Austin Dillon OK after “wild ride” on final lap at ‘Dega

By Oct 20, 2013, 7:30 PM EDT
0 Comments

Ready to give Dale Earnhardt Jr. a helpful push on the final lap of today’s Camping World RV Sales 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Austin Dillon instead found himself going on a brief but scary flight down the backstretch.

Running third, Dillon noticed a move to the inside by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. through Turn 2 and moved down in an attempt to block. Unfortunately for him, it backfired as Dillon was sent spinning to the inside before coming back into traffic.

The pack scattered to avoid the sliding Dillon but Casey Mears was unable to dodge him and their impact on the backstretch punted Dillon and his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet into the air like a football.

But luckily enough, Dillon not only came back down right-side up but was able to take the mangled No. 14 all the way back to the garage while Jamie McMurray went on to win under caution.

“I was trying to help the 88 [Earnhardt] right there at the end and they had a run, the 17 [Stenhouse], so I went low and when I was coming back up, he just hooked me and when he hooked us, it was over there,” said Dillon, who was credited with a 26th-place finish.

“What a wild ride. I just have to thank NASCAR for everything they have done for safety. That hit was fine. I got to drive the car back and it’s a lot of fun when you have good safety equipment and can go after it like that.”

Despite the incident, Dillon said the experience was good to have while taking a break from his NASCAR Nationwide Series duties; Dillon currently leads the standings in NNS, which is idle until its Nov. 2 race at Texas Motor Speedway.

“The No. 14 guys told me to bring back the steering wheel or the trophy,” he said. “We brought back the steering wheel, but we were close to the trophy. That was fun and the [No. 3 Richard Childress Racing] Nationwide team has done a great job this year and hopefully we can end the year with a championship.”

As for Stenhouse’s perspective, the Roush Fenway Racing rookie said he had been running at half throttle behind Dillon prior to the incident and was looking to take a shot at the front coming off Turn 2.

“We couldn’t seem to get a good run off of [Turn] 4, so I thought 2, coming off of 2 was going to be my best place to get that done,” he said after going on to claim a third-place finish, his best so far in Sprint Cup. “We hung back there a little bit, and we had a good run coming.

“When I pulled out a little bit there to go to the bottom, he pulled down the block and I tried to get back to the top as quick as I could thinking the momentum was going to carry us around the outside there, and we just met right there in the middle.”

Ford unveils a new Mustang for 2024 Le Mans in motorsports ‘lifestyle brand’ retooling

Associated PressJun 9, 2023, 7:00 PM EDT
Ford Mustang Le Mans
Ford Performance
2 Comments

LE MANS, France — Ford has planned a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its iconic Mustang muscle car next year under a massive rebranding of Ford Performance aimed at bringing the automotive manufacturer “into the racing business.”

The Friday unveil of the new Mustang Dark Horse-based race car follows Ford’s announcement in February (and a ballyhooed test at Sebring in March) that it will return to Formula One in 2026 in partnership with reigning world champion Red Bull.

The Mustang will enter the GT3 category next year with at least two cars in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship, and is hopeful to earn an invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The IMSA entries will be a factory Ford Performance program run by Multimatic, and a customer program in WEC with Proton Competition.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, also an amateur sports car racer, told The Associated Press the Mustang will be available to compete in various GT3 series across the globe to customer teams. But more important, Farley said, is the overall rebranding of Ford Performance – done by renowned motorsports designer Troy Lee – that is aimed at making Ford a lifestyle brand with a sporting mindset.

“It’s kind of like the company finding its own, and rediscovering its icons, and doubling down on them,” Farley told the AP. “And then this motorsports activity is getting serious about connecting enthusiast customers with those rediscovered icons. It’s a big switch for the company – this is really about building strong, iconic vehicles with enthusiasts at the center of our marketing.”

Ford last competed in sports car racing in 2019 as part of a three-year program with Chip Ganassi Racing. The team scored the class win at Le Mans in 2016 in a targeted performance aimed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford snapping Ferrari’s six-year winning streak.

Ford on Friday displayed a Mustang with a Lee-designed livery that showcased the cleaner, simplified look that will soon be featured on all its racing vehicles. The traditional blue oval with Ford Performance in white lettering underneath will now be branded simply FP.

The new mark will be used across car liveries, merchandise and apparel, display assets, parts and accessories and in advertising.

Farley cited Porsche as an automaker that has successfully figured out how to sell cars to consumers and race cars in various series around the world while creating a culture of brand enthusiasts. He believes Ford’s new direction will help the company sell street cars, race cars, boost interest in driving schools, and create a merchandise line that convinces consumers that a stalwart of American automakers is a hip, cool brand.

“We’re going to build a global motorsports business off road and on road,” Farley told the AP, adding that the design of the Mustang is “unapologetically American.”

He lauded the work of Lee, who is considered the top helmet designer among race car drivers.

“We’re in the first inning of a nine inning game, and going to Le Mans is really important,” Farley said. “But for customer cars, getting the graphics right, designing race cars that win at all different levels, and then designing a racing brand for Ford Performance that gets rebranded and elevated is super important.”

He said he’s kept a close eye on how Porsche and Aston Martin have built their motorsports businesses and said Ford will be better.

“We’re going in the exact same direction. We just want to be better than them, that’s all,” Farley said. “Second is the first loser.”

Farley, an avid amateur racer himself, did not travel to Le Mans for the announcement. The race that begins Saturday features an entry from NASCAR, and Ford is the reigning Cup Series champion with Joey Logano and Team Penske.

The NASCAR “Garage 56” entry is a collaboration between Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear, and is being widely celebrated throughout the industry. Farley did feel left out of the party in France – a sentiment NASCAR tried to avoid by inviting many of its partners to attend the race so that it wouldn’t seem like a Chevrolet-only celebration.

“They’re going right and I’m going left – that NASCAR thing is a one-year deal, right? It’s Garage 56 and they can have their NASCAR party, but that’s a one-year party,” Farley said. “We won Le Mans outright four times, we won in the GT class, and we’re coming back with Mustang and it’s not a one-year deal.

“So they can get all excited about Garage 56. I almost see that as a marketing exercise for NASCAR, but for me, that’s a science project,” Farley continued. “I don’t live in a world of science projects. I live in the world of building a vital company that everyone is excited about. To do that, we’re not going to do a Garage 56 – I’ve got to beat Porsche and Aston Martin and Ferrari year after year after year.”

Ford’s announcement comes on the heels of General Motors changing its GT3 strategy next season and ending its factory Corvette program. GM, which unlike Ford competes in the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype division (with its Cadillac brand), will shift fully to a customer model for Corvettes in 2024 (with some factory support in the IMSA GTD Pro category).