Dearborn, Mich. — The 2004 Ford Racing Taurus participated in its first on-track test session at Atlanta Motor Speedway today, and when it was finished, Ford Racing officials were very happy.

"It went extremely well and pretty much according to plan," said Greg Specht, Manager, North American Racing Operations, Ford Racing Technology. "And we’re very pleased that we got the track test out of the way."

The 2004 Ford Racing Taurus was built by the Wood Brothers and was driven in the test by 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup champion and Robert Yates Racing driver Dale Jarrett, who also was pleased by the test.

"Everything went well," said Jarrett. "The car seems to be very well balanced. They did a really good job of building the car. It looks really nice, the lines on it are good, and it did things on the race track that we think will help us to be more competitive even for next year."

Specht said today’s test with the 2004 Taurus was truly a team effort, involving Ford's top three NASCAR teams — Wood Brothers Racing, Robert Yates Racing and Roush Racing.

"I’d like to thank the Woods for allowing Dale Jarrett in their car in place of Ricky Rudd, who had a previous commitment and couldn’t be here today," said Specht. "This is a great sign of cooperation between our top NASCAR teams. We had all three of our partners represented at the test here today: Dale, being the driver from Robert Yates Racing; obviously, the Wood Brothers built and brought the car here; and, we got engineering support from Roush Racing. I think that’s important as well."

Jarrett said the 2004 Ford Racing Taurus seemed to have improved downforce compared to the current model.

"I can see where the car has potential when you get it in race trim," said Jarrett. "Something the Fords fight, and that’s a little more front downforce, and it seems like this car may have that without creating a lot of drag. And I think that’s something that we were interested in: Could we make something that was good for us still on the straightaways, but get us through the corners a little bit, too?"

The on-track test consisted of a series of multi-lap runs.

"They wanted to run over 10 laps at a time, and so we went out and did that, and they were looking at times," said Jarrett. "They had a certain time that they wanted to see, and I didn’t even know how many laps I was going to be running, I just ran until they told me to come in, that the NASCAR folks were satisfied that that’s what they were looking for."

Following the on-track test, the 2004 Ford Racing Taurus was tested under the supervision of Ford and NASCAR officials in the windtunnel at Lockheed in Marietta, Ga.