Ford Racing at Loudon

Ford Racing teams and drivers were quite unlucky during the recent Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon. Why? It is because no Ford Racing driver made it into the podium or even in the top 5. Only Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion for the Roush Fenway Racing team obtained a top 10 spot when he finished 9th in the race.

Here is an interview with Matt Kenseth after the race:

"We ended up passing some cars on pit road and making some adjustments and got it better, but we're not good enough to beat these guys. With these cars it's all about being in the front. It's really hard to come from behind and do much with them."

DID YOU MAKE THE CAR BETTER? "Yeah, we definitely made it better. We were still off, but it was a lot better. It was a top-10 car and we finished ninth, so we definitely made some improvement."

WILL THE CHANGES BE SOMETHING YOU CAN APPLY FOR THE NEXT COT RACE? "I hope so. We've got a long way to go with these things to compete for wins. They're so sensitive to little things. There are only so many areas you can work, so the areas we can work we're just missing it a little bit. We've got to work on the front suspension and figure out how to make the front ends turn better and then, hopefully, we'll be more competitive."

YOUR PIT CREW WAS STRONG AGAIN. "Yeah, they always do really good. They always keep us in the races."

THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A TOUGH TRACK TO PASS ON, BUT WAS IT EVEN HARDER WITH THIS NEW CAR? "Yeah, way tougher. They're just so tight. You're just kind of at the mercy of the front tires in the middle of the corner, but I thought it was a lot harder to pass than the other car, but my car wasn't right either. The fastest car didn't win. The guy who got two tires got out front and won, so I think it's probably more about track position with these cars than even the old ones."

Meanwhile, other Ford Racing drivers including Carl Edwards, series rookie David Ragan, Jamie McMurray, and Robby Gordon drove their Ford Fusions to the finished and obtained the 13th, 15th, 16th, and 17th place, respectively.

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Boston Red Sox Ford Fusion commented:
"We had an awesome car. The good news is we had an awesome car. The bad news was it fell off the jack when we were leading the thing pitting under green, but everybody kept their composure. The car was still good enough. We finished 13th, but this is a race winner right here. It's a huge step forward for us with the car of tomorrow. It's just terrible. This is the same thing that happened to us at Pocono last year. We had a plan. We got the car back up and we only lost a lap, so it wasn't the end of the world."

As a Ford Racing fan, I hope that these drivers can perform better during the upcoming race Daytona International Speedway.