Ford Performance NASCAR: Wood Brothers to Run Full Time in 2016 (Press Conference)

Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Ford EcoBoost 400 Advance – Homestead-Miami Speedway
Friday, November 20, 2015

Ford Performance and Wood Brothers Racing announced today that the iconic 21 Ford Fusion will run a full, 36-race schedule in 2016 with Ryan Blaney continuing as the team’s driver contending for a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with Motorcraft/Quick Lane and Ford Performance returning as anchor sponsors. The Wood Brothers and Blaney joined Ford Performance Global Director Dave Pericak and Edsel B. Ford II to discuss the news at Ford Championship Weekend.

EDDIE WOOD, owner, No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion – WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ANNOUNCE TODAY? “I appreciate all of you guys being in here when we showed up. We would like to announce that we are going to run all 36 races next year. These are the guys that made it happen, Ford Motor Company. It is just a lot of people that have been working on this for a long time and we are really proud of our association and heritage with Ford Motor Company. We have been racing Ford Motor Company products for 65 years and we are really looking forward to next year and getting started with that. We have a young driver, Ryan Blaney, and a young crew chief with Jeremy Bullins and they were both rookies this year and have kind of gotten that out of the way so we think we are ready to run full time next year. And now it is raining out there so we have to get that going so that we can race this weekend. Maybe next year with a full season we won’t have to worry about that. I know a lot of you guys were in Phoenix last week and had to deal with it and I felt for you. Rain is a bad deal at the race track.”

LEN WOOD, owner, No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion – WHAT MAKES THIS THE RIGHT TIME TO GET BACK TO FULL TIME RACING IN YOUR EYES? “In 2008 we stood here with Edsel Ford and Brian Wolfe who was the Ford Director at the time and talked about how our performance was not where we wanted it to be and the suggestion was made to go to a limited schedule and get our performance back and then try to get back full time. We have done that as hard as we could the whole time. I think this past year our performance has been where it needed to be and I think we are ready to make the next step with Ryan Blaney and Jeremy as our crew chief.”

DAVE PERICAK, Global Director, Ford Performance – WHAT DOES IT MEAN FROM YOUR STANDPOINT AS THE DIRECTOR OF FORD PERFORMANCE TO HAVE THEM RACING FULL TIME NEXT YEAR? “This is just an exciting day. To get them back on the track full time is the way it should be. They have been our most loyal team for 65 years and they deserve the right to come out every weekend and prove what they can do. I think more than even deserved, they have earned it. They have been very strong this year and as a result of that we are committed to getting them on the track full time. Through our efforts with Motorcraft and Quick Lane we will continue to leverage that and hope to be with them when they get their 100th Cup victory and we aren’t too far away from that. It is a very, very exciting day.”

EDSEL B. FORD II, member of Ford Board of Directors – YOU WERE ON THE PIT BOX IN 2011 WHEN TREVOR BAYNE WON THE DAYTONA 500 WITH THESE WOOD BROTHERS AND I KNOW THEY ARE A FAVORITE TEAM OF YOURS. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO 2016 AND THIS NEWS TODAY? “We have been talking about a full season for as long as I can remember and I want to thank Ford Motor Company and Raj Nair, the Group Vice President of Worldwide Product Development for Ford Motor Company, for standing up and taking this on. It is something the Wood Brothers deserve. I think Dave is exactly right. They have proven themselves. This is a historic team and they have been part of our family for 65 years and that is very important to me personally.”

RYAN BLANEY, driver, No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion – YOU WILL GET 36 POINTS RACES NEXT YEAR, WHAT IS THAT GOING TO BE LIKE FOR YOU NEXT YEAR? “It has been a dream come true. Growing up in the garage with my dad racing and seeing what he used to do when I was a kid and now being able to be a part of a full season in the Cup series and be with a couple great organizations like the Wood Brothers and Ford will be amazing. I am looking forward to next year. I can’t thank Edsel and Dave and as Edsel said, Raj Nair in the back there. They made it happen. I believe we have been pretty good this year and that gives us great momentum for next year. I can’t thank Motorcraft and the Quick Lane boys enough for what they do for this car on the race track and I am just really excited about it.”

EDDIE WOOD CONTINUED – HOW DIFFICULT WAS THE DECISION IN 2008 TO CUT BACK AND HOW DIFFICULT WILL IT BE TO GET BACK TO FULL TIME? “If you have time I will tell you the story of how that played out. We were in Pocono, Pennsylvania testing for the Pocono race on May 28, 2008. At about noon that day Mr. Ford called me looking for a phone number. I hadn’t talked to him in a while and he said, ‘I haven’t heard from you in a while, why haven’t you called?’ I told him we had been running so poorly that I had really just been ashamed. He says, ‘So, you are saying this 21 is broken?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, it is broken right now.’ So he said we were going to see about that, that we would fix that. From that day until now, it has been just like this. He put some things in motion that started to help like increased engineering and just more of everything. There were some Ford Motor Company people that came and moved in with us and helped get us straightened out and three years later we win the Daytona 500. You can never give up. That is one thing about this family that we have and Ford Motor Company, I would just like to thank Dave Pericak, Edsel Ford, Raj Nair and our technical alliance with Team Penske which is working really well. I would like to thank the Roush Yates Engine department and everyone at Ford. This whole thing with us being able to go forward full time next year is a Ford Motor Company effort. It isn’t just one group, it is all of Ford Motor Company. As we go forward this year and beyond, we are going to be trying to bring in more partners to help make it all work on the finance side. It costs a lot of money to race at this level. You can’t imagine. We are very fortunate to be hooked up with these guys.”

LEN WOOD CONTINUED — WHAT WAS THE REACTION UP IN STUART, VIRGINIA, WHEN YOU ALL ANNOUNCED THIS? “We didn’t tell a lot of people. There were only two that know, mom and daddy.”

EDDIE WOOD CONTINUED – “They were all for it because they are used to seeing our car, their car, run every week. When you don’t see it every week, if we don’t race, a lot of times we are in Virginia with them but it just isn’t right. We are supposed to be at the race track. They realize that and they are just as happy as we are.”

DOES THIS MEAN YOU WILL ADD ON PEOPLE OR HAVE MORE PENSKE PEOPLE INVOLVED? “We haven’t really gotten that far yet. Obviously we will have to add more people but the way our relationship with Team Penske is makes it pretty seamless and integrated and works really well. I told somebody the other day that if you walk in the door over at Team Penske, Len and I run into people that were working there when we were racing in the ‘70’s that are still working there and we are still friends with them. It just feels like family with those guys. We will get into all that later but I don’t see it as that will be a problem at all.”

WHAT TYPE OF PEOPLE WILL YOU NEED TO ADD TO GO FULL TIME? “I guess a lot of them will just be transportation people because we are in the Harrisburg area and Team Penske is up in Mooresville. There is no easy way to get there. You can’t go through the lake. You just can’t get there from here and you have to go around anyway you go. I would say transportation.”

LEN WOOD CONTINUED – “For me personally, I will be hiring somebody to mow my lawn now.”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WITH THE WOOD BROTHERS IN A FULL TIME CAPACITY AND HAVE A CHANCE TO RUN FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “It is what you dream of as a kid. Ever since I started watching my dad at the race track and was old enough to know what NASCAR was all about. Ever since you start racing, whether it was quarter midgets or whatever, that was the main goal, to be full time in the Sprint Cup level and compete for a championship. I have been fortunate enough to get great opportunities and meet great people being with Team Penske in 2012 which led to the Wood Brothers this year and then beyond for next year. Obviously it is a little overwhelming right now of knowing what is going to come but I am excited for it. I don’t get excited about a lot of things and maybe I don’t show it but I am really excited about this program for next year and having the opportunity. It doesn’t work without everyone involved at Ford and Wood Brothers and Team Penske working together and I think we have that. I am looking forward to next season.”

DAVE PERICAK CONTINUED – WHY IS FORD PUTTING IN THE RESOURCES TO SOMETHING LIKE THIS WHEN YOU LOOK AROUND THE FORD CAMP AND THERE IS A LOT OF WORK STILL TO BE DONE AT ROUSH FENWAY RACING. WHY IS FORD MAKING THE EFFORT IN THIS CASE TO ELEVATE THIS TEAM FULL TIME? “There is no doubt we have a lot going on and as we have talked in the past, we are dedicated to this sport and improving our performance across the board. This is just another element of the total plan to do that. We have a belief in the Wood Brothers and Team Penske and Mr. Blaney over there and it just makes sense that we do this. People have been asking about resources. We have the resources. We are fully committed on all fronts to do this right and run this as a full time team. It is just one element of the plan to fix what is going on within all of our teams at Ford.”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – YOUR WORK WITH JEREMY THIS SEASON, DO YOU FEEL IT HAS BUILT A SOLID FOUNDATION THAT YOU CAN GROW INTO A FULL TIME CAPACITY? “Yeah, being able to work with Jeremy Bullins has been great. I started working with him in 2012 when I signed with Penske and he was on the XFINITY car and he was on that car until last year and we were lucky to bring him to the 21 car on the Cup side. He is a great crew chief and it has been really helpful to have some years and races put in with him both on the XFINITY and Cup side. He and myself, I think we really get along well and have our own language and I think this year was a perfect example of getting better throughout the year, whether that is communication between myself and him or the cars getting better, it is great to work with a guy that is really hungry and that is what Jeremy is. I think that really benefits us for next year.”

EDDIE WOOD CONTINUED – WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE TO HAVE RYAN IN THE CAR THIS YEAR FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE? “With the limited experience Ryan had in the Cup car, with two starts last year, he jumped in our car and has been doing it like he has been doing it for five or 10 years. His level of experience and know-how and his calmness and just the way he conducts himself on and off the race track is like a guy that is 30 or 35 years old. He is 21. When I was 21 I didn’t know whether I was coming or going but he really does a great job in the car. He and Jeremy really fit each other. Of course they ran last year in the Mustang and won some races and got to know each other, but they are both just really dedicated and we have really enjoyed it.”

DAVE PERICAK CONTINUED – ARE YOU STILL OPERATING UNDER THE ‘ONE FORD’ MENTALITY? “I think when we talk about One Ford and what Ford Performance was all about, it was actually living and delivering that One Ford mentality. The way we handle everything now under Ford Performance is it is all in one place and we can leverage everything that goes on within Ford Performance to help everyone. Our plan going forward is part of improving everyone’s performance and that is continuing to bring people closer together, bring the teams closer together, leveraging what is happening on one team versus another and together improving everyone’s level of performance. We are committed to doing that and I Know everyone is anxious to see the results of that and so are we but I can assure you we are 100-percent dedicated to raising the level of performance for everyone across the board.”