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NASCAR CUP SERIES: CONSUMERS ENERGY 400August 9, 2020Mark RushbrookBrooklyn, Michigan THE MODERATOR: Thank you for taking the time to join us, Mark. Congratulations to you and Ford on the Heritage Trophy win. Talk about the importance of this win, taking home that trophy. MARK RUSHBROOK: This track is in our backyard, it's our home track. We love this race. Normally we have a thousand or more of our employees out there, which makes it even more special. Certainly with COVID this year we can't have the employees there to see it in person. Certainly means a lot, especially a doubleheader here in Michigan, Kevin Harvick bringing two wins home for Ford, strong performances across the board for all of our Ford teams. Really happy. THE MODERATOR: We'll take some questions from the media. Q. You've won this the last three years. What has it been like to be so dominant here at this racetrack? MARK RUSHBROOK: It's been fantastic because that Heritage Trophy, like I just mentioned, it means so much to the company. Really glad that we can bring it back to Dearborn. We've had a lot of success through the years with I think 39 race wins before this weekend, so notch two more onto that, more than any other manufacturer. And across a lot of different teams. I think Jack Roush is the winningest team owner here. Doug Yates and Roush‑Yates, they build a lot of power into the engines. Definitely need that here in Michigan with the cars wound up like they are. Really got it done today, this weekend, with those engines and Ford Performance. Q. Where is the trophy kept? MARK RUSHBROOK: We have a couple different trophy display cases around our Dearborn campus. Sometimes it's in the world headquarters lobby, sometimes in our Ford Performance lobby, another big engineering building. Normally makes the rounds like that so the employees can see it in person. Certainly we don't have as many people here coming to work every day. We will make sure it gets out there for people to see and have a sense of pride for our company. Q. I think this is Kevin Harvick's 20th win for Ford. How valuable has he been over the last four years after all those years competing against you? MARK RUSHBROOK: It's good to have him on our side, for sure (laughter). We were very excited to bring Stewart‑Haas to Ford three and a half years ago. We were excited from the first day we talked to them. We know the level of competition inside that organization. They're all racers. They want to go win every single race. As a company, as a team, to have them with us as part of our Ford family has been really big. They've got a lot of great drivers, especially Kevin Harvick as a former champion is bringing home a lot of race wins. Looking to see him do well in the Playoffs this year. Q. We've seen a lot of solid performances from the Fords this year. How do you feel across the board with Ford's performance overall in 2020? MARK RUSHBROOK: We've been really happy. I think 13 wins now so far through this season out of 22 races ‑‑ 21 races. It means so much to have such strong performance with five different drivers, with wins. Each of the teams have strong finishes at almost every race we go to across all different tracks. Doesn't matter whether it's a short course or superspeedway or mile‑and‑a‑half or two mile, we've had really strong cars and performance. We're excited about the rest of the season and some of the variety in the schedule with the different tracks that we have coming up. Really looking forward to the Playoffs and the sequence of races that we hope to see some more good strong competition and wins playing out there. Q. How big was it for Ford to get Keselowski signed before the Playoffs? MARK RUSHBROOK: Yeah, we like long‑term stability, great people, great drivers. Brad is a great person. He's a great driver. Integral part of Team Penske since they've been with us at Ford. That was very satisfying to see that contract signed, to have Brad into the future. Q. Two wins for your company this weekend, Heritage Trophy, for once we had perfect weather throughout the weekend. Put everything into perspective. MARK RUSHBROOK: NASCAR is important to us. The ability to participate in this sport, to have fans, customers, employees, to take pride when they drive those products or as they work for the company. We're really happy that NASCAR has gone back to racing I think in the right way, given the situation, keeping everybody as safe as we possibly can, minimizing the risks, controlling everything. They've done a great job with the schedule, putting on some great races. I think we've seen the no practice, no qualifying has actually created some really good racing, mixing it up just a little bit, making it more exciting with different stage winners through the races. We definitely miss the fans in the stands. We know in some of the races, depending on the local or state rules, we've been able to have some. Unfortunately we couldn't do that here in Michigan. Not only was it no fans in the stands, but we weren't able to do our normal employees in the stands. That does take away from it a little bit, but it's still fantastic because we know there's so many people watching on TV, whether it's fans, customers or employees that take a lot of pride. We'll still post it on our Ford employee homepage tonight so that when employees log on from their homes to work tomorrow they'll see the success if they didn't see it on the television this weekend. That means a lot for us to be able to share the success and give them some sense of pride in what the company is doing. THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Congratulations on the wins and the trophy. MARK RUSHBROOK: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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