Ford officials optimistic after recent performances by Roush Fenway, Richard Petty Motorsports
Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards (99) and Greg Biffle race at Chicagoland Speedway. Edwards' second-place finish was cause for optimistic for Ford teams. // Elmer Kappell, NASCAR Illustrated
After Carl Edwards finished second and six Ford drivers finished in the top 14 at Chicagoland Speedway July 10, Ford Racing officials are optimistic about what the second half of the Sprint Cup season has in store.
Ford officials are obviously desperate for a victory. Although it has three drivers in the top 12 with seven races left before the Chase For The Sprint Cup field is set, the manufacturer has no wins in 2010.
The slump stretches beyond this year. Ford had only three wins in 2009, and two of those came in the first two races of the season. Its only win in the last 53 events was Jamie McMurray’s restrictor-plate victory at Talladega last October.
The Ford teams are showing improvement, however, providing reason for optimism.
In the last five races, Richard Petty Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne has finished second at Michigan and fourth at Infineon Raceway and Roush Fenway Racing’s Edwards finished second at Chicagoland.
“There’s signs of encouragement that we can run up front, consistently up front, and our top drivers can marshal the front row,” Jamie Allison, Ford’s new North American motorsports manager, said in a phone interview. “We’ve got the new engine since Michigan, and that’s where these top-five finishes are coming. … As a Ford fan, it was exciting to watch a race where a Ford driver has the potential to win.”
The new Ford FR9 engine has been in most of the four Roush Fenway and four RPM cars since Michigan and will be used by those teams in all races except at Watkins Glen and Bristol the rest of the year.
The engine has a new cooling system that allows teams to run more tape on the front. That has helped aerodynamically, and the Ford teams also have tried other new things that have worked. At Chicago, Edwards used some setups that Kahne’s RPM team has liked.
The key has been getting a front suspension setup that is effective on all the Ford cars, Allison said.
“We had the weakest engines so now we are up to par on power,” Allison said. “And then comes handling. … Handling is about setup and what kind of setup you have. We had our struggles, and now we seem to have that sorted out in terms of handling setup.”
Edwards, who had nine wins in 2008, was encouraged by the second-place finish at Chicago.
“[That] was the first week in as long as I can remember that I’ve had that feeling like my hair standing up on the back of my neck with five laps to go, ‘Man I can win this race,’” Edwards said prior to the Nationwide Series race at Gateway last week.
“That’s a good feeling. That’s what we live for. If we can maintain that level of competitiveness, then we’re on to some good things. But it remains to be seen. If we run that way at Indy and beyond that, then it will be a really good season. That’s fun right there.”
Allison thinks that can happen.
“The pieces are coming together,” Allison said. “There are a few what-ifs – we could have had a couple of victories [this year]. But you can’t count them until they come, and it is going to come very, very soon. I’m very hopeful.
“If you’re not running up front, you don’t have a chance to win. You can’t count on circumstance to bring you up front by taking two [tires] instead of four and hoping you end up lucking into a win. We need to consistently run up front, we need to consistently qualify better, practice better and run better. I’ve seen evidence of that.”
Allison said Ford teams still need to improve on correlating their simulation programs with how they should set up the cars to arrive at the track and run well. He said unloading and practicing well at the track is the key to success.
At Chicago, there were four Fords in the top 10 in the final practice session Friday, and then five Fords in the top 15 in qualifying later that night.
“I was encouraged by Chicago because we unloaded well, we practiced well, we qualified well and we followed through and ran well,” Allison said. “The teams did a great job running up front. To me, I hope we can repeat Chicago – with a different ending.”
