Doug Yates of Roush Yates Engines has seen fast Fords pepper the leader boards all week at Daytona. Ford drivers and crew chiefs continue to praise Yates and the FR9 engine package for the fast speeds they have put up. Ford Racing caught up with Yates to talk about how he feels heading into tomorrow’s Daytona 500.
Doug Yates, Roush Yates Engines – ACROSS THE BOARD, PEOPLE ARE SAYING THE BIG REASON WHY FORD HAS SHOWN WELL SO FAR HERE IN DAYTONA IS THIS ENGINE. “Well, it does make me feel good but it is a total team effort. To come down here to Daytona you have to have everything right and the guys have worked hard on the bodies and the drive line and the engine team has done a good job at Roush Yates. Ford’s support has been incredible and it is always nice to come down here and run good at Daytona, especially this year with EFI being new. This is the first race with it and to go out and sit on the front row and then win a 150 race with Matt Kenseth is pretty special.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS BEEN THE BIG REASON YOU ALL THESE FORD CARS ARE RUNNING ATOP THE LEADER BOARDS IN THE PRACTICE SESSIONS? “We had a good package down here last year obviously with Trevor Bayne winning the Daytona 500 and David Ragan winning here in July and we have carried on from that and added the fuel injection piece on top of that. The work we have done in preparation for fuel injection and the team of people we have around that is really strong. I am proud of our team and it is really a team effort. Everybody is working hard and it is paying off. We love racing at Daytona and it is always special when you can come down here and show good for Ford Motor Company and Roush Fenway and the Wood Brothers and Richard Petty and Front Row Motorsports. When our customers run good, that is a real testament to all the hard work that is done. Everyone expects Carl Edwards and Matt (Kenseth) and Greg (Biffle) to go out and run good. But when you see Ricky Stenhouse and David Gilliland up there then we are doing some good things and really looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
A LOT HAS BEEN MADE OF THE COOLING SYSTEM AND RUNNING AT HIGH TEMPERATURES. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF ALL THAT AND IS IT A CONCERN OF YOURS FOR TOMORROW? “It seems like we are definitely doing a better job than our competitors in the cooling area. We saw last year with this engine that it does a really nice job. In a perfect world I think we would prefer the weather to be hot like it was earlier in the week. Who knows what we will get tomorrow with the rain coming in and everything. Either way, there is kind of a delta there and an offset between us and our competitors right now that we seem to enjoy today and hopefully can keep pressing forward on and keep that for awhile.”
