Another bust this weekend for Ford in Nascar & Indycar racing
 

No Ford's this weekend in IndyCar racing (bust) and 1 Ford in the top 5 last night at the Coca-Cola 600 (Joey Logano).

Get it together FORD!!:banghead:

Logano did a great job again last night. I think he finally has a freedom that he needs at the Penske that he didn't had at Gibbs and in few years he will be a championship contender. He already has 4 Top 5s this season (he had 2 in the entire 2012 season) and only 4 drivers have more (Johnson 6, Edwards, Busch and Kahne 5). If it wasn't for that stupid penalty that Penske got, he would be a Chase driver now.

Not sure what is happening with Keselowski ... In 3 out of past 4 races he finished 32nd or worse.

I only watched the first hundred laps of the Charlotte race and quickly came to a conclusion no Ford racer had a chance of winning and turned the TV off. The pain is just to great to watch those Ford racers struggle to try to break into the top fifteen . I heard the race did have some excitement at the end. I watched the whole INDY race and enjoyed seeing all the frequent lead changes, which was better than seeing Kyle Busch running away from the field in NASCAR.

Ford has tried to get back into IndyCar several times, Tony George and the rest of the IRL holdovers have a grudge against the Blue Oval because Ford supplied CART back in the day.

Tony George has not been associated with the management of the IndyCar series for a few years. When the engine manufacturing was opened up for multiple companies to get involved with the current generation IndyCar, Ford didn't seem to want to bite. I suspect their focus was on NASCAR and Grand-Am.

"Not associated with the management of IndyCar" is a stretch. He resigned his official title to run his own team without conflict, but he's still a big figure in the sport and with the people officially running it. He still controls Indy itself, meaning if he's unhappy he still wields a big stick.

They didn't "open up" much. In 2010 they unveiled a new spec and gave manufacturers less than half a year to commit to it, not to mention that formula was so poorly thought of by the manufactures who DID commit that it was dropped by .2L before the engines ever saw a race. The only outside engine builder to get in was Lotus and they've never been competitive.

When?

From pieces of stories I have read over the past couple years FMC has had interest, but was planning to stay away from Indy until the 100th Running of the 500. (Robin Miller has mentioned this rumor in past articles, if memory serves.)

I think there was also an issue with FMC wanting a "Global" engine that could be used in road racing, IndyCar, etc. Their 3.5 EcoBoost debuting later this year in Rolex is too big (duh!) and while much of the technology would carry over to a 2.2L, the investment cost is something FMC isn't interested in at present time. (At least that is what I've pieced together.)

Ex-Boeing Exec focused on operations and product before "dumping" additional funds into racing. Remember they don't have a Cosworth connection anymore, or at least not as deep as they (FMC) once did . . .

Ford Racing seems to be heavily focused on NASCAR, Grand Am, Formula Drift. So I would not draw this conclusion. I would say they are making a decision based on marketing bang-for-the buck.

Do yu say this because of he reinstatement in the Board of Directors for Hulman and Company?

DUPLICATE - deleted...

One bright spot in Fords racing efforts is the production of the Cobra jet race cars. The Cobra jets are winning frequently. I think I am just going to have to go to more drag races. Producing competitive cars for drag racing is something Ford can afford.

Yes, indeed...and it's connected much more closely to something you can buy in the showroom.

While the marketing guru's would know the correlation between winning races and improved customer sales, I just know I am sick and tired of race commentators saying "Chevy Chevy Chevy Chevy Chevy Chevy..." every 5 minutes.
Heck, Ford can't even beat Dodge in Top Fuel this year.
As a loyalist and enthusiast, it bothers me that while Ford is succeeding financially, we seem to be 2nd and 3rd fiddle at the track every weekend. :bad:
What does that mean for enticing new buyers - say 2 to 5 years out - when they hardly see Ford in the Winner's Circle?

The types of cars that will likely carry the day are more about "fuel economy and features"..."fuel economy and features"..."fuel economy and features". And that sure doesn't get mentioned as much when the race winner is making commentary :)

I'm not disagreeing with you, but in reference to IndyCar, if FMC could justify the cost-to-value ratio I'm sure they would at present time.

And if memory serves . . . I don't think FMC has ever been the dominate manufacturer in a series (Cosworth/Ford DFV notwithstanding).

I disagree strongly with the idea that Alan's treated Motorsports poorly. Given the state of Ford's finances when he took over, he could have made a case for withdrawing factory support from all teams/series. His main concern re Ford Racing seems to be that they do the best to promote production products or nameplates as much as possible, rather than relying just on the Blue Oval to tie racing to the dealerships. That's why Ford (and GM and Toyota) demanded NASCAR bring the cars back to more of a production looks, and that's why they put EcoBoost badges on everything.

The version I've gotten is that they've wanted to come back since leaving CART in 2007. From 2007 through 2011 IRL did not permit any more manufacturers to join, even though it meant being a 1-nameplate. When IndyCar started developing a new spec for the series, Ford (and Mazda) told 'em that they needed an engine that was closer to a production plant to make the cost structure work. Instead, they chose to continue their "mini F1" formula.

Interesting! I forgot about the (then) Mazda connection. Thanks for sharing! :nice: