- Ashley Force, driver of the Castrol GTX Mustang, was the runner up in the NHRA Funny Car race in Houston, Texas, after losing to Del Worsham in the final round. Force moved up four spots in the standings to fifth place.
- Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri Jr. were the top Ford drivers in the Grand-Am Rolex Series race in Homestead, Fla., finishing third in the No. 60 Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype.
- Jamie McMurray was the top Ford driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Martinsville, Va., finishing eighth in his No. 26 Fusion. McMurray moved up six spots to 30th in the standings.
- Rick Crawford was the top Ford driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in Martinsville, Va., finishing third in his No. 14 F-150. Crawford moved up one spot to fifth in the standings.
DEARBORN, Mich., March 30 – Ashley Force drove her Mustang Funny Car all the way into the final round of the NHRA race in Houston, Texas, while Michael Shank Racing placed a Ford on the podium in the Grand-Am Rolex Series race in Homestead, Fla., on a busy weekend for Ford Racing.
Force defeated Bob Gilbertson in the first round, Tony Pedregon in the second round and Tony Bartone in the third round on her way to the final round, where she lost to event winner Del Worsham. Her father, John Force, also had a strong day, making it into the third round before losing to Worsham in the semifinal. The final round appearance was Ashley’s second in her young career. She remains the only female driver ever to make it to a Funny Car final round.
Robert Hight, driver of the AAA of Southern California Mustang, came into the weekend with the points lead, but failed to qualify for the race. Though Hight dropped three spots in the standings, he remains just 28 points behind leader Cruz Pedregon for the top spot.
“I think our Ford team held its own this weekend,” said John Force. “We’re going to test here tomorrow at least on the early parts of the race track. Jimmy (Prock, Hight’s crew chief) has still got a good hot rod, but we have to find our consistency. A lot of these cars have been carrying this weight since last year. They have more runs on them, but we’ll learn.”
Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri Jr. took their No. 60 Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype to a third place finish for team owner Michael Shank in what was the first Grand-Am Rolex in two months. The finish marked the third top-10 result for Michael Shank Racing through two races this season.
“Michael Shank Racing has been working so hard all winter, and this podium is for them,” said Negri. “My engineer Dave Kanning made a great call to just take two tires in that last pit stop and that put us where we needed to be with track position. I think if there had been fewer yellows at the end, we could have had the opportunity to do even better. But this is still a great finish for the team and really helps in the championship.”
In the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Jamie McMurray used a strong weekend to position himself comfortably back into the top 35 in the standings to guarantee himself a spot in the next race. McMurray qualified fifth and ran in the top 10 for the majority of the race before eventually earning an eighth place finish.
“I had to race those guys a little bit differently than I would have if we hadn’t been in that situation (as far as the point standings). When guys would get underneath me, I would just let them go because we had to finish well today so we could have a little bit of a buffer in the points when we go to Texas. That was a really solid day. We made our car better as the day went on and at the end had one of the best cars, but I just gave up a couple of spots there.”
Carl Edwards also ran well the whole day as his No. 99 Fusion was running in fifth going into the final corner of the final lap before running out of gas and coasting to a ninth place finish. Edwards’ and McMurray’s Roush Fenway Racing teammate David Ragan also ran in the lead pack for the majority of the day and ended the race in the 11th position.
Rick Crawford led a trio of F-150 drivers into the top 10 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday. Crawford, who continued his strong season with a third place finish, was joined by Erik Darnell in fifth and Travis Kvapil in seventh.
“That was a typical Martinsville race and that means we’re built Ford tough today with this F-Series pickup,” said Crawford. “I think this Super Duty with that Ford Powerstroke Diesel on the hood, we laid down some rubber today and she handled great except at one point, but with 50 laps from the end it came back. I don’t really know what happened to it, but it came back and I just threaded the needle there at the end. I’ve got a real narrow truck, so third place is pretty good for the F-Series pickup today. We’ll take that.”
Next weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the NASCAR Nationwide Series will compete at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.