Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Zoom Media Availability | Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 Autodesk Fusion 360 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing is a California native returning to his home state for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Sonoma Raceway. This will mark Custer’s first time on the road course after last year’s scheduled event was postponed. He spoke about expectations for this weekend as part of this week’s Ford Zoom call with members of the media.

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 Autodesk Fusion 360 Ford Mustang — YOU HAVE A NEW SPONSOR THIS WEEKEND AND IT’S YOUR FIRST TIME AT SONOMA. THOUGHTS? “I’m really looking forward to it. I think the road courses have been something that’s always kind of a wild card and it’s always kind of an equalizer for the field. For us, it’s a great opportunity to have a solid run and hopefully find ourselves with a chance to win by the end of it. It’s a really technical place that I enjoy at Sonoma. It’s a place I haven’t ran in the Cup Series yet, so it’s gonna be a little bit of learning, but it’s just one of those places you have so much elevation change and that carousel. It’s just a fun racetrack to run and we have Autodesk on the car this week. It’s really cool. We had them on the car at Texas a few years ago. I ran an XFINITY race and we won with them and from there it’s just been a great relationship and it’s been awesome having them on the car. We use their software a ton at the race shop to be able to design parts and do different things, so they’re a huge part of what we do.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT SONOMA? “It’s still about 10 hours from my home because Northern California is so far from Southern California, but whenever you go back to California it’s always special. You’re always trying to see family and it’s always a homecoming. You always get to have the In-N-Out, so I look forward to that, but going to Sonoma I’ve run a few K&N races there and I’ve always loved it. It’s just one of those places that it’s fun to kind of slip and slide around and be able to go up and down the hills and hit the curbs. It’s just one of those places that I think every driver loves to go to.”

WHAT’S THE TOUGHEST PART OF THE TRACK AND HOW HAVE YOU PREPARED? “I would say with how they’ve changed the course, one of the toughest turns now is that carousel. I think it’s just a really awkward corner and it doesn’t feel like a corner a race car should be going through. It’s really tight, really downhill, off camber. It’s just a really tough corner and it’s something that you never go through there and feel like you did it right. It never feels natural, so it’s one of those things you just kind of have to hit your marks and make sure you don’t overdo it through there.”

YOU’VE HAD SOME EXPERIENCE ON THAT TRACK. WHAT TAKEAWAYS DO YOU HAVE FROM THAT? “Like I said, it’s just such a technical racetrack and it’s definitely nice to have some laps around there. There’s so much fall off and so much you have to do to try and make it around those slick corners. It’s not an easy place to get around, so having those laps will definitely help, but I’m sure in the Cup car it’s gonna be a little bit different trying to figure out just a lot more horsepower, trying to figure out how you’re gonna work it through those corners and be more patient probably, so I’m sure it’s gonna be a lot of learning pretty fast.”

WILL EXPERIENCE ON THE CAROUSEL BE AN ADVANTAGE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE RACED THERE BEFORE? “Yeah, for sure — a little bit. Being able to kind of know what I’m looking for going through that corner and it leads into a great passing zone, so I definitely think it opens up some things. If you can get through the carousel pretty good, it opens up a lot of opportunities to pass. There are those cheap corners you’re always looking for to try and make sure you can pass good, and I think the carousel is definitely one of them.”

YOU’VE HAD GOOD RUNS ON ROAD COURSES IN THE PAST. HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THAT GIVE YOU? “I’ve always loved the road course races and I feel like I’ve actually been pretty close to winning a few and I still haven’t won one. That’s probably the one thing in my career up to now that I really want to try and check off is have a road course win because I feel like every single one I’ve been to we’ve run pretty solid and I’ve been happy with it. There are so many things that have to go right to win a road course race with the strategy and people are running off course and running into you and spinning out. It’s just the races are so crazy that you have to have a lot of things go right, so I definitely want to try and check off that road course win. That would be huge.”

IS THERE A WAY TO DESCRIBE WHAT THE CLOSING RATE IS LIKE AT CHARLOTTE WHEN YOU COME UP ON SLOWER CARS? HOW DO YOU MANAGE THAT? “The biggest thing is it’s just a little bit frustrating because you’re coming by them so many times and every single time it’s a way of how are you gonna manage to get by him. How are you gonna time it right and it’s hard to time something right when they’re going so much slower and then you lose spots, you lose momentum and it just costs you positions. For a race car driver that’s the last thing you want to have happen, so it just gets frustrating when it happens over and over and over again, but it’s part of it and we’ll work with it.”

DO YOU FEEL SHR HAS DONE ANYTHING TO COMBAT THE SLOW START TO THE SEASON? “It’s tough. There are so many different things to look at and there’s things we can kind of cypher through and try and figure out what’s worked and what hasn’t, but at the end of the day also every single track is different, so you can go and try and figure something out at Kansas and it’s completely different when you go to Charlotte. It’s always kind of a little bit of a guessing game with the no practice right now. You can go to the simulator and definitely work through some things and get some big picture ideas, but it’s tough to really correlate what’s gonna happen when you hit the racetrack with the certain conditions that you have and how every single one is different.”

HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE THE SHR ROAD COURSE PROGRAM? “I would say for us as an organization we’ve been solid on the road course races. We’ve definitely wanted to be better, but I feel like we’ve been in the mix at least. I feel like we can run top 10 and from there it’s just a matter of one adjustment and one thing going right on pit road and you’re in the top five and looking for a win, so I think it’s just a matter of fine-tuning it a little bit, but I’ve been pretty happy with our road course cars, but it’s just a matter of having the whole race play out right.”

WHAT IS THE MOST UNIQUE TROPHY YOU HAVE IN YOUR COLLECTION AND WHICH ONE WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD? “For me, probably the most unique trophy I have is the Miles the Monster trophy and not only because it was that, but because it was the 50th year when I won, so I got a gold trophy out of it. That was the year I think everybody wanted to win. Everybody wants to win at Dover anyways because of the Monster Mile trophy, but that year was pretty special and we were lucky enough to win that race. One that I really want, I think everybody would probably say Daytona. I mean, that’s the coolest trophy you can have in your collection, but that would be a really cool one to add to the house.”

HOW MUCH DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE CONTRIBUTING TO HELPING SHR IMPROVE IN YOUR SECOND YEAR AT THE CUP LEVEL? “Nobody is happy right now is the thing. We’re all trying to find different things to try and make our cars better and it’s just, like I said before, there’s no good way to really go about it right now when you don’t have any practice. That’s the plain and simple point. When you don’t have any practice you’re kind of guessing and you’re thinking through things and trying things at the simulator and you think they’re better, but if you’re not able to do it at that certain racetrack that certain weekend, you really don’t know how it’s gonna work out when you don’t have any practice time. In the Cup Series the competition is so stiff that if you’re off for that first run, it ruins your whole day. It’s just a matter of keep working through things and eventually we’re gonna hit on it. We have some really smart people at SHR that are working really hard, so it’s just a matter of cyphering through it. That’s the biggest thing.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT CHARLOTTE WITH PRACTICE COMPARED TO THE OTHER RACES THIS YEAR? “It points more to what your real problems are, I guess is what it helps you with. Are you gonna find the fix in a 50-minute practice session? Probably not, but it gives you an idea of those things that you did try — did they help you or did they not really make a difference. We tried a lot of different things and some things helped a little and some things didn’t, so now we can focus more in the directions we need to get better and from there it’s just fine-tuning it.”

THE 600 IS VIEWED AS A GOOD BENCHMARK. CAN YOU GIVE US ANY INSIGHT ON HOW SHR BREAKS DOWN THE SEASON? HAVE YOU SEGMENTED WHERE YOU WANT TO BE OR IDENTIFIED CERTAIN RACES WHERE YOU RE-EVALUATE THINGS? “I think during the summertime you just kind of have to dig in and grind it out. We’re racing for a long time in the summertime. It gets hot and I think it’s just one of those things you kind of have to stay focused on what your goal is and that’s making the playoffs, so, for us points-wise, the last few weeks haven’t been too good for us, so we’re gonna have to try and probably think out of the box and look for more wins, find out how to win a race here in the summertime and from there it’s just trying to grind it out. Every single race matters for us right now, so we have to make sure we’re bringing everything we’ve got.”

DOES IT HELP HAVING MIKE SHIPLETT TO KEEP YOU PUMPED UP? “Yeah, for sure. The thing is at this level everybody has had success before and you have to remind yourself at times that you were having those good days and that kind of keeps you going, but I think it’s just one of those things you just have to keep grinding and it’s not easy. Nobody likes to go through the dry spells and everything like that, but it happens and you just have to figure out a way to keep working at it and work with your team and having good people around you that want to keep working at it and keep pushing to be better, that’s what you need.”

WE’RE STARTING TO SEE SOME SPEED OUT OF ROUSH FENWAY, SO BEING ABLE TO SEE SOME BRIGHT GLIMMER OF HOPE OUT OF THEM WITH BUESCHER IS IT JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE SHR TURNS THINGS AROUND? “Yeah, honestly it’s just the little things. I mean, I know at times it really sucks to run 20th or 25th, but if you can get yourself just a tenth or two better, you’re running around 10th. It’s just a matter of getting those little things better and the more and more you work at it, the more you fine-tune it and you figure out which direction you need to go in, you’re gonna be in the ballpark.”

THE CHANGE IN AERO PACKAGES FROM A COUPLE YEARS AGO. WHAT ARE YOU STUDYING FOR THIS RACE AT SONOMA? “That’s a tough one. I’ll probably go back to 2018 when it was the low downforce package and I’ll watch some of that for sure, but obviously you’re gonna miss a few corners with that, so in those corners that you don’t have you’re gonna kind of guesstimate to be honest, and you’re gonna use your simulator at Ford Performance, and we’re gonna get an idea of where we need to be braking and where we need to be doing things in those few corners where the carousel is and I think it’s turn seven after the carousel. It’s a matter of I think the Ford Performance simulator is gonna be a big part of being able to know where your lift point is gonna be and figuring out how you’re gonna attack those corners going into the weekend.”

It has been over a year since the NASCAR Cup Series has raced in the state of California. That will finally change this weekend when the series makes its return to the Sonoma Raceway for Sunday’s 90-lap feature.

Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops team head into the weekend with five top-10 finishes on their season and looking for more. McDowell is also looking to return to the top-15 in the driver point standings. He is only four points behind Christopher Bell for 15th.

Anthony Alfredo and the No. 38 MDS Transportation team are looking to give Alfredo experience at the technical road course. Alfredo will be making his first start on the track.

Sunday’s race begins at 4:00 p.m. ET with the live broadcast on FS1.

“It’s great that we’re finally able to come back to California and Sonoma,” said McDowell. “It’s just a great area, a great track with great fans. We’ve always had a great time with our partners from Love’s Travel Stops and Speedco in the area and it’s just something our sport has missed.”

McDowell is not only looking forward to seeing the fans in California, but he’s also looking to continue his best season of his career. The Love’s Travel Stops driver has a best finish of 14th at the Sonoma Raceway, but is ready for a top-10.

“It’s probably one of the tracks where I really want to get a top-10. I love road course racing and Sonoma is a really technical track. I just love that aspect and I feel that we’ll have a good chance for a great finish.”

Finally, McDowell is still positioning himself in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and wants to maximize points this weekend.

“This is a weekend where we can score stage points and have a good points day. It’s more of a challenge for us to get points at some races, but this is a track where we can make that happen. I love the fight that we have and we’re going to put up another strong effort this Sunday.”

For Anthony Alfredo and the No. 38 MDS Transportation team, the goal at Sonoma is to gain experience on a new track for the rookie driver. That is something that Alfredo has done well at this season- especially on road courses he’s never raced. Alfredo had solid performances at the Daytona Road Course and the Circuit of the Americas earlier this season.

“Yeah, it’s funny that is how it has turned out, the road courses have been some of our best finishes of the season,” said Alfredo. “I didn’t have a lot of road course experience, but it’s been a lot of fun and we’ve had good cars, good strategy and it’s paid off with some good finishes.”

Alfredo finished 22nd at the Daytona Road Course and 18th at the Circuit of the Americas. He comes into the race with hopes of another top-20 finish at Sonoma.

“I think if we can just have a mistake-free race that we should be in a good position. We did that at Daytona and in Austin, and that’s what pays off at the end of these road course races There is usually a lot of wrecks or other things happening, and if you can have a clean and smart race, you’ll have a good day.”
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This Week in Motorsports: June 1-7, 2021
· NCS/ARCA WEST: Sonoma Raceway – June 5-6
· NXS/ARCA: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course – June 5-6

PLANO, Texas (June 2, 2021) – It’s the lone split weekend for the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series this season. Both series are taking on road courses as the Cup Series battles at Sonoma Raceway, while the Xfinity Series makes its return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The national ARCA Menards Series supports the Xfinity Series race in Ohio on Friday, while ARCA Menards Series West will prelude the Cup Series event in California on Saturday.

NASCAR National Series – NCS| NXS

Milestone minded… Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) and Toyota have had an incredible run of success since partnering together in 2008. With a weekend sweep in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio and Sunday’s Cup Series event in Sonoma, JGR and Toyota look to celebrate 300 victories together. JGR has 132 Cup Series wins and 166 Xfinity Series victories since partnering with Toyota in 2008.

Sonoma master… Martin Truex Jr. has proven to be the master recently at Sonoma Raceway. He has driven to back-to-back victories at the two most recent Toyota/Save Mart 350 events in 2018 and 2019. Truex was dominate in 2019 – leading 59 laps (of 90) on his way to his third total victory at the California-track (2013, 2018, 2019).

Hamlin continues to lead the way… Heading into the mid-point of the 2021 Cup Series season, Denny Hamlin continues to lead the overall point standings by 98 points. Hamlin is still looking for his first win of the season, and his first at Sonoma Raceway. He scored a track-best second-place finish in June 2016.

Gibbs impressive once again… Ty Gibbs continued what is already an outstanding start to his NASCAR career at Charlotte Motor Speedway where he scored his second-career Xfinity Series win in just his sixth start in the series on Saturday. Gibbs is back in the No. 54 Toyota Supra this weekend for a return to road course racing at Mid-Ohio. The No. 54 Supra team has swept the Xfinity Series road course events so far this season with Gibbs and Kyle Busch behind the wheel.

Toyota looking for first Mid-Ohio win… Toyota is looking for its first win at Mid-Ohio this weekend. Current Cup Series driver Christopher Bell drove Toyota to a second-place finish at the track’s last Xfinity event in 2019. This weekend, five Supras look to give Toyota that first Mid-Ohio trophy, including Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton and Ty Gibbs and Sam Hunt Racing’s Kris Wright.

NASCAR Regional Series – ARCA | ARCA WEST

Gibbs continues to be dominant… For the second time this season, Ty Gibbs led every lap on his way to victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has four wins in the first six ARCA events this season. He looks to add another victory this weekend as the ARCA Menards Series makes its first-ever stop at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

National tour stars get extra road course reps… Full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Brandon Jones and Truck Series driver Austin Hill are both set to get extra road course laps in the ARCA race this weekend at Mid-Ohio. Jones will be in the No. 25 Camry for Venturini Motorsports, while Hill will compete for his Truck Series team, Hattori Racing Enterprises, in the No. 1 Toyota Camry.

Love returns to try to repeat his ARCA West title… After three months away, the ARCA Menards Series West is back on track this weekend for their second race of the season. Last year’s champion – 16-year-old Jesse Love — got off to a strong start in Phoenix, scoring a top-10 finish.

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FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: SONOMA/MID-OHIO ADVANCE

A pair of road courses in different parts of the country will host NASCAR events this weekend as the NASCAR XFINITY Series competes at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday and the NASCAR Cup Series runs at Sonoma Raceway one day later.

This Week’s Schedule:
Saturday, June 5 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 1 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, June 6 – NASCAR Cup Series, 4 p.m. ET (FS1)

FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT SONOMA

• Ford has eight all-time series wins at Sonoma by eight different drivers.
• Kevin Harvick is the only active Ford driver with a Cup win at Sonoma.
• All eight Ford wins have been by NASCAR Hall of Fame owners (Robert Yates, 3; Jack Roush, 2; Bud Moore, 1; Roger Penske, 1; and Tony Stewart, 1)

FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT MID-OHIO

• Ford has won 4-of-7 all-time series races at Mid-Ohio by four different drivers.
• Austin Cindric won the last time the series visited Mid-Ohio in 2019.
• Owner Roger Penske has three series wins at Mid-Ohio.

CINDRIC IS MID-OHIO KING OF THE ROAD

Austin Cindric has 11 career NASCAR XFINITY Series wins and four of those have come on road courses, including the last time the circuit visited Mid-Ohio in 2019. Cindric has registered his wins at Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Daytona Road Course and Road America, but has been particularly dominant at Mid-Ohio. In his two career starts, Cindric has sat on the pole both times and led a combined 105-of-150 laps. He finished second in 2018 after leading 59 laps, but his older tires couldn’t hold off Justin Allgaier, who pitted for new ones during the final caution and passed him with three laps to go. Cindric led 46 laps two years ago to win by more than three seconds.

FORD SONOMA WINNERS HAVE NASCAR HALL OF FAME TIES

As noted above, Ford has won eight times at Sonoma and the one thing all of those winners have in common is that their owners are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Robert Yates (Class of 2018) won this event three times (Davey Allison, 1991; Ernie Irvan, 1994; and Ricky Rudd, 2002), while Jack Roush (Class of 2019) has two victories (Mark Martin, 1997 and Carl Edwards, 2014). Bud Moore (Class of 2011) won with Geoffrey Bodine in 1993 while Roger Penske (Class of 2019) won with Rusty Wallace in 1996 and Tony Stewart (Class of 2020) with Kevin Harvick in 2017.

HARVICK GETS FIRST FORD WIN

Kevin Harvick stretched his fuel over the final 40 laps to bring home his first win with Ford and first win at Sonoma when he captured this event four years ago. Harvick bested teammate Clint Bowyer and fellow Ford driver Brad Keselowski in a 1-2-3 showing for the Blue Oval. The win marked the second triumph for Stewart-Haas Racing since moving to Ford prior to the start of the 2017 season. In all, five Fusions wound up in the top-10 with Kurt Busch finishing seventh and Ryan Blaney ninth as Harvick led 24-of-110 laps and cruised to a win of over eight seconds.

RUDD RUCKUS

When Ford took the checkered flag at Sonoma Raceway for the first time it came in controversial fashion. That’s because Davey Allison, the man credited with winning the Banquet Frozen Foods 300 in 1991, was sent spinning by Ricky Rudd as they were approaching the white flag. Even though Rudd ended up crossing the finish line first, he received the black flag from NASCAR for rough driving and awarded Allison with the trophy. The win was Allison’s first and only one on a road course and snapped an eight-race streak that had seen either Rudd or Rusty Wallace end up in Victory Lane at Watkins Glen International or Sonoma Raceway.

MOORE IS BEST

Little did anyone know that when Geoffrey Bodine won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway in 1993 it would represent the final win for car owner Bud Moore. Bodine, driving the No. 15 Motorcraft Ford, had just purchased the assets of Alan Kulwicki’s No. 7 team earlier in the week and after taking the checkered flag proceeded to honor the late driver by doing an abbreviated Polish Victory Lap. He was able to do that after surviving a fierce three-car battle on the final lap with Ricky Rudd and Ernie Irvan in which contact between all three cars took place. Moore, a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee in 2011, won 63 series races during his career by 10 different drivers.

EDWARDS BREAKS DROUGHT

Carl Edwards snapped an 11-race winless streak for Ford when he captured the NASCAR Cup Series race in 2014 for car owner Jack Roush. Edwards held off Jeff Gordon on the final lap to post the first road win of his NCS career. He did it thanks to a two-stop strategy and a timely caution. Edwards had just pitted on lap 70 when NASCAR threw a caution for debris one lap later. While most of the field decided to pit for new tires, Edwards and fellow Ford driver Marcos Ambrose stayed out and gained the necessary track position that put both in position to win. Ambrose took the lead from Clint Bowyer on lap 81 and brought Edwards with him, but another restart with 25 to go saw Ambrose and Edwards sharing the front row. Edwards got the jump and took the lead, which he never surrendered, although a hard-charging Gordon made it interesting on the final lap.

FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS AT SONOMA
1991 – Davey Allison
1993 – Geoffrey Bodine
1994 – Ernie Irvan
1996 – Rusty Wallace
1997 – Mark Martin
2002 – Ricky Rudd
2014 – Carl Edwards
2017 – Kevin Harvick

FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS AT MID-OHIO
2013 – AJ Allmendinger
2014 – Chris Buescher
2017 – Sam Hornish Jr.
2019 – Austin Cindric