Roush Fenway Racing co-Owner Jack Roush said Ford's support of NASCAR has "never been bigger than it is at this time." Roush during a pre-race segment prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonomo yesterday said, "A number of years ago, they decided that they didn't have a large enough footprint to really compete for a manufacturer’s title." He noted when Stewart-Haas Racing came aboard and brought its drivers into a Ford engine partnership, that left Ford in "better shape to compete for a manufacturer’s title this year than we've ever been.” Richard Petty Motorsports' Richard Petty said the more Ford cars on the track, the "merrier, because they feed off of each other." Petty: "When you get to the racetrack and you’ve got five or six things to try, sometimes you haven't got that much time with one car. So you can trade it off to another car and get feedback.” Penske Racing's Roger Penske said of Ford, "The management from top to bottom is committed. There's not a weekend we don't have success or we don’t hear from the top management. They see it, they watch it, they're committing their marketing dollars to our sport and they want to see results" (“NASCAR RaceDay,” FS1, 6/25).
LONG TIME COMING: Toyota Racing Development President & GM David Wilson said the company plans on being in NASCAR "for a long, long time." Wilson: "Ultimately, drivers are a pretty important requirement in that formula, so we made the decision to invest in driver development." TRD Dir of Team & Support Services Jack Irving said of the diversity within the program, “We equate it a little bit to bull riding, as funny as that sounds. That the bull is rated and the rider is rated, and that’s similar to how we do it at TRD anyway and behind the scenes so it is the only sport you can compete equally." He added, "From my perspective and Toyota's perspective to able to give females an opportunity to compete against Kyle (Busch) at some point in a truck or in a Cup car hopefully is the utmost importance to the sport to keep thriving and surviving in respect of how difficult it is" (“NASCAR RaceDay,” FS1, 6/25).
