Staying balanced in Chase critical for Kevin Harvick, No. 4 team

By Sep 17, 2014, 2:35 PM EDT
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Kevin Harvick led a race-high 79 laps last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, only to fade to fifth after he and Kyle Larson were passed for the lead by eventual winner Brad Keselowski with 15 laps to go.

Nonetheless, P5 is a good start for him in the Chase’s Challenger Round, which continues this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Harvick figures that he simply needs two more solid weeks like that to safely enter the Contender Round as one of the Top 12 in the Chase Grid.

And in order to do that, knowing when and when not to take a chance will be important.

Take the series’ most recent visit to NHMS in July. Late in that race, Harvick took on two tires in a pit stop and was told to save as much fuel as he could.

That helped the team gain critical track position, but when the race was taken into green-white-checkered, Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart Haas Chevrolet ran dry on the restart. Instead of challenging Keselowski for the win, he finished 30th.

“I think there is a balance, I know for us, that we’ve tried to focus on, because it’s really not something that you want to flip the switch on and off as far as how you call a race and how you run a race…Now you have to take that fifth or six-place finish and move on and not wreck the car,” Harvick said this week.

“I think as far as going for it and trying to make up two laps of fuel or something like that like we did [at NHMS in July], you can’t do those types of things unless you’re just in a desperate position where you have to win a race.”

However, Harvick believes that the team’s improvement in consistency since Indianapolis will help them avoid such a scenario.

From the Brickyard 400 onward, they’ve garnered two runner-up finishes, four Top-5s, and six Top-10s in the last eight races. And they could have very well won last month at Atlanta if not for Harvick getting caught in a green-white-checkered crash.

Then there’s the new pit crew members that have migrated to the No. 4 crew for the Chase. Last Sunday at Chicagoland, the crew had a mishap with a loose wheel that forced Harvick to take an early restart in 22nd, but bounced back to help him get up among the leaders again.

Altogether, Harvick remains optimistic about what lies ahead.

“I feel like with the speed and all the things we have, that it’s just going to come down to who makes the least amount of mistakes as a group,” Harvick said. “You’ve got to have a little good luck to go along with that and hopefully, we’ve used our bad luck up along through the year and we can have a good 10 weeks.

“I’m excited and confident. You just never know how these things are going to play out, but if it plays out right, I think we have just as good a shot as anybody.”

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
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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).