NASCAR: New Fords “too slow” at Daytona

The new Ford Fusion cars for NASCAR were described as being too slow by some drivers.

Greg Biffle said his Roush Fenway Racing Ford was too slow to make a bid for the win in Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited. Furthermore, only two Ford drivers qualified in the top 10 during Daytona 500 qualifying Sunday.

While Chevrolets got the front row in qualifying, Ford had just four drivers in the top 15 and just seven in the top 25. Kevin Harvick won the Sprint Unlimited in a Chevy, with Danica Patrick (Stewart-Haas Racing) and Jeff Gordon (Hendrick Motorsports) taking the front row for the Daytona 500 also in Chevys. Five of the six fastest cars in qualifying were Stewart-Haas or Hendrick Chevys.

Toyota teams also were a bit slower in qualifying, putting three in the top 10 but just four in the top 25.“Well, it is done. We haven’t quite had the speeds down here that the frontrunners have. We will go back and think about it before the Duel and see if we can find some speed,” Richard Petty Motorsports driver Marcos Ambrose was quoted as saying by NASCAR.com after struggling in the Unlimited and qualifying just 24th.

Ambrose said he was “embarrassed” by how his Ford ran in the Unlimited while Roush’s Greg Biffle said he did not have enough speed in either the race nor qualifying.