In a season where Chevrolet drivers had a near-monopoly of wins, it is positive news for Ford that their drivers are getting more and more appearances on the podium as Chevrolet drivers have. The last five races is proof of Ford's resurgence. Two wins out of the five races and a two-three finish at the recently concluded USG Sheetrock 400 shows that Ford drivers are slowly getting into a strong fight with Chevy drivers.
At the nineteenth race of the season, although Chevrolet driver Tony Stewart took the win, Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth took second place and Carl Edwards third. Both drivers are driving Ford cars.
In fact, Kenseth had a chance to win the USG Sheetrock 400. During the restart with only 38 laps remaining, he looked ready to overtake Stewart but was foiled by the veteran driver. "It was very, very close... but I had to get out of there just a little bit because he closed the door," said Kenseth.
"I hung a left (went to the inside) and still got a good run down the backstretch and almost cleared him getting into (Turn) 3. Then we ran side by side for a couple of laps, and when you're on the bottom and racing for position, it's hard to hang on. If it was early in the race, people will give you a little extra room to stay on your car," he explained.
"But when it's at the end for position, you're both racing as hard as you can. I stayed under him for about two laps and then went into (Turn) 3 side by side, but I got so loose I was afraid I was going to wipe us both out, so I had to get back behind him," he ended saying.
Although Kenseth missed to take his second win of the season, he said that he feels that they still do not have the best car in the field. But with a second and third place finish, it would seem that Ford is making good progress in improving their cars and their racing parts such as and such.
"It really frustrates you when you lose if you have the best car, but I don't think we had the best car today," said Kenseth. "I don't feel we gave it away today. I don't think we had anything taken away from us."
"You can only go as fast as your racecar will carry you, and I feel we got everything out of it today. So overall it was a great weekend for us. It was good to come home second. I had that one shot at him, but I couldn't quite finish the pass. If I could have finished that pass on the restart, I would like to have been in front of him and try to hold him off."
Ford's first win was at the second race of the season taken by Matt Kenseth, and the second came at the fifteenth race of the season. The said race is the Citizens Bank 400 held at the Michigan International Speedway was won by Carl Edwards.
Edwards said that they are gaining on Chevrolet teams. "The Hendrick cars and the Chevys got off to an unbelievable start. I think we've been working really hard and we've been gaining a little ground."
