THIS WEEK IN FORD RACING

Fontana, Calif. — The pole that Ricky Rudd won at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend occurred just nine races into the first season after the team moved its race shop from Stuart, Va., to Mooresville, N.C. Co-owner Eddie Wood credits Ben Leslie, who is in his first full season as crew chief, as one of the keys to the team’s transition. Wood and Leslie both talked about the move, and the importance of the pole.

EDDIE WOOD, CO-OWNER – NO. 21 – MOTORCRAFT TAURUS
“We basically started over on Dec. 22nd and drew a line in the sand by moving and reorganizing completely. It’s just like a brand-new race team and we’ve struggled quite a bit. This is the first real accomplishment that we’ve had since we moved and made the commitment to go for all of it. To me, that’s what’s good about it.

“Ben Leslie came on board and worked really hard. This is a completely new race team and he’s really done a good job with what we’ve done. I credit the whole deal to him. He came in and took over and did what he thought was right and it’s working out now.”

ON BEN LESLIE’S CONTRIBUTIONS. “Ben was the key to the whole move. I can sit here and say, with a lot of confidence, that we probably never would have made Daytona had he not been there because he is very, very organized. He had a plan - this first, then this, and this and this and this. He even went to the extent on the Daytona cars that there was a group of people working just on Daytona cars. They worked at the Stuart shop until we got things in the Mooresville shop to work with. That group continued to work on the Daytona cars with things going on around them.

“This year, in comparison to last year we probably haven’t built as many, but we moved. That being said, with the amount of cars that we have now, the guys at the shop have really done a good job. They have worked every day almost since December. Ben has just really helped. He is so organized in the planning of when a car has to got to go to the plate, when it’s got to be ready to go to the body hanger, and this, this and this. And the stuff is always ready. It is always on time.

“We have to be ready to go to Sonoma to test the night after we get home from Talladega. And that plan was made probably in January. And, we didn’t even have road race cars at that point. But, they were in the sequence and they left Friday to go out there. To build a road race car is harder than building other cars, but anything you’ve got really fits them. That is a whole other animal. They got all that done. And when I left the shop there was a whole new downforce car sitting there ready to be put together. He has just taken the whole thing and run with it.”

BEN LESLIE, CREW CHIEF – NO. 21 – MOTORCRAFT TAURUS
“To me it meant more to the guys and the Wood Brothers than it did to me personally. That is because everybody put so much work into the move and building all new cars and revamping the whole deal, and we haven’t really gotten a whole lot to show for it up to this point. We had a really good qualifying effort, an OK race. It was a typical restrictor-plate race. When it ends if you are lucky enough to be in the right place then you will finish good. If you’re not, you’re not then you don’t finish good. It doesn’t really reflect on how you ran, though. We were OK, but it was a typical restrictor-plate race. If somebody wanted to go with you and help you then you went to the front, but if not, then you finish 25th.

“It is hard to say what we’ve done. For me everything is different, but it’s not at the same time. Stuff is the a lot the same that we did last year and the year before last, and yet everything is just a little bit different because we are in a shop by ourselves and we don’t have a direct relationship with one or two other teams. We are not sharing space. Both sides have advantages and disadvantages.

“I’m looking forward to the Sonoma test and the California race even though we haven’t done very good on the big tracks. We’ve got a car that looks really good in the wind tunnel. And Ricky is a really good road racer. We rebuilt one road-race car from scratch and then we built a brand new one from scratch and we’re hoping that will compliment Ricky’s road racing abilities and we’ll get a really good test in.”