Edsel Ford and Ford Racing NASCAR Drivers Comment on Favorite Mustang Memories

The 50th Anniversary of Mustang is this Thursday, April 17, and with that in mind, Ford Racing asked some of its NASCAR drivers to talk about their favorite Mustang memory. Here are some of their stories, along with another from Edsel B. Ford II, member of the board of directors, Ford Motor Company.

MUSTANG MEMORIES (PART 1)

EDSEL B. FORD II – Member, Board of Directors, Ford Motor Company – “My favorite Mustang memory, certainly like many others, is the day I got my first Mustang.

For me, it is still a very vivid memory. It was Christmas morning, 1964, and I was just 16 years old at the time.

I came downstairs that morning with my sisters, and my father indicated I should take a look outside. There was a brand new 1965 Mustang fastback sitting in the driveway with a big red bow on the hood. I immediately grabbed my coat and ran outside to check it out.

Of course, just looking at it was not enough, so I jumped into the car and proceeded to take several laps around our neighborhood. The rumble of the high-performance 289-cubic-inch V8 was intoxicating. I only drove it for a few minutes that first day because there was snow on the ground, but as soon as the roads were cleared, I drove it almost every day.

My father, Henry Ford II, had the car specifically prepared for me. It was a very special Mustang painted in a pearlescent white finish with slim blue racing stripes over the top of the body and along the rocker panels.

It also had a functional hood scoop, chrome trim on the three gills in the headlamp buckets, and fender-mounted rearview mirrors similar to the ones on the Mustangs in Europe at that time.

My father also did something special for me. The rear fuel filler cap, which normally had the pony logo, had my initials on it – ‘EBFII.’

That car was special for sure. I drove it through high school and then one summer afternoon on Long Island I let a friend borrow it. He was driving the car home, lost control and rolled it in a potato field near our house. My beautiful Mustang was destroyed. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the car was totaled.

That Mustang was my first car and my favorite. Seeing the recent photos of the car that were discovered in the Ford archives brought back many fond memories.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “One of my favorite Mustang memories that sticks out in my head is my new Shelby Mustang. I guess it isn’t new anymore. It is a 2007 GT 500 and that Mustang has been so much fun for me over the years. I built an engine for it and have done all kinds of stuff to it. That is by far my favorite car to work on and tinker with or take to ZMAX Dragway. I just love to drive it on the street, to the shop and back, and it is by far my favorite car. I bought it because I really wanted one bad. I started doing modifications to it. I changed the blower pulleys and did all sorts of stuff. I have had a ton of fun with it. Mustang is such an iconic part of American history, not just when it comes to cars, so the 50th anniversary is a big deal for sure and I am glad I have been able to make memories with my own Mustang.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “The first neat car I had was a 1985 Mustang GT with T-tops and it was great. We put a clutch in it. My dad and a guy named Bobby Williams and I worked on it and painted it and my buddy Ray Owen helped me work on it and he was a big Mustang guy. I was like 19 years old and I had a Mustang. It was neat. I had a lot of fun in that car. It was a great car. Mustangs are fun, period.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Nationwide Insurance Ford Fusion – “One of my favorite memories is obviously being able to win the two Nationwide Series championships in a Mustang. That was really cool and will be something that obviously I always remember because up to now it is my biggest accomplishment in racing. When I was growing up though, my Dad, he builds engines for a living and a friend of his had a Mustang Mach 1. I was young, about seven or eight, so I don’t remember the exact year of the car. I believe it was a 1969 though. He took me for a ride in it one day and we got sideways. We were staring right at the back of a big truck and right at the last second he turned it and we spun around the other way and kept going. That was so much fun. I loved it. That was probably when I fell in love with Mustang.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “My favorite Mustang story is when the Nationwide Series went to the Mustang and we went to Michigan and the Mustangs were there and they were the first cars to have the decals on the side that made it look like the production car. That was really cool. I felt like when the Mustang came into the Nationwide Series it really beefed it up and made it look like a real race car, a real car. I thought that was really awesome. It is such an iconic part of car history and racing history, so to have Mustang come to the Nationwide Series and to have it look like a Mustang, was a big deal.”

JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “I have raced a few Mustangs in my day. I think getting my first win for Roger Penske in a Ford Mustang was pretty sweet. I did that last year at Dover and it was a great feeling. To put yourself on a list of all the drivers that have won with Roger Penske is really neat and to add my name to the list of drivers that have won a race in a Mustang is really great. I need to get a Mustang to add to my stable of cars for sure. I love the old Mustang Mach 1 series. Those cars are just iconic. I would love to get behind the wheel of a Mach 1 for sure.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion –“A memory that sticks out to me about Mustang is that I had a friend in high school that had a Cobra Mustang. I had an old ratty pickup truck and he let me drive that Mustang. I was driving a race car at the time in high school and he said he wanted to see what his car would do with a race car driver driving it. So my buddy in high school let me drive his Cobra and we put black marks around the street of our high school everywhere. I mean everywhere. That was a lot of fun. That was probably one of my fondest memories of a Mustang, him letting me tear up the streets around our high school in a Mustang.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion – “Mustangs are close to my heart being a lifelong Ford fan. I grew up with my dad or uncle having some project Mustang cars around. We never really had new, fast Mustangs. They were always the mid-60’s. They really liked the mid-year cars. Just here recently, getting to race a Mustang some in the Nationwide Series has been special but I also got to do the Mustang 1,000 lap challenge at Bristol Motor Speedway to see how many laps we could do on a tank of fuel. It was remarkable with the V6 Mustang. It is kind of ironic that a race car driver’s coolest memory of a Mustang is in a V6 at Bristol. I also did a speed challenge in a Mustang GT at Bristol which set the track record in a production car. We averaged about 100 MPH in a stock Mustang which proved that the stock Mustangs you get off the showroom floor are pretty special.”

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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