FORD ECOBOOST WINS AT CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS
September 21, 2015 by Ford
Ford Performance | TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Notes & Quotes:
Lone Star Le Mans
Race
Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015
FORD ECOBOOST FINAL RACE RESULTS
Overall/Class
1/1 01 Ford EcoBoost Riley (Scott Pruett, *Joey Hand) – 2:41:07.039
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*Last driver in car. FORD ECOBOOST STARTING POSITION P1 01 Ford EcoBoost Riley (*Scott Pruett/Joey Hand) – 1:58.441 * Driver qualified. NOTE: This was Scott Pruett's 60th career win and his first with co-driver Joey Hand. It was the duo's fourth podium of 2015 (p2 Long Beach/Watkins Glen, p3 Road America). The Ford EcoBoost team was the only prototype team to make only two pit stops. Hand ran the quickest lap of the event (1:58.616), bettering the 1:58.752 he ran earlier in the 2-hour, 41-min. race. Pruett started the race on pole after clocking a 1:58.441 in qualifying. No. 01 Ford EcoBoost Riley (Scott Pruett/Joey Hand) Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates SCOTT PRUETT: YOU CAME INTO THE RACE AS THE WINNINGEST DRIVER IN AMERICAN SPORTS CAR RACING. TODAY'S WIN IS YOUR MILESTONE 60TH WIN. PUT THAT INTO WORDS. 'The good Lord has blessed me with this incredible career. I've had the opportunity to work for an incredible team and team owner. Different teammates over the years, and Joey and I probably fit together the best of any so far. He grew up right on the other side of town, only about a half hour, 45 minutes away. It's just been awesome. The whole run I've had, through what started in the Grand-Am Series, then the TUDOR series, and all the way through I've had successes, but you're only as good as your last race and it's been a tough year. It's been a tough season. Without a doubt, we hadn't won a race since this race last year, then with Joey coming on board, Joey got me excited as well. We came out with a good car the first time at Daytona and broke, we had a pretty strong car at Road America and had a mechanical issue. But I just can't say enough for the Ford Performance team and Ford EcoBoost and especially the (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates) team. Champions are champions, and you look and see what Scott Dixon did (in IndyCar) a few weeks back, winning the championship from almost 50 points back, that's the heart of the team. It just resonates through the soul of everybody there. I'm proud to be part of it. I'm proud to get win No. 60. It's just been an incredible run.' YOU QUALIFIED ON THE POLE AND WERE THE QUICKEST CAR TODAY. WHAT WENT RIGHT WITH THE SET-UP THAT HADN'T GONE RIGHT BEFORE? 'We pull everything we can from all of the Ganassi teams, from the IndyCar and NASCAR sides, and there are a lot of things we learn. If you're out front, you're not working as hard as if you're behind, I can tell you for sure…More than anything else, we've improved the vehicle dynamics part of it, the shocks part of it, it's gotten to the point where the car's just been good to drive. That's such a big part of it. Any driver would say, when you have a car that drives nice, it's just fun. If you have something that's wicked, it just makes for a long day, and long race and just a horrible time. That's where we started out the season. We've turned the corner and things continue to get better and better.' JOEY HAND: 'We'd had a couple of good races lately, we just hadn't capitalized on them. It was our fault, really. This weekend, we showed up and had a lot of confidence, for sure. We were hoping for a good race on track and we did that. The boys did a great job of tuning it and making it good and made it really quick. We knew we had a good race car, we just had to capitalize on the opportunity. You're not going to have a fast race car every week. We just tried to get out front and stay out front, that's where our cars are best, and that's what we did. I like these boring races, to be honest with you. I like it when it's boring, when I'm out front. It's a good day today. It felt good for me, and it's good to get that first win with Scott and with the team as a full-time guy. Even though, for me, it's only career win 14…it's not 60, like Scott, but it's still 14. I'm coming.' WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO EARN YOUR FIRST WIN WITH PRUETT? 'I'm excited to be part of Scott's 60th win. That's a crazy number. My little 14 (career wins) doesn't sound so good once you hear 60, but for me it was just big to get my first win with the team as a full-time guy. I won Daytona with them on my first try, and now to be back for this team is amazing. I was hoping to get one earlier in the year, but it just wasn't meant to be. This was just one of those weekends where we just had the car. We had the car to win and we knew it. We knew what we needed to do and it was ours to win. I'm just proud to be part of this program. I'm thankful Chip Ganassi said 'come drive for me.' I'm thankful I did it. It's a great bunch of champions and winners. I'm also excited to have Ford on board. It's great to see the excitement of Ford and all the guys from Ford. I think there's a lot of good things ahead for this program.' About Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Michigan, manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 195,000 employees and 66 plants worldwide, the company's automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford and its products worldwide, please visit http://corporate.ford.com.
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