Kenseth wins pole for Homestead finale; Harvick, Johnson starting in Top 10

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All three Sprint Cup championship contenders will start Sunday’s season-ending Ford Ecoboost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway toward the front. But one of them, Matt Kenseth, will have the best seat in the house after winning the pole for Sunday with a lap of 177.667 miles per hour around the high-banked 1.5-mile oval.

“It’s a great place to start and it’s always nice to get that first pit stall,” Kenseth said to ESPN. “Hopefully, we can get some bonus points early. All we can do is control the 20 car. My team did a wonderful job of that today.

“The car was better than I was all day, so I was glad I could get ’em a decent lap and some of the speed out of the car.”

Kenseth sits 28 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson, who will start seventh as he aims to win his sixth Sprint Cup title. Just ahead of him on the grid will be Kevin Harvick (third in points, 34 behind Johnson), who qualified sixth this evening.

After a tough 23rd-place showing in Phoenix last weekend, Kenseth needs to go for maximum points to have any chance of reeling in Johnson, who must finish 23rd or better in order to clinch the title.

Having strong track position to start off with can only help Kenseth’s cause, as he’ll try to come from behind and earn his second Cup crown.

“Even though this is a really great track – it’s really wide with lots of grooves where you can pass – it’s hard to pass these days,” Kenseth said. “Track position’s really important, and the competition is at an all-time high. Qualifying’s important.

“You see when you get a good qualifying spot, if you don’t have any problems or make any mistakes and you can keep that track position, it just makes your day a little bit easier.”

As for Johnson, he felt that his car was a touch off-balance in qualifying but was still pleased with achieving a Top-10 start. However, he noted that this was just the first box to check off this weekend.

“[Having a 28-point lead] is nice, but it doesn’t guarantee anything,” Johnson said. “I have to run 400 miles on Sunday, and that’s really the goal for this Lowe’s car.”

Kurt Busch picked up his ninth front-row start of 2013 ahead of his final race with Furniture Row Racing. Busch logged a lap at 177.445 mph in the No. 78 FRR Chevrolet.

Joey Logano (177.282 mph) and Brad Keselowski (177.061 mph) make up Row 2, while the third row will feature Denny Hamlin (176.846 mph) and Harvick (176.655 mph). Johnson, Martin Truex Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Elliott Sadler filled in the rest of the Top 10 starting positions.

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

Ford Mustang Le Mans
Ford Performance
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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).