Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Daytona Speedweeks Advance
Monday, February 6, 2017
The start of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is only a couple of weeks away as the Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 26 at Daytona International Speedway. There have been a number of changes to the race weekend format, in addition to a new rules package. Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance and Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines, held a teleconference with members of the media today to discuss those changes, along with other issues.
DAVE PERICAK, Global Director, Ford Performance – WINNING THE ROLEX 24 WAS A GOOD WAY TO START THE SEASON, RIGHT? “It wasn’t too bad (laughing). We were excited to go to Rolex. Obviously, it’s a big race for us with the GT and we had a little bit of unfinished business there from our first outing last year, so we came with a four-car assault and all four cars ran great, especially with the Roush Yates Engines in them, and, of course, the result was what we wanted, which was the victory. I’m really proud of the team and all the effort that it took to get to that point.”
DOUG YATES, CEO, Roush Yates Engines – WHAT’S THE LEVEL OF SATISFACTION LIKE WHEN YOU WIN A 24-HOUR ENDURANCE RACE LIKE THAT? “It was a fantastic event. It was a really close race and I’m really proud of all the guys at Ford Performance in putting together a fantastic car showcasing the technology of Ford Motor Company by winning at Le Mans last year, 50 years after the historic win, and then taking it back to Daytona and the place we all love, especially in this area. To win the Rolex was a really special achievement to be there, to see all the excitement on the guys’ faces and to win a long, hard-fought race like that was really special to be a part of and I’m just really proud of everybody’s effort.”
DAVE PERICAK CONTINUED – WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR NASCAR IN 2017? “To continue the progression that you’ve seen hopefully within Ford Performance over the years and prove that we’re taking NASCAR very seriously. It is a priority for us. It’s gonna be exciting this year to include Stewart-Haas in the lineup of Fords on the track and to level the playing field a bit – have more bullets in the gun and go out there and use everything we’ve learned from aerodynamics, our engine technology and some of the other things we’ve done with the teams – some of the tools that we’ve created and our simulator and everything else and bring it all together so that you can see more Fords running up front.”
DOUG YATES CONTINUED – THERE HAVE BEEN SOME FORMAT CHANGES AND SCHEDULING TWEAKS. HOW DOES THAT AFFECT YOU FROM AN ENGINE STANDPOINT? “I think we’re gonna have to work through it and see, but whenever there is change there is definitely an opportunity. The shorter weekends and the planned cautions during the race, the breaks in the race, definitely open up the question about engine performance and durability and can we be more aggressive. Those are the things we’re gonna have to work on as well as incorporate here into our durability cycle when we test the engines, but it looks we’re gonna have to have our best power, best restart capability and just really take advantage of the new rules and be ready for that challenge when it comes.”
QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
DAVE PERICAK CONTINUED – WHAT WAS THE IMPETUS BEHIND THE FORD DRIVER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM? “I think that when you look at longevity in this sport and you look out 5-10 years down the road and you take everything into account, understanding where your current drivers are at and where you’re gonna want to be, you have to have a pipeline of young talent coming through and that’s something Roush did a great job in the past of finding some really young talent, but as a company, as Ford Performance, we haven’t had a program in place that does that, that will benefit all of the Ford teams. So we wanted to take the step forward to find that talent, groom it, and then be able to obviously leverage that talent whenever it comes up anywhere within our portfolio, no matter which team we’re talking about. There are still a couple of key things with the program. One, the drivers are contracted to Ford Performance. That’s really important because, again, it isn’t about finding a young driver and getting them with any particular team, it’s about developing that driver in a One Ford type of way, and then as that driver develops from Truck to XFINITY and ultimately the Cup Series, we can decide as a total group where it makes sense for that particular driver to go. I think that’s a big shift than just having a particular team find the young talent and groom it. The other thing that we’re gonna be able to do with this program, that I’m pretty excited about and I think makes it unique from many other programs, is that we are not only gonna develop the race car drivers from a pure racing perspective, we’re also gonna develop them from a production car development side of things and that’s really important because we’re gonna make sure that the young drivers understand everything about the automobile and what makes it work, and how to set up the car, how to work with engineers because a really good driver is only as good as he can communicate to the team that he’s working with – the engineering team, whether it’s the crew chief or the engineers from Ford or the team itself. So to be able to really, at a young age, educate and develop drivers in that way makes our program pretty unique. I’m very excited about the program and where it makes sense we’ll be bringing that young talent in and developing it throughout the years.”
HOW BIG OF A DEAL IS IT TO HAVE KEVIN HARVICK IN YOUR PROGRAM NOW AND WHAT DO YOU VIEW YOUR ROLE AS BEING WHEN SHR ENCOUNTERS SOME BUMPS IN THE ROAD? “Having the entire Stewart-Haas driver lineup is gonna be fantastic. Specifically on Kevin, he obviously is one of the best drivers out on the track, so to have him in the fold here and to have the ability to leverage all of his experience on many of the tracks, and with Stewart-Haas, it’s really important. He’s kind of like the leader, if you will, over there from a driver perspective and he’s respected by the rest of the drivers. When we decided to partner up with Stewart-Haas, he was one that was brought in early in the discussion to make sure that we understood his perspective on things. I think it’s invaluable to have someone like Kevin, a championship-level driver, to add to the efforts that we have going on here. To get him into our simulator, to get him to help as we work on avoiding those bumps in the road that you’re asking about. Kevin is just an absolute, unbelievable resource, great guy to work with, so we’re really excited to have him and he’s gonna help raise the chinning bar for everybody. The bumps in the road, I would say that we’re doing everything in our power to try to minimize those. I feel pretty good coming out of the Phoenix test as to where we are and our ability to hit the ground running with Stewart-Haas, but you asked specifically about our role. Our role as Ford Performance is to bring all of our resources to bear for Stewart-Haas as they make the transition and make sure we’re giving them every opportunity to be successful. Whether it’s the engineers that I have within my team, whether it’s the facilities that we have at Ford. Of the tools that we use, it’s our duty to make sure that we are servicing them in every way possible, so that they can hit that track and be successful, and I feel very confident that you will see that. Of course, we’re making a big transition here, so I’m sure we are gonna have a few minor bumps along the way, but I don’t see anything that’s gonna stop us from being competitive right out of the gate. You’ll see improvement, obviously, throughout the year, but we are 100 percent dedicated in putting all of our energy and resources as far as making that transition smooth.”
DOUG YATES CONTINUED – HOW DOES THE 2017 AERO PACKAGE IMPACT AN ENGINE BUILDER? “Every time they take downforce off the car, they’re off the throttle more. What we pay attention to is really what the engine sees, what the wide-open throttle time is. When we had the high downforce package, we had more wide-open throttle time. When they keep taking downforce off, we have less, so that usually means the RPM spread is greater, which means you have to pay attention to the low RPM performance of the engine. We learned a little bit of that at the Phoenix test, like Dave was alluding to, but we had a great test out there – a great test with all of our teams and a good first step with Stewart-Haas. We worked on all the systems and we also learned what kind of power curve that Kevin Harvick likes or what kind of torque curve, so we’re gathering that data. It will be a little bit similar to the start of last year, so we know what to expect and we’ll just work towards tailoring the power curve for that situation.”
DO YOU SEE DURABILITY BEING A MAJOR ISSUE WITH THIS NEW FORMAT? IF SO, WHAT WILL YOU DO? “It’s gonna be all new to us. There’s gonna be harder racing, more competitive racing. That’s the goal of NASCAR and the NASCAR fans to do that. It’s our job to find advantages, so, of course, we’re gonna try to push the engine to the limits like we always do and we’ll have to incorporate some of those changes into our dynamometer testing like we said earlier, and anticipate those planned cautions and how many more restarts will we have and how to we optimize that performance. Really, the question is, and our teams differ on this, is fuel economy gonna matter or not, and will that strategy play in, so a lot of unanswered questions. But the one that is not ever in dispute is we just need to make as much power and push the limits as hard as we can to give our teams what they need to go out and win races.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO ENHANCE DURABLIITY OVER WHERE YOU ALREADY ARE? “I feel like we’re in a really good place for durability. I’m actually thinking perhaps it’s the other. You’re gonna have more cautions. You’re gonna have a shorter first half of the race and more caution laps for sure, so we’re kind of thinking a little bit the opposite – how do we push even harder? That’s our job. That’s what we do all the time and more than ever with new teams coming aboard what they need, what their drivers like, and it’s a long season. It won’t take long to figure out what the new format does. We also, something we haven’t talked about yet, we have less practice on Saturdays, so total mileage on the engines is gonna be less for the weekend. That’s something we’re thinking about and talking about and how do we take advantage of that.”
IT WASN’T LONG AGO PENSKE MADE THIS CHANGE TO FORD. SINCE IT’S A SHORT TURNAROUND FROM THE END OF ONE SEASON TO THE START OF THE NEXT. CAN YOU COMPARE THE CHALLENGES SHR FACES COMPARED TO WHEN PENSKE DID IT A FEW YEARS AGO? “There’s a lot of work to do to change over to a new manufacturer – cars, systems – things that you just take for granted for years. We’ve been working hand-in-hand with the Stewart-Haas engineers and trying to make sure the integration piece works – the engine fits in the car and their systems the way they like it. Every relationship is a learning curve. When we first went to Roush, when we merged with Roush in 2004, that was different for us. The Penske learning curve was pretty steep, and I like to think we’ve gotten a lot smarter and a lot more efficient at tackling that, but, on top of that, internally we had to bring on 60 new engines, hire 30 new people. We brought on eight new Haas CNC machines to help us with getting ready for this, so it’s an exciting time for us internally and working hand-in-hand with those guys has been exciting. Every organization approaches it differently. Stewart-Haas is a championship-level team and we’re excited about working with those guys and giving them what they need.”
IS THERE JUST SOME THINGS YOU CAN’T FIGURE OUT UNTIL THE CARS GET ON THE TRACK? “With the dynamometers we have in the shop we can test almost every system. We test the cooling system here in-house. We’ve tested the fuel system here in-house. The exhaust system, so we’ve been dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s as much as we can, but when we got to Phoenix last week that was the moment of truth. Have we done our homework? And the test went really well for us. We had two days with no issues and we went through our entire test list and learned a lot. Like I said, just getting to the track and starting to kind of develop that relationship with Kevin Harvick, since he was the guy at the test, and just trying to develop those relationships. You know a lot of the guys through the years, but working with them and working together on this level is something we’re looking forward to, so you can do a lot of it, but we’re ready to get to Daytona and get started racing.”
HOW IS YOUR DAD DOING? “My dad is hanging tough. He’s got two more chemo treatments and then hopefully they can go to surgery, but he’s hanging tough. He gets excited when we start racing, so he’s ready for us to get to Daytona. After the Rolex standing there in Victory Lane with Dave and Raj (Nair) and the guys from Ford and Chip Ganassi. I had Chip call him up and that was really special to me and gave him some more encouragement, but I appreciate you asking about him and hopefully he’ll get through this thing.”
WHAT’S THE BIGGER CONCERN FOR YOU GUYS FROM AN ENGINE STANDPOINT? THE FORMAT CHANGES OR THE LESS DOWNFORCE AND RULES PACKAGE? “Our job is to do both. I think as far as the aero changes, we just need to make sure our power curve, the torque curve is right and we’re giving the teams what they need, and I think we’ve got a pretty good understanding of that, and I think we’ll work hand-in-hand and get them the right power curves to go win races. The format is probably more concern to me just because it’s unknown. What are we gonna need to be prepared for? What is the race strategy and are we on the right end of that strategy? Bringing that information back here and trying to get ahead of it. You win with advantages and that’s what we’re always looking for, so the pace of the first part of the year is gonna be faster than ever because we need to make sure we’re on top of the rules changes.”
IS THE DAYTONA 500 STILL A RACE UNTO ITSELF? DO YOU PUT MORE EMPHASIS ON THAT ONE? “I’ll just make it really clear. The Daytona 500 is the most important race in the world to me. It goes way back with my family and my dad and my dad now working on that race, and being able to win it early with Davey Allison in 1992 just fueled the fire to try to win as many of them as we can. Obviously, we want to make all of the Ford fans proud of us when we get down there, and the Ford family, so it’s an important race to us and we’re all-in. The only question I think Dave asked me when he was in Daytona for the Rolex was, ‘Are we gonna be good for Daytona?’”
DAVE PERICAK CONTINUED – “From my perspective, all of the races are important. Realizing that you can’t win every one of them, you have to win the big ones, so Daytona is an important one for us, for sure. We just have a special place in our heart for Daytona. We’re very proud of our superspeedway program and I’m looking forward to starting the season there. They’re all important to us, but I think all of us have a bit of a love for Daytona. From a Ford Performance perspective, I wouldn’t mind going back-to-back wins with the GT and NASCAR.”
WHAT’S THE THEME YOU WANT TO GET OUT TO YOUR TEAMS THIS YEAR? “The message really is continuing to advance the One Ford approach to racing. I think we’ve done a really good job over the last couple of years of getting that mentality, working to the teams of helping each other and leveraging each other where it makes sense. Of course, race teams are race teams and everybody wants to be the one that wins, but I think at the end of the day what we really need to do if we’re gonna be successful as an organization is continue to work together where it makes sense and leverage all of our resources and our expertise and our knowledge so that we can translate that to victories on the track. I think they’ve heard that from me before and they’re gonna continue to hear it – that a One Ford approach to racing is what’s gonna pay off at the end of the day to having more Fords get across the finish line.”
THERE’S A SPONSORSHIP ISSUE WITH DANICA’S CAR. IF THERE IS A NEED FOR SPONSORSHIP, IS THAT SOMETHING THAT WOULD FALL UNDER YOUR PARAMETERS? “What I would say is we’re gonna let that unfortunately play out through the court system and see how it works out. I’m hopeful that we’re gonna come to a resolution on that, but at the end of the day what I can say is that you have my commitment and the commitment of Stewart-Haas Racing and everyone that’s involved that it is not gonna affect our ability to hit the track and run that car and run it the way that it needs to be run. I don’t really want to make any additional comments given where we are in the whole situation, and it’s very unfortunate that we’re going through it right now, but one way or another I can just tell you that you will have that 10 car on the track and it will be ready to perform.”
DOUG YATES CONTINUED – IF NASCAR DECIDED TO QUALIFY AND RACE ON THE SAME DAY WOULD THAT MAKE MUCH OF AN IMPACT ON ENGINES? “It’s definitely a change for us. I think some tracks are less of a change than others. If you go to a short track, we used to practice at Richmond on Saturday morning and then race Saturday night, so that’s kind of normal. When we’re talking about road courses and the opportunity for missed shifts and not having a chance to inspect the engine or do something about it, then as an engine builder I become a little bit more nervous about it. I think it’s situational dependent. I understand the push to make the weekends shorter and we’ll work hand-in-hand with NASCAR to make sure that we’re comfortable with what they choose and we’re making good decisions. As an engine builder, it’s our job to get the most out of the engine and we take the set of rules and the weekend format and work towards that, so if that changes, then we may have to change our strategies a bit.”
CAN YOU EXPAND ON HOW MUCH WORK WENT INTO BRINGING ON FOUR ADDITIONAL CARS FROM SHR? “First, I want to start by thanking Dave Pericak and Ford Performance for bringing on a championship team such as Stewart-Haas. It’s really an honor to build their engines and we’re looking forward to the challenge. We started as early as we could just working with their engineers and trying to make sure that we were thinking ahead on some of the system things. Obviously, we were still racing against each other last year, so until the season was over we couldn’t really go all-in and understand, so, for us as a company, the hiring process, simple things like adding parking spaces, things that you don’t really think about, but our machine shop, which we have about 40 CNC machines now, have been working six days a week, two 10-hour shifts, so pretty much around the clock there making parts. The shop here, we just have such a dedicated staff of 200 employees at Roush Yates that are really just going all-in to make sure that we’re prepared for the season and that the transition is seamless. But trying to understand their systems, trying to make sure we dot every I and cross every T as far as that is concerned, and coming to some middle ground on how Stewart-Haas was used to operating the engine, and how we are at Ford Performance has been an interesting thing as well. There are things that we did different than they were used to in the past that they liked, and there are things we had to compromise on, so it’s a long season and we’ll continue to work with them to make sure we’re getting everything we can out of the car and the engine, but it has been a lot of work.”
