FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: DAYTONA ADVANCE

NASCAR heads to Daytona International Speedway for the second time in three weeks, but this time the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY drivers will be on the traditional oval as opposed to the road course they maneuvered previously.  It will be the final regular season event for the Cup Series with three playoff spots still up for grabs.  Here’s a look at some Ford notes going into the weekend.

FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT DAYTONA

·         Ford has 37 all-time series wins at Daytona.

·         The Wood Brothers are tied for the most wins among car owners at Daytona with 15.

·         Ford’s first win at Daytona was by Tiny Lund in the 1963 Daytona 500.

FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT DAYTONA

·         Ford has 6 series wins at Daytona.

·         Ryan Reed has two of those wins (2015 and 2017).

·         Austin Cindric captured the inaugural road course race two weeks ago.

FORD IN THE NASCAR GANDER RV & OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES AT WWT

·         Ford has 2 series wins at WWT Raceway.

·         Greg Biffle (1999) and Terry Cook (2001) have those victories.

·         Grant Enfinger has one series pole at the track (2018).

SIX FORD CUP DRIVERS IN PLAYOFFS

As the series heads to Daytona for the final race of the regular season, Ford has six drivers that have clinched positions in the field of 16.  Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Cole Custer and Aric Almirola are in while Clint Bowyer has a 57-point cushion for one of the last three spots.  Matt DiBenedetto is also battling to advance and goes into Saturday night’s race holding the next-to-last position.  He’s four points ahead of William Byron and nine points in front of Jimmie Johnson, who is currently the first driver on the outside looking in.

HARVICK WINS REGULAR SEASON CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

Kevin Harvick’s series-best seventh win of the year didn’t only give Ford its 700^th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory, but also clinched the regular season championship.  As a result, Harvick will get 15 bonus points toward his playoff total.  Harvick is now tied with Kyle Busch for ninth on the all-time NASCAR Cup win list with 56 victories and has posted 21 Ford triumphs in less than four years since joining the manufacturer with Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2017 campaign.

FORD STILL ON FIRE

Sunday’s Dover sweep in the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY Series continued a torrid stretch of winning for Ford since the sport returned to action on May 17 at Darlington Raceway.  Since then, Ford has won 12 of the 21 Cup points races (57%) and 10 of the 17 XFINITY events (59%).  Overall, Ford leads each series in total wins (14 in Cup and 11 in XFINITY), and also tops both in the manufacturers’ standings.

FORD HIGHLIGHTS

ALMIROLA TAKES THE KING BACK TO VICTORY LANE

The first victory of Aric Almirola’s NASCAR Cup Series career came in the 2014 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.  The win, which came after rain forced a halt to the event after 112 laps, came 30 years after his car owner, Richard Petty, won his record 200^th series race in the same event.  Almirola had held the lead for seven laps and 14 of the previous 15 circuits when the rain began falling.  NASCAR waited 56 minutes before calling the race official.  The win marked the first for the famous No. 43 since 1999 and the first time it had been to victory lane with Ford since The King’s only season with the manufacturer in 1969 when he won nine times.

RAGAN RECOVERS FROM 500 SETBACK

Only five months after suffering heartbreak in the 2011 Daytona 500, David Ragan bounced back to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in the July event at Daytona International Speedway.  Ragan, who was leading the 500 on a green-white-checker restart, was assessed a penalty by NASCAR after getting ahead of Trevor Bayne and then changing lanes before the start-finish line.  The penalty cost him a chance at victory, but he made up for that in July as he passed Ryan Newman with eight laps to go and held off Matt Kenseth on the final lap to win for car owner Jack Roush.

A FIRST FOR THE BIFF

Greg Biffle made his rookie season a memorable one when he registered his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in the July race at Daytona International Speedway in 2003.  Making only his 23^rd career start, Biffle played the fuel-mileage game to perfection while his closest pursuer, Bobby Labonte, ran out on the final lap.  In a race that saw the last 81 laps go green, Biffle assumed the lead on lap 140 and held it for the final 21 laps.  Jeff Burton finished second and Ricky Rudd third as Ford swept the top three spots.

FIRECRACKER GOES TO FIREBALL

When Daytona International Speedway hosted the very first Firecracker 400 in 1963, the first man across the finsh line was Fireball Roberts, who led a Ford Motor Co. sweep of the top five spots.  Roberts passed Fred Lorenzen on the final lap to win the race with Marvin Panch third.  All three of those drivers were in Fords while fourth-place finisher Darel Dieringer was in a Mercury.  Ned Jarrett rounded out the top five in his Ford.  This marked the fifth overall event in July for the speedway, which opened in 1959, but the first four were 250-mile features.  The fans got their money’s worth on this day as the race featured 39 lead changes between six drivers, but the best was saved for the end as Roberts and Lorenzen waged a major battle that saw them exchange the lead four times in the final five laps before Roberts earned his third July win at Daytona.

JUNIOR AND CALE DOUBLE DOWN

Junior Johnson and Cale Yarborough hold the distinction of being the only two men who have won at Daytona International Speedway in a Ford as both driver AND owner.  Johnson won a qualifying race at the speedway in 1965, but had on his owner’s hat when Lee Roy Yarbrough won twice in 1969 and Jimmy Spencer in 1994.  Yarborough won the Firecracker 400 in 1967 as a driver and watched John Andretti take his Ford to victory lane in 1997.

FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES SUMMER RACE WINNERS AT DAYTONA

1963 – Fireball Roberts

1965 – A.J. Foyt

1967 – Cale Yarborough

1969 – LeeRoy Yarbrough

1970 – Donnie Allison

1983 – Buddy Baker

1988 – Bill Elliott

1989 – Davey Allison

1991 – Bill Elliott

1994 – Jimmy Spencer

1997 – John Andretti

1999 – Dale Jarrett

2000 – Jeff Burton

2003 – Greg Biffle

2007 – Jamie McMurray

2011 – David Ragan

2014 – Aric Almirola

2016 – Brad Keselowski

2017 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS AT DAYTONA

1995 – Chad Little

2004 – Mike Wallace (2)

2015 – Ryan Reed (1)

2016 – Aric Almirola (2)

2017 – Ryan Reed (1)

FORD NASCAR GANDER RV & OUTDOORS SERIES WINNERS AT WWT RACEWAY

1999 – Greg Biffle

2002 – Terry Cook

Team: No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Luke Lambert

Twitter: @17RoushTeam, @RoushFenway and @Chris_Buescher
Race Format: 400 miles, 160 laps, Stage Lengths: 50-50-60

Coke Zero Sugar 400 – Saturday, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

ADVANCE NOTES

Dramatic Daytona Set to Cap Regular Season Saturday Night

· For the first time in the sport’s current playoff format, the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season will culminate Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, which is expected to be a high drama event as drivers have one last chance to lock themselves into the 2020 Playoffs.

· This marks the second trip to Daytona in as many weeks, as the series visited the Road Course Aug. 16. With 10 drivers with at least one win in 2020, three additional drivers have locked themselves into the playoff grid. A win by a non-locked in driver would punch their ticket into the 10-race playoffs, which begin Labor Day Weekend at Darlington.

· NASCAR will continue to use three competition-based performance metrics to determine the starting lineup and pit selection order for each race, replacing the random draw procedure.

· NASCAR will reward both season-long and single-race performance to determine the lineup and pit selection, using owner points position, the finish and fastest lap from the most recently completed race. Beginning with the NASCAR Playoffs at Darlington, playoff cars will fill the top starting positions starting from the Round of 16, all the way through to the Championship 4.

· Four weeks of NASCAR action were initially completed prior to the COVID-19 hiatus with races at Atlanta, Homestead, Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Dover and Martinsville postponed before the schedule later picked back up in mid-May.

Buescher Historically at Daytona

· Buescher makes his 10th Cup start at Daytona on Saturday, where he has four top-10s and three top fives.

· Most recently, Buescher finished third in February’s Daytona 500, his best finish on the Oval in his Cup career. Looking back at the Daytona summer races, Buescher has a best finish of fifth, which came in 2018, the same year he also finished fifth in the 500.

· Going back to 2015, Buescher finished second in the season kickoff race in the Xfinity Series, and followed that with a 12th-place run in the summer.

Luke Lambert Historically at Daytona

· Lambert will call his 16th Cup race atop the box Saturday at the Daytona Oval, where he has five top-10s and two top five results. Most recently, he led Buescher to a third-place run in the 2020 Daytona 500.

· Three of Lambert’s four top-10s all came in the Daytona summer events, where he led Ryan Newman to and eighth-place run in 2015. He went on to finish fifth in 2017, and eighth again a season later.

· Lambert also called two Xfinity events with Elliott Sadler in Daytona in 2012, finishing third and sixth.

QUOTE WORTHY
Buescher on racing at Daytona:
“Saturday is obviously going to be crazy, possibly one of the wildest Superspeedway races to date, with so many guys going for a playoff spot. We feel confident in our Superspeedway cars that Jimmy Fennig and everyone at Roush work so hard on, and I think we’ve shown that recently at Daytona and Talladega. As everyone always says, it’s about being in the right place at the right time, so we’ll look to keep the fenders clear as much as we can early, and be there at the end.”

Last Time Out
Buescher finished 16th in the first of two races in Dover last weekend, and backed that up with a 14th-place result a day later.

Where They Rank
Buescher is 21st in driver standings through 25 events.

On the Car
Fifth Third Bank returns to Buescher’s No. 17 machine this weekend in Daytona. Smart AutoCare, a Texas-based vehicle service contract company, will also appear on the decklid of the No. 17 Ford Mustang as a participant in the Fueled by Fifth Third program.

About Fifth Third Bank
Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and the indirect parent company of Fifth Third Bank, National Association, a federally chartered institution. As of June 30, 2020, Fifth Third had $203 billion in assets and operated 1,122 full-service banking centers and 2,456 ATMs with Fifth Third branding in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina. In total, Fifth Third provides its customers with access to approximately 53,000 fee-free ATMs across the United States. Fifth Third operates four main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending and Wealth & Asset Management. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of June 30, 2020, had $405 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $49 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations through its Trust and Registered Investment Advisory businesses. Investor information and press releases can be viewed at www.53.com. Fifth Third’s common stock is traded on the Nasdaq® Global Select Market under the symbol “FITB.” Fifth Third Bank was established in 1858. Deposit and Credit products are offered by Fifth Third Bank, National Association. Member FDIC.

Team: No. 6 Guaranteed Rate Ford Mustang

Crew Chief: Scott Graves

Twitter: @Roush6Team, @RoushFenway and @RyanJNewman
Race Format: 400 miles, 160 laps, Stage Lengths: 50-50-60

Coke Zero Sugar 400 – Saturday, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

ADVANCE NOTES

Dramatic Daytona Set to Cap Regular Season Saturday Night

· For the first time in the sport’s current playoff format, the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season will culminate Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, which is expected to be a high drama event as drivers have one last chance to lock themselves into the 2020 Playoffs.

· This marks the second trip to Daytona in as many weeks, as the series visited the Road Course Aug. 16. With 10 drivers with at least one win in 2020, three additional drivers have locked themselves into the playoff grid. A win by a non-locked in driver would punch their ticket into the 10-race playoffs, which begin Labor Day Weekend at Darlington.

· NASCAR will continue to use three competition-based performance metrics to determine the starting lineup and pit selection order for each race, replacing the random draw procedure.

· NASCAR will reward both season-long and single-race performance to determine the lineup and pit selection, using owner points position, the finish and fastest lap from the most recently completed race. Beginning with the NASCAR Playoffs at Darlington, playoff cars will fill the top starting positions starting from the Round of 16, all the way through to the Championship 4.

· Four weeks of NASCAR action were initially completed prior to the COVID-19 hiatus with races at Atlanta, Homestead, Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Dover and Martinsville postponed before the schedule later picked back up in mid-May.

Newman Historically at Daytona

· Newman returns to the oval at the ‘World Center of Racing,’ where in February he led coming to the checkered flag in the Daytona 500, before experiencing a horrific crash, which kept him out of the car for three races. After a quick recovery and successful test at Darlington in March, Newman was cleared to return to racing, and did so when the sport went back racing in May.

· Newman was credited with a ninth-place finish in the 500 after leading 15 laps, while teammate Chris Buescher finished third. Dating back to last season’s Daytona 500, Newman has finished no worse than 14th at Daytona, and crossed the line fifth in this race in 2019.

· Overall at the 2.5-mile tri-oval, Newman has 37 starts, one win (2008 Daytona 500), six top five finishes and 12 top-10s. Despite an average finish of 18.2, Newman has finished ninth or better in five of the last six Daytona races, including results of fifth, eighth and fifth in the past three summer events.

· Looking at Newman’s results at the circuit’s other Superspeedway – Talladega – he came within inches of winning there last fall, and finished top-10 in both events there a season ago.

· Newman also made one start in the Xfinity Series in Daytona, finished eighth back in 2010.

Scott Graves Historically at Daytona

· Graves will call his ninth Cup event at Daytona on Saturday, where he has an average finish of 17.5. He led Newman to the fifth-place finish a summer ago at DIS, and was atop the box for the dramatic, last-lap ending in this season’s Daytona 500.

· Graves has a runner-up finish at Daytona in Xfinity action, leading Buescher to a second-place result back in 2015 at the season kickoff event. He also finished eighth with Daniel Suarez in 2016.

QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Daytona:
“I’m just thankful for the opportunity to continue on and hit the reset button, so to speak. Thankful for everyone’s prayers, texts, thoughts, calls, cards and all the support that came after February, and even outreach that has continued to this day. This weekend has the potential to be super sweet for somebody, and nothing would be more special after what happened in February than for us to be that team. Daytona is Daytona, and we will do our thing when the time comes and hopefully have some fun doing it.”

Last Time Out
Newman finished 19th and 24th in last weekend’s doubleheader at Dover.

Where They Rank
Newman is 25th in driver points after 22 points races in his 2020 campaign. In owners’ points, the No. 6 is 24th.

On the Car
Guaranteed Rate returns to Newman’s Ford this weekend in Daytona, as part of the overall 12-race schedule for the brand to close out the 2020 slate.

About Guaranteed Rate

Guaranteed Rate is one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the Company has more than 5,000 employees in nearly 350 offices across the U.S., and is licensed in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Since its founding in 2000, Guaranteed Rate has helped hundreds of thousands of homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances and funded more than $30 billion in loans in 2019 alone. The Company has cemented itself as Positively Different by introducing innovative technology, such as the world’s first Digital Mortgage, by offering low rates and by delivering unparalleled customer service. Honors and awards include: Top Lender for Online Service for 2018 by U.S. News & World Report; No. 3 ranking in Scotsman Guide’s Top Retail Mortgage Lenders 2019; Top Lender 2016, 2017 and 2018 by Chicago Agent magazine; Chicago Tribune’s Top Workplaces list for seven consecutive years; and Best Online Mortgage Lender, Best Mortgage Lender for VA loans and Best Conventional Mortgage Lender by NerdWallet in 2019. Visit rate.com for more information.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes

NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang, is coming off a 10th-place finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway. Custer extended his stay at the Monster Mile to take part in a two-day test of NASCAR’s Next Gen car, which will be debuting in the 2022 season. Here is a transcript of today’s Ford Zoom call.

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling Ford Mustang – WHAT’S THE FEELING AROUND THE TEAM THAT IT LOOKS LIKE ALL FOUR CARS WILL MAKE THE PLAYOFFS? “Honestly, it’s unbelievable. I think that’s every organization’s dream to have all four cars in the playoffs, so it’s a huge deal. Everybody at SHR has worked extremely hard. I mean, even from last year I think everybody wanted to see us run a little bit better with the 550 package and I think they did a great job of figuring it out and trying to find ways to make us better and get us going in the right direction. So, it’s just a testament to everybody at the shop and all the hard work everybody has put in and now we just have to take advantage of the opportunity.”

HOW IS THE NEXT GEN TEST GOING AND HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO WHAT YOU DROVE OVER THE WEEKEND? “Right now, I’m wore the hell out (laughing). We’ve surpassed 1,000 miles in four days at Dover and it’s probably the toughest track for that physically. Overall, I think the biggest difference is probably the steering. Obviously, we run steering boxes right now in our cars and these cars have rack and pinion steering, so, overall, it’s usually a little bit easier to steer. The wheel is a little bit lighter, less effort to give, but at the same time whenever you hit a bump or whenever it loads up and the front tires or anything kind of changes in the load, it makes it so the wheel wants to kind of rip out of your hands, so at first it wasn’t a big deal, but now that I’ve been doing it four days in a row, it’s starting rip the wheel out of my hands, so it’s getting a little bit tough.”

BRISCOE AND CINDRIC ARE DOMINATING THE XFINITY SERIES THIS YEAR. WHAT’S IT LIKE FOR A DRIVER TO FINALLY GET TO THAT NEXT LEVEL LIKE THEY ARE NOW? “I think it just shows that it takes a little bit of time. There’s a lot of things to learn with these cars and what you want for a long run and what you want in your car for a setup, and just what works for you and how you need to work the gas and brake. These cars are definitely a little bit different, so once that all starts to click, then it’s just a matter of not making the mistakes and having clean races. I think those guys have started to figure that out, so it just takes a little bit of time and I think you can show that you can win races at that level and you can win a lot of them. I think it definitely shows that you can compete at the Cup level.”

ANY SENSE IF YOU’LL BE ABLE TO PASS WITH THE NEXT GEN? AND DO YOU HAVE THE SAME ENGINE AND HAVE YOU CHANGED SPOILERS OR SPLITTERS YET? “Not yet. Right now, for the most part what the package is right now is the 750 motor with maybe a little bit more downforce that what we run usually with the 750 cars – just a little bit more. Right now, honestly, I think the first few tests the biggest thing was just working the bugs out and finding from track to track what was gonna be the major issues. So now I feel like we have all the bugs worked out and you can go run competitive lap times and now we’re just trying to figure out what makes it generally setup-wise what’s gonna make it go faster, what’s gonna make it gain lap time and what’s gonna be best for the long run. Right now we’re just trying to knock out big picture things setup-wise, but, overall, I feel like it’s too early to tell how it’s gonna work in traffic. We’re too early in the going I feel like right now, so that’s gonna come a little bit later on. There’s nothing that jumps out at me that’s totally bad or totally good, either. It’s just a matter of trying to figure out what’s gonna make it good setup-wise and what’s gonna make it go faster.”

ARE YOUR SPEEDS COMPARABLE TO THE WEEKEND? “Yeah, they are. I think the fastest we’ve gone is a 23.8, and I think in clean air you can go about the mid to high 23’s, so I feel like we’re close. There’s a lot of differences in how the car travels. There’s a lot more travel in the car, so it’s a lot higher up on the straightaways, so it’s just trying to control that and figure out the best ways to go about it.”

YOU ARE THE ONLY ROOKIE IN THE PLAYOFFS RIGHT NOW. IF NO OTHER ROOKIE MAKES IT IN, YOU WILL BE THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE IN THIS POSITION? “It’s really cool. Honestly, I think it was cool to have the rookie battle this year. We had a lot of good guys in there with me, Tyler, Christopher and John Hunter. It was a really good rookie class. It’s still not over because obviously somebody could make the playoffs, but it would be really cool to have that title, but, overall, you’ve still got to find ways to make yourself better. There are some days Christopher is the fastest rookie, some days Tyler is and some days I am. John Hunter has done a really good job in their stuff too, so you’ve got to find ways every single race to try to make yourself better.”

HOW MUCH HAS TEAM MORALE GROWN SINCE THE KENTUCKY WIN? “Honestly, it’s been pretty game-changing. The start of the year was pretty rough for me especially, just trying to get a feel for the cars and to come home with that win it just took so much pressure off and I think it brought the morale up in our team and now it’s just a matter of trying to get back. We need to be fully focused going into the playoffs and make sure we’re 100 percent and try to make a run at it. We don’t just want to be a part of the playoffs, we want to be competitive.”

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THINGS THAT HAS STOOD OUT SO FAR ABOUT THE NEXT GEN CAR? “The biggest thing is definitely the steering for me, and then also probably the tires feel a little bit different, just how they slip and how much you can get away with getting the car loose. It seems like with how the steering is and how the tires are you can’t really get away and how the aero is also, you can’t get away with driving the car sideways as much. It’s just little differences here and there, but probably the thing that stands out the most is the steering.”

DO YOU FEEL NASCAR IS GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION WITH THIS NEW CAR? “Yeah, I think right now it’s a matter of they’re trying to figure out all the suspension kind of components and how that’s all gonna work out. I think that’s all good to bring in independent suspension and different transmissions and stuff that’s more up to date with the technology today. I think that’s all good and I think it’s gonna come a little bit later on when we get multiple cars on the racetrack of how the aero is going to work. Right now, I have no idea how the aero is gonna work in traffic because I’m here by myself. That might come a little bit later on.”

HOW MIGHT THIS CAR CHANGE WHAT THE DRIVER NEEDS TO DO OR CERTAIN THINGS IN DRIVER TALENT? “That’s a tough question. Honestly, it hasn’t been a huge difference in this test. I’m driving the car fairly similar to how you drive Dover every single time you come here, so it hasn’t been a huge difference, it’s just what you can get away with. So it’s gonna be a matter of what drivers can get away with more, what driver can drive the car a little bit looser on the edge or what teams can figure out how to keep the cars turning without keeping them on edge. It’s gonna be interesting to see who can adapt to it the best, but, overall, it’s still the same kind of driving characteristics though, it’s just little differences.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE SMT FOR HARVICK OR HAMLIN CAN YOU SEE HOW THEY’RE DOING WHAT THEY’RE DOING OR WONDERING HOW THEY’RE DOING IT? “I think the biggest thing is they’ve figured with their teams what works best for them with their cars and they can bring that to the racetrack every single weekend. I think Kevin, knowing what he has in his cars and knowing what he does from a driving standpoint, he’s absolutely amazing. I’m not gonna lie. He can do some stuff that I think a lot of people can’t and you’ve got to figure out for yourself what’s gonna make you be able to be aggressive on the short runs and have good long run speed, have good restarts, and you just have to figure out what works best for you to be aggressive with the car. I think Kevin can definitely get away with a lot of stuff and he can make some things work that some people can’t, but it’s a matter of trying to figure out what works best for you. I think we’ve shown that we can compete with those guys if we have everything go right and we have everything the way we want it, we just need to emulate it every single weekend.”

WITHOUT GIVING AWAY TRADE SECRETS WHAT IS SOMETHING KEVIN DOES THAT IS AMAZING FROM A DRIVER’S POINT OF VIEW THAT YOU SEE THAT I DON’T? “I’m not gonna give away any secrets. I’m not at liberty to say, but it is amazing to see what he can do with a race car. I’ll say that.”

HOW HAS THE NEXT GEN CAR DEALT WITH THE LOADS AT DOVER? WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED? “Honestly, we’ve had no problems and no mechanical failures or anything luckily for me, I guess. It would hurt a lot if I took a hit here at Dover, so I’m really thankful that everybody came here and did their homework so we had no failures because it definitely worked out better me. We’ve had a solid test. We’ve tried a lot of things and seen the good and bad, and it’s just a matter of going to different racetracks and seeing what the different problems are going to be. I think here at Dover we’ve had a solid test without many issues.”

DO YOU GET A SENSE OF HOW CLOSE THE FINAL VERSION OF THE NEXT GEN CAR MIGHT BE? “I would say they’ve worked the bugs out for the most part now. It’s just a matter of trying to go to all the different racetracks and figure out what the different bugs they have to work out at these different racetracks because every single one is gonna have their own kind of thing. So just the more that they can go to different racetracks and test, the better it’s gonna be. I think at this point, you can go out there and run laps and you can probably put some cars out there together, but the next stage is gonna find out aero-wise what they do in traffic and what’s gonna make them better or worse.”

McDowell Heads to Best Track Looking for Playoff Spot

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (August 25, 2020) – This Saturday night, August 29th, Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team head to the Daytona International Speedway with one goal-to win and earn a playoff spot in the final regular season race of the NASCAR Cup Series. CarParts.com and CARDONE will join McDowell and the team in what is primed to be one of the most exciting races of the season.

The final race of the regular season will feature over 15 drivers racing in a must-win situation to make the NASCAR playoffs. The Daytona International Speedway is known for its exciting, wild, and unpredictable finishes. McDowell and the CarParts.com Ford Mustang team will be one of the teams needing to win to make the playoffs.

CarParts.com, the tech-forward company with a fast, easy-to-use website that improves the way drivers shop for the parts they need, will be joined by CARDONE on the No. 34 Saturday night on NBC.

CARDONE Industries has grown to be one of the largest automotive parts remanufacturers in the world. Renowned for their innovative reverse-engineering process, the company specializes in analyzing factory original parts and pinpointing why they failed. In many cases, CARDONE improves the original design by reinforcing key areas so the part can last longer. You can find CARDONE products-including brake calipers, remanufactured throttle bodies, and both new and remanufactured axles and steering pumps-at CarParts.com.

“We want to thank CarParts.com for this special opportunity to have CARDONE join them as a part of the No. 34 team Saturday night,” said Dan Autey, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, CARDONE. “As a proud CarParts.com partner, CARDONE is passionate in its mission to produce reliable, affordable and sustainable O.E. replacement parts to the automotive aftermarket. The car looks great, and we know there is a lot of excitement going into this race. We wish Michael and the team luck and look forward to watching them compete for the win.”

“Michael and the Front Row Motorsports team have been great partners this season,” added Lev Peker, CEO of CarParts.com. “We now want to thank CARDONE for joining us in what is expected to be a great race on NBC this Saturday night in Daytona Beach. CARDONE is a great partner to us and we hope they enjoy this partnership as much as we have. We wish Michael and the team the best in the race.”

For McDowell, there is no better track to compete for the win than Daytona. The veteran driver is at his best at the superspeedway. He has earned six top-10 and two top-five finishes in his Cup career at the track. McDowell has also led 21 laps at Daytona. McDowell is also in the middle of his best NASCAR Cup Series season with seven Top-15 and two Top-10 finishes.

“We have been strong at most of our races this season,” said McDowell. “But Daytona is a special track for me. I’ve had my best finishes there, have led laps there, and I feel it’s our best chance to get into the playoffs. I’d love to do that with CarParts.com and CARDONE on our car. I want to thank them for joining us and giving us a chance to compete for this playoff spot.”

Saturday’s race will be televised live on NBC and will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET.

For more information about CarParts.com, visit CarParts.com. For more information about CARDONE, visit www.cardone.com.

About Front Row Motorsports
Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields two full-time entries – the No. 34 of Michael McDowell and the No. 38 of John Hunter Nemechek – from its Mooresville, N.C., headquarters just outside of Charlotte. In 2020, the team announced an expansion to include the No. 38 Ford F-150 in the NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series, driven by Todd Gilliland. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.

About CarParts.com
With over 50 million parts delivered, CarParts.com has helped drivers across the contiguous United States keep their vehicles on the road. Leveraging our company-owned national distribution network, we bring the very best brands and manufacturers directly to consumer hands, cutting out unnecessary costs to provide quality parts at a discount. Combined with our 90-day returns and intuitive mobile experience, CarParts.com makes it simple for customers to get the parts they need delivered straight to their door.

CarParts.com is headquartered in Torrance, California.

About CARDONE Industries, Inc.
CARDONE Industries, Inc. is an automotive industry leader in aftermarket parts engineering and innovation. For five decades strong, we’ve built new and remanufactured vehicle parts that meet or exceed O.E. performance – at a better economic and environmentally sustainable value to consumers. Our global team supports a full spectrum of products and services for a diverse customer base, including O.E. manufacturers, warehouse distributors, fleets and retailers. Our passion for service excellence extends from our customers to the world through sustainable manufacturing practices and remanufacturing, the highest form of environmental stewardship. We build it better. Learn more at CARDONE.com.