Chevy NASCAR Team Chooses Ford for 2017

[bdegrand]

Stewart-Haas Racing switching from Chevy to Ford for 2017 NASCAR season

 

In surprise announcement, SHR says it is changing manufacturers

 

Team had been with Chevrolet since 2009

 

Ty Dillon will driver for Tony Stewart in Sunday race at Atlanta

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 14: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John's Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 14, 2016 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 14: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John's Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 14, 2016 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

 

Stewart-Haas Racing will switch from Chevrolet to Ford as its manufacturer partner in 2017, Ford announced Wednesday.

 

In one of the more surprising announcements in recent NASCAR history, SHR makes the move after fielding Chevys since the teams 2009 inception. SHR includes the race teams of Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch. The teams engines will be prepared by Roush Yates Engines.

 

We are thrilled to be able to add a championship-level team like Stewart-Haas Racing to our Ford NASCAR program, Raj Nair, executive vice president and chief technical officer of Ford Motor Company, said in a statement. Tony Stewart and Gene Haas have the same passion for winning that we do, and bring a strong stable of drivers and personnel that fit into what were trying to do in the sport.

 

SHR will be the largest Ford team in the Cup series, and joins Team Penske, Roush Fenway Racing, Wood Brothers Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports and Front Row Motorsports in the manufacturers lineup. Roush Yates Engines is Fords technical partner for NASCAR race engines.

 

We have said very clearly that we are not in NASCAR just to race, but to win races and championships, Dave Pericak, global director of Ford Performance, said in a statement. We believe the addition of Stewart-Haas Racing in 2017 will give our program a major boost in terms of being in contention for both drivers and manufacturers championships every year.

 

We believe that our NASCAR engineering experience and tools match up very well with the expertise and personnel that Stewart-Haas Racing has in house right now, and that we will both benefit from this partnership going forward.

 

▪ SHR also confirmed that Ty Dillon will drive its No. 14 car in Sundays QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in relief of Stewart, who continues to recover from a broken back he suffered Jan. 31 in a dune buggy accident. Brian Vickers, who drove for Stewart in Sundays Daytona 500, will take over again in the Las Vegas race on March 6.

 

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nascar-auto-racing/thatsracin/article62169212.html#storylink=cpy

Edited February 24, 2016 by bdegrand

[twintornados]

So much for FoMoCo getting out of NASCAR....

[Kev-Mo]

Wow - they finally have some quality drivers - Stewart, Harvick and Busch. In it to win it - the only way to play.

[Bob Rosadini]

Wow - they finally have some quality drivers - Stewart, Harvick and Busch. In it to win it - the only way to play.

Stewart retires end of 2016. Bowyer will be in the 14 in 2017

[akirby]

So essentially they're going from CVS brand ibuprofen to Walgreen brand ibuprofen........ same stuff different stickers......

[bdegrand]

Wow - they finally have some quality drivers - Stewart, Harvick and Busch. In it to win it - the only way to play.

I have reservations on Harvick going to Ford. I think he is going to be looking at options to see what offers he can get aside from Ford.To me, he's like Dale Jr....a Chevy man to the end. Of course, so was Ford hater Daryll Waltrip .....but in his last year or so he actually drove a Ford. We shall see!

 

I also think Doug Yates is not as good an engine guy as Daddy Robert was. No Ford's ever dominated last year, other than Joey. I miss Davey Allison.

Edited February 24, 2016 by bdegrand

[Bob Rosadini]

So essentially they're going from CVS brand ibuprofen to Walgreen brand ibuprofen........ same stuff different stickers......

What choo talkin bout boy-thems Stock cars

[akirby]

You know what drivers like way more than car brands? Money. In the end the cars aren't that different anyway.

[coupe3w]

Harvick will move on. Danica is not that good in NASCAR. Bush, well, Bush is Bush could go either way. Clint is a good guy wish him well. You're right about Doug Yates, still not as good as Robert. Ford needs another engine builder maybe Penske or Hass can convince Ford to do this. It's never good to have all your eggs in one basket. Engine building competition would be good for Ford I think. Just as chassis builders are better than some teams. Take Penske vs Roush for example. Same Yates engines with very different results because of different chassis. Good thing the Ford teams don't all use Roush chassis that's for sure.

[bdegrand]

Harvick will move on. Danica is not that good in NASCAR. Bush, well, Bush is Bush could go either way. Clint is a good guy wish him well. You're right about Doug Yates, still not as good as Robert. Ford needs another engine builder maybe Penske or Hass can convince Ford to do this. It's never good to have all your eggs in one basket. Engine building competition would be good for Ford I think. Just as chassis builders are better than some teams. Take Penske vs Roush for example. Same Yates engines with very different results because of different chassis. Good thing the Ford teams don't all use Roush chassis that's for sure.

Totally agree on every point. Look at the current Roush Team.....They lost Lee White/top engineer who now is the top dog at Toyota Racing. Edwards and Kenseth jumped ship to Toyota. So we have Biffle, Stenhouse...who both didn't finish last year in the top 20 or so....and never will. Blaney is hope....but Patrick is no winner, unless you like her affair with Stenhouse. Bush is hot and cold. Harvick will almost certainly NOT drive a Ford. Clint looks like some hope. Also, who will do the chassis for Haas-Stewart? Not Penske! Ford definitely needs another engine builder besides Yates. Look at Gibbs Toyota....they now have their engines built by Toyota (TRD)..and sent to Gibbs shop in Carolina for further refinements. Since that change,the engines have not been failing anymore...and with the new NASCAR downforce mandate by Bill FRANCE Jr late last year, Toyota has improved and averages no worse than top 5 since then. Plus, they won the driver championship. (Maybe Kenseth helped a little with that, disrupting Logano's momentum)

I seriously thought Ford was going the way of Dodge....can't win anymore...why try? (Exception Logano....that kid can drive!)

Edited February 25, 2016 by bdegrand

[blksn8k2]

One thing to keep in mind when comparing Doug Yates to his father Robert, the current rules on everything in NASCAR are designed to promote competition, not domination, and that includes the engines. All of the engine builders have to live within those rules which means there are not many differences in engine design like there were back when Robert ran his own team and built his own engines. NASCAR controls everything from displacement to valve angle and throttle body size. Today, each manufacturer has at most two engine builders that build all of the engines for all of the cars that run their brand. Chevy has Hendrick and Earnhardt/Childress, Toyota has their in-house TRD/Triad and Ford has Roush/Yates. That's it and due to the current rules there's not much to be gained from adding more engine builders. Because the power is regulated and controlled by NASCAR it's mostly about reliability and having too many engine builders does nothing to help that.

 

Something else to consider is the future of NASCAR and Ford's continued involvement. Perhaps Stewart-Haas was more impressed by Ford's commitment to innovation and support and Ford was looking for an up and coming team whose owners were not in their 70's or 80's. Jack Roush, Roger Penske and Richard Petty are not kids anymore. "Go Further" indeed.

 

I'm not a big fan of Harvick or Busch (they're both arrogant assholes but so are most other drivers) and I think Danica is only there because she brings money. Boyer is irrelevant to me. As long as they bring the chance for more wins to Ford I guess that's good enough for me.

[blksn8k2]

Totally agree on every point. Look at the current Roush Team.....They lost Lee White/top engineer who now is the top dog at Toyota Racing. Edwards and Kenseth jumped ship to Toyota. So we have Biffle, Stenhouse...who both didn't finish last year in the top 20 or so....and never will. Blaney is hope....but Patrick is no winner, unless you like her affair with Stenhouse. Bush is hot and cold. Harvick will almost certainly NOT drive a Ford. Clint looks like some hope. Also, who will do the chassis for Haas-Stewart? Not Penske! Ford definitely needs another engine builder besides Yates. Look at Gibbs Toyota....they now have their engines built by Toyota (TRD)..and sent to Gibbs shop in Carolina for further refinements. Since that change,the engines have not been failing anymore...and with the new NASCAR downforce mandate by Bill FRANCE Jr late last year, Toyota has improved and averages no worse than top 5 since then. Plus, they won the driver championship. (Maybe Kenseth helped a little with that, disrupting Logano's momentum)

I seriously thought Ford was going the way of Dodge....can't win anymore...why try? (Exception Logano....that kid can drive!)

 

So far Roush Fenway has been outperforming Penske this season but it's only the second race.

 

Stewart-Haas has already stated they intend to build their own chassis and will be adding employees to do just that. A lot of them will likely come from Hendrick since they are losing a major client.

 

BTW, Bill France Jr. died a few years ago. His son Brian is in charge now.

[coupe3w]

Doug Yates said they were working on engine development for SHR in 2017 starting now. They have to supply ~ 60 engines to SHR next season. Doug said they will be bring on more engineers and addition help they will need. Wish I knew the HP and torque figures of each brand. It would be interesting to see how close they really are to one another.

[fuzzymoomoo]

Doug Yates said they were working on engine development for SHR in 2017 starting now. They have to supply ~ 60 engines to SHR next season. Doug said they will be bring on more engineers and addition help they will need. Wish I knew the HP and torque figures of each brand. It would be interesting to see how close they really are to one another.

They're nearly identical. Like a previous poster said, the current rules set doesn't allow for much wiggle room for any particular builder to dominate for an extended period of time.

[blksn8k2]

Doug Yates said they were working on engine development for SHR in 2017 starting now. They have to supply ~ 60 engines to SHR next season. Doug said they will be bring on more engineers and addition help they will need. Wish I knew the HP and torque figures of each brand. It would be interesting to see how close they really are to one another.

 

I'm betting there is less than 20 hp difference between all three brands. It has not been that many years ago that Ford stopped using the old Windsor block/Cleveland head engines in favor of the NASCAR dedicated FR9. Ever since then nobody uses a production based V8 anymore. GM is the only OEM that still uses pushrod V8s in their vehicles and Toyota never did. It is also interesting to note that the appearance of the engines from all three brands is also very similar as would be expected considering the rules package. As a matter of fact, they all look very similar to the old production based Ford engines. Prior to the switch to crank trigger fired ignition they all had the distributor in front and evenly spaced exhaust ports, items that used distinguish a Ford from a Chevy but not anymore, at least in NASCAR.

[bdegrand]

Doug Yates said they were working on engine development for SHR in 2017 starting now. They have to supply ~ 60 engines to SHR next season. Doug said they will be bring on more engineers and addition help they will need. Wish I knew the HP and torque figures of each brand. It would be interesting to see how close they really are to one another.

 

I remember the good ole days when NASCAR would take the top finishers to the DYNO and test the comparisons to actually determine if there were advantages between makes. So far, that isn't happening, despite many comments on how JGR cars are stronger on ponies. It's been clear to see that at Daytona and Texas when Kenseth marched from last to first at Daytona and Kyle marching from last to the front last week. Hamlin, Kenseth, Bush ....Even Edwards have all been strong....or should I say stronger than the rest! Let's see how Vegas goes!

[blksn8k2]

It also hasn't been that long ago that 'Yota had to dial back the power to keep from grenading engines. They have apparently solved that problem. When they first entered the sport a lot of people were saying they would eventually spend enough cubic dollars to dominate NASCAR. Looks like those predictions are starting to come true...

[coupe3w]

 

So far Roush Fenway has been outperforming Penske this season but it's only the second race.

 

Penske is still the dominant Ford team. Even Ryan Blaney in the Wood brothers #21 (under the Team Penske umbrella) a rookie is out performing Roush. When will Greg Biffle jump ship? I say this will be his last year with Roush.