Will Roush Fenway showing at Bristol help extend Ford’s outstanding 2014 start?

By Mar 19, 2014, 11:16 AM EDT
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In light of its 1-2 finish at Bristol this past Sunday, is Roush Fenway Racing really on the rebound?

Carl Edwards’ win and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s runner-up finish was just part of a Ford juggernaut that saw five of the blue ovals in the top 12 finishers.

And in the bigger picture, is that finish as well as what Team Penske drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski did in the first three races, a sign that Ford as a whole is back on top of its game?

“Ford has deserved this kind of result for their effort,” RFR team co-owner Jack Roush said after Bristol. “They’ve committed a lot of engineering resources to us. They give us a lot of support with cars and trucks  for support vehicles and things, and we had not been able to do as much for them as we needed to in the last six-month. I was glad that we could get Carl into the Chase and look forward to getting Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) qualified for these last 10 races and Greg (Biffle) as well.”

Biffle finished 12th, but there was also one of the best overall performances in several years by both Richard Petty Motorsports drivers, Aric Almirola (career-best third) and teammate Marcos Ambrose (fifth).

By comparison, Keselowski (finished 14th and took over the Sprint Cup points lead after Bristol) and Logano (20th) may not been quite as strong as their other Ford-powered associates, but they’ve both had outstanding starts to the season nonetheless.

Still, with Ford accounting for more than a third of the top-20 finishes at Bristol, it certainly leaves optimism for this week’s race at Fontana.

Since the progressively banked Auto Club Speedway (formerly California Speedway) hosted its first Sprint Cup race in 1997, Ford quickly won 10 of the first 18 Cup races there.

But it’s admittedly been a struggle since Carl Edwards was the last Ford driver to win there back in February 2008.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the Fontana track was built as a near-replica of Michigan International Speedway, where Ford has been most successful in the Cup series with 35 wins. Edwards’ win at Bristol gives Ford 34 all-time wins there.

Put all that together, and why wouldn’t Ford be considered a serious threat to win Sunday’s race? And is what we saw at Bristol and the three races before it just another sign that Ford has overcome many of its 2013 struggles and is poised to grab for even greater achievements going forward in 2014?

“It has been a very long winter for us,” team owner Jack Roush said after Sunday’s race. “We made some changes and built some new cars over the winter and revised our strategies a little bit as far as the way we do our engineering and the way that manifests itself in what the race cars are and we’re still working with our process.

“This thing is becoming so sophisticated and expanding so much with so many people doing new things that hadn’t been done before it’s a little hard to get all the job descriptions worked out.”

Veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig added that Edwards’ win was both the culmination of much of the hard work Roush referred to, but also puts Edwards in contention to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

In other words, the future is starting to look very positive for RFR.

“It was a good win,” Fennig said. “We really need that as hard as everybody has been working this winter. It paid off.

“It’s about winning. That’s the way that we build around Roush Racing. We go out to win, so that’s what we’re striving for. … When we go out to California we’re gonna go shooting after that win. Nothing is gonna change our philosophy.”

With Keselowski winning at Las Vegas and Edwards at Bristol, Ford is going for its third consecutive Sprint Cup win at Fontana. The last time the blue oval folks won three consecutive races was in June 2005, when they swept Dover (Biffle won), Pocono (Edwards won) and Michigan (Biffle won again).

Admittedly, though, as good as they’ve been performing thus far in 2014, Ford drivers could have problems at Fontana, too. Biffle (2005) and Edwards (2008) are the only current Ford drivers to have won Cup races there.

But Edwards hopes to change that nearly six-year drought on Sunday.

“(Prior to Bristol) I’ve been a little bit jealous of those guys that have wins this early in the season,” Edwards said. “I was thinking I can’t imagine what that must feel like to be able to come to a race track like this and have all that pressure off of you (after a win that potentially qualifies a driver for this year’s Chase), so now we’ll be able to go have some fun.  I’m really excited about the next 22 races. That will be a blast.

“The first step is you have to win. I think we’re proving that right now. You’re going to have to have a win, I believe, to be in the Chase, so now that we’ve checked that box, we need to go get another win and then I think we’ll be guaranteed to be in it.  Just to have a win this early is a huge relief.  It’s gonna make California and Martinsville, it’s gonna be really fun to go there.”

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IndyCar Detroit GP starting lineup: Alex Palou wins first pole position on a street course

By Jun 3, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
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DETROIT — Alex Palou won the pole position for the second consecutive NTT IndyCar Series race and will lead the Detroit Grand Prix starting lineup to green on a new downtown layout.

The 2021 series champion, who finished fourth in the 107th Indy 500 after qualifying first, earned his third career pole position as the first of three Chip Ganassi Racing drivers in the top four (Scott Dixon qualified fourth, and Marcus Ericsson sixth).

Scott McLaughlin will start second, followed by Romain Grosjean. Coming off his first Indianapolis 500 victory, Josef Newgarden qualified fifth.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

It’s the third career pole position for Palou and his first on a street course — a big advantage on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile track that is expected to be calamitous over 100 laps Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC).

“It’s going to be a tough day for sure,” Palou told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “It feels good we’ve had a great car since the beginning, and it was just about maximizing. They did a great strategy on tires and everything. We need to finish it (Sunday).

“I got off a lot in practice. We wanted to see where the limit was, and we found it. It’s a crazy track. I think it’s too tight for Indy cars and too short as well, but we’ll make it happen.”

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for Detroit GP qualifying speeds | Round 1, Group 1 | Round 1, Group 2 | Round 2 l Round 3

The narrow quarters (originally listed as a 1.7-mile track, its distance shrunk by a couple hundred feet when measured Friday) already were causing problems in qualifying.

Colton Herta, who has four career poles on street courses, qualified 24th after failing to advance from the first round because of damage to his No. 26 Dallara-Honda. It’s the worst starting spot in an IndyCar street course race for Herta (and the second-worst of his career on the heels of qualifying 25th for the GMR Grand Prix three weeks ago).

Andretti Autosport teammate Kyle Kirkwood also found misfortune in the second round, damaging the left front of his No. 27 Dallara-Honda despite light wall contact.

“I’m disappointed for the crew because that was a pole-winning car,” Kirkwood told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “Man, I barely touched the wall. I touched it way harder in all the practices, and it’s just like the angle at which the wall was right there, it caught the point and just ripped the front off the car.

“If the wall was rounded, that wouldn’t have happened. That’s just unfortunate for the guys, but it’s my mistake. It’s hard enough to get around this place let alone race around it. We’ll see how it goes.”

Many IndyCar drivers are expecting it to go badly, which isn’t uncommon for a new street layout. The inaugural Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee, was the biggest crashfest of the 2021 season with 33 of 80 laps run under caution plus two red flags.

It could be worse at Detroit, which is the shortest track on the IndyCar circuit. It also features the series’ only split pit lane (with cars pitting on opposite sides and blending into a single-lane exit), a 0.9-mile straightaway and a hairpin third turn that is considered the best passing zone.

“If there’s one day you need to be lucky in the year, it’s tomorrow,” Grosjean told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “A lot is going to happen, and it’s being in the right time at the right place.”

Said Dixon: “Expect probably a lot of unexpected things to happen. We’ll try and get through it. I think it’ll be similar to Nashville and maybe the last man standing is the one who gets the victory.”

With the field at 27 cars, Palou estimated the length of the course leaves a gap of about 2.4 seconds between each car, which he preferred would be double. During practice Friday, there were six red flags and 19 local yellows as teams tried to sort out the tricky and tight layout.

“I don’t know what the perfect distance is, but I would say adding 30 seconds to a track or 20 seconds would help a lot,” said Palou, one of many drivers who also said the streets were too bumpy despite work to grind down some surfaces. “We have a lot of cars. It’s crazy. It’s really good for the series, for the racing. But when it comes to practice, and we have 10 red flags, 25 yellows, it’s traffic all the time.”

It seems certain to be a memorable reimagining of the Detroit GP, which was moved downtown by IndyCar owner Roger Penske after a 30-year run at the Belle Isle course a few miles north.

McLaughlin, who drives for Team Penske, believes the race will be very similar to Nashville, but “it’s just going to be up to us with the etiquette of the drivers to figure it out along the way. I think there’s going to be a lot of passes, opportunities.

“With the track, there’s been a lot of noise I’ve seen on Twitter, from other drivers and stuff,” McLaughlin said. “At the end of the day, this is a new track, new complex. I think what everyone has done to get this going, the vibe is awesome. Belle Isle was getting old. We had to do it.

“First-year problems, it’s always going to happen. It’s just going to get better from here. The racetrack for the drivers is a blast. We don’t even know how it races yet. Everyone is making conclusions already. They probably just need to relax and wait for (Sunday).”

Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine and speed):

ROW 1

1. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 1 minute, 1.8592 seconds (95.734 mph)
2. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 1:02.1592 (95.271)

ROW 2

3. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 1:02.2896 (95.072)
4. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 1:02.4272 (94.862)

ROW 3

5. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 1:02.5223 (94.718)
6. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 1:02.6184 (94.573)

ROW 4

7. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 1:02.1817 (95.237)
8. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 1:02.1860 (95.230)

ROW 5

9. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 1:02.1937 (95.219)
10. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 1:02.2564 (95.123)

ROW 6

11. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 1:02.2958 (95.063)
12. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 1:04.6075 (91.661)

ROW 7

13. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 1:02.5714 (94.644)
14. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 1:02.1911 (95.223)

ROW 8

15. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 1:02.9522 (94.071)
16. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1:02.2644 (95.111)

ROW 9

17. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 1:03.0017 (93.997)
18. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 1:02.6495 (94.526)

ROW 10

19. (55) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 1:03.1599 (93.762)
20. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 1:02.9071 (94.139)

ROW 11

21. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 1:03.2126 (93.684)
22. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 1:02.9589 (94.061)

ROW 12

23. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 1:03.3879 (93.425)
24. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 1:03.4165 (93.383)

ROW 13

25. (30) Jack Harvey, Honda, 1:03.7728 (92.861)
26. (51) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 1:03.7496 (92.895)

ROW 14

27. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 1:03.8663 (92.725)