EDWARDS, LEICHT, KVAPIL, DARNELL AND MAXWELL SCORE VICTORIES
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford Fusion, won Sunday’s NASCAR Citizen’s Bank 400 at Michigan International Speedway (MIS). This is his first win in 52 races.
Stephen Leicht, driver of the No. 90 Ford Fusion, won Saturday’s Busch Meijer 300 presented by Oreo at Kentucky Speedway. This is his first Busch Series victory.
Travis Kvapil, driver of the No. 6 Ford F-150, won Saturday’s Michigan 200 at MIS. Kvapil moved up to the fourth position in points.
Erik Darnell, driver of the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion, won Friday’s ARCA RE/MAX Michigan 200 at MIS.
Scott Maxwell, driver of the No. 55 Hyper Sport Mustang GT, won Saturday’s Grand-Am KONI Challenge, the Michigan 200 at MIS.
DEARBORN, Mich., June 17 – Ford Racing drivers were the sole residents of victory lane during this weekend’s races in Michigan and Kentucky. In addition to capturing the checkered flag five times throughout the weekend, Ford drivers set their own career milestones; Carl Edwards won his first Michigan race, Stephen Leicht won his first career Busch race in Kentucky, Travis Kvapil scored his first victory for Roush Fenway Racing and Scott Maxwell captured his first victory of the year.
Edwards’ win during Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series win at Michigan International Speedway was the fifth of his career and first of 2007 since his four victories in 2005.
“It feels unbelievable. Yesterday we had a great Office Depot Fusion in practice. I felt really good about coming into today. The Sharp Aquos Fusion was real fast in the Busch race and had a little adversity; we didn’t win the thing and we should’ve. It was tough to sleep last night, and then I got up race day and Bob and I talked a little bit, and he convinced me to put that behind me and to go out and do a job,” said Edwards. “And then we sped on pit road one time and got put in the back, and our car was good enough that it made it back up to the front. And then at the end there, Martin Truex was amazingly fast, and Martin’s been on a roll lately so it was great to be able to beat him in, really, a head-to-head race. That meant a lot – especially for Ford here.”
Stephen Leicht, driver of the No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion captured his first career win during Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series win at Kentucky Speedway.
“We had a great run. My guys worked so hard for this. We knew coming into tonight after the practice yesterday that we had a great car. We knew Carl [Edwards] was going to be tough and I hate the way things ended like they did. I really would have loved to race Carl for the win there at the end. We can’t say enough about the CitiFinancial team and our car tonight. It was just awesome. We were in the right position at the right time and we were able to capitalize on it with 10 [laps] to go.”
Truck series driver, Travis Kvapil, No. 6 K&N Ford F-150, started from the pole on Saturday’s Michigan 200 and crossed the line, capturing his first victory of the season.
“We came off the truck in top-two in both sessions. Our first run, I told the guys, ‘The truck feels real good. Let’s keep tweaking away at it with little bitty adjustments,’ and we kept getting a little better and a little better. We knew we had a shot at the pole. There was a handful of us I thought were pretty fast, but we were able to put that lap down and really just show the speed that our Ford had in it today. And we were able to just make the right adjustments in the race,” said Kvapil.
“I’ve got to thank everyone at Roush Fenway Racing, K&N and Ford for giving me this opportunity. We started the year off kind of struggling, and Mike Beam [crew chief] and the guys here really just figured out what we needed to do to make the trucks where I could drive ’em fast. Kansas was probably the big turning point for our trucks, and my teammate, Erik [Darnell], won there and since then we’ve been a top-five truck every time we come to the race track. Haven’t really been able to pull it off or get the whole weekend get put together, but we finally did here at Michigan.”
Starting in the third position, Erik Darnell drove his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion to victory lane during the Michigan 200 ARCA RE/MAX race. Darnell’s win is his second in three series starts in 2007.
“We were doing all we could to conserve fuel in the end,” said Darnell. “I saw Hornish coming but, fortunately for us, he was caught up in a battle with the No. 31 (Tim McCreadie) and that allowed us to set our pace and save some fuel. Once (Sam) Hornish cleared the No. 31, we knew we had to go, so we threw everything we had at it and came out on top. What a great Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing gave me. It was really good right from the start. I can’t say enough about how hard these guys worked on this car. It’s a pleasure to drive for this race team.”
In the Grand-Am KONI Challenge at Michigan, Scott Maxwell, drove his No. 55 Hyper Sport Mustang GT to victory.
“The Mustang was so good in the race,” Maxwell said. “We struggled in practice but kept pushing and we never gave up. I was most worried about (Bill) Auberlen in the BMW, but something happened to them, and then the two other quick Mustangs with (Kenny) Wilden in the one and I guess Emp (David Empringham) had a bad pit stop or something. It has been a few years since I won in Canada, I think in the early 2000s when I last ran for a Grand-Am championship. It is great to win in front of the home crowd, the family is here and it is great for Hyper Sport and Dan Davis from Ford who is here as well. It's all good.”
The Nextel Cup Series heads to Infineon and the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series head to The Milwaukee Mile next weekend. NHRA races in Englishtown, NJ; the Koni Challenge and Rolex Series race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
