins at Texas, most of any manufacturer.
• Carl Edwards leads all drivers with three wins at Texas, his most recent coming in back-to-back fashion in 2008.
• During the race last fall at Texas, Greg Biffle led 224 of 334 laps before a shifter issue derailed the car that he eventually still drove to a top-five finish.
• Jack Roush leads all car owners with seven career victories at Texas.
Bayne and the Wood Brothers Celebrate Historic Daytona 500 Win (Ford Photo)
The last time Woods Brothers Racing was in Texas it was to debut then-19-year-old Trevor Bayne who was making his first start in the Sprint Cup series. Bayne piloted the iconic No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford to a 17th finish that day, a great accomplishment at the time for the driver and the team. A lot has changed since that day last fall as Eddie and Len Wood as well as crew chief Donnie Wingo explain.
HOW HAS LIFE CHANGED FOR THE WOOD BROTHERS SINCE THE LAST TIME YOU RACED IN TEXAS?
EDDIE WOOD:
“Last time we were in Texas we came here hoping to make the race and we did. Now we come back and are in the top-35 and don’t have to qualify so we are able to concentrate on the race which is a big difference. Having won the 500 is obviously a huge difference. That is more of a confidence builder throughout the team and Trevor and everybody. Other than that it is just back to Texas.”
LEN WOOD:
“Other than winning the Daytona 500 (laughter). I think that was a good starting point for us with Trevor here last year. We didn’t know him and he didn’t know us and that race went very well. Things developed from there. We had two tests at Daytona one in December and one in January and they went very well too. It all started to come together and then at Daytona we hit the jackpot, but it all started right here last fall.”
DONNIE WINGO:
“For me I think the more races we get I think the better it our relationship has gotten. Getting the feedback from him and what he wants in the car and how he relays those messages back to us is key. If we can keep gaining on that we will be just fine. That is the biggest way things have changed for me and Trevor since the last time we were here, just our familiarity with each other.”
WHEN YOU LEFT HERE IN THE FALL, DID YOU HAVE A SENSE THAT MAYBE THERE WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT TREVOR?
EDDIE WOOD:
“Yeah but when we left here we didn’t have any idea he was going to be our driver this year. We didn’t know how that was going to turn out. I knew there was something special about him though. I knew that the first day I ever met him. There still is something special about him. We will come out of here and get back to 1.5-mile stuff next week where we are usually at our best. We are glad to get started here this week in a little while.”
ARE EXPECTATIONS UNFAIR FOR TREVOR AND WOOD BROTHERS RACING NOW AFTER DAYTONA?
EDDIE WOOD:
“The expectations here at Texas are to do the best we can and not worry about it because this is hard. This is a really hard weekend for him to be jumping between the Nationwide and Cup cars. Yeah, they are kind of similar cars but there is a huge difference in horse power and they don’t run bump-stops and we do. It is hard enough to keep the Cup cars driving good from practice to practice, much less switching from one vehicle to another. That is hard on him and hard for him to get in his mind what he wants from both race cars. He is doing a good job with it though and he will be fine. This is the car from Vegas which ran really well there and all the Ford’s seem to run well on mile-and-a-half tracks and our car should be no different. We dyno’d it on Monday and it has a really good engine. The engineering side of it is really on its game and I think we will be okay.”
DONNIE WINGO:
“He has struggled a little jumping between the two cars and he will be the first to admit that. They drive a good bit different and the speed is different. The horsepower is down in the Nationwide cars versus the Cup cars. That is something I think he will get better at as we go.” “I think you go through this in terms of expectations. If you look at Jeff Gordon and other guys that came into this sport at a young age like Trevor has. He has a lot to learn and he will admit he has a lot to learn. We have a lot to learn together. We still have a lot to learn with what he wants to feel in the car. It is a trial and error deal and I think we are learning each week.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THING FOR YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL THIS WEEKEND?
DONNIE WINGO:
“I think the biggest things this weekend is to finish. We need to finish without any trouble. We have had some trouble in races that has been of our own making and those kind of mistakes nowadays the way the competition level is, you can’t make those mistakes because it just sets you further and further behind. We have to focus on what we can do not to shoot ourselves in the foot and once we get that I think we will be fine.”
DPR Sports & Racing
United States
ph: 630-776-3411
dan
