Ford to run new engine package at Talladega (cont'd)

Yates said Ragan was Ford's driver there, and that the engine also had plenty of work at Ford's proving grounds.

"And we've also got an endurance dyno at the shop, where we can load up and run simulated races, which is really nice. So we've done a lot of validation work to get it where it is today.

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I'm looking forward to running it, but I've never driven one yet, so I don't know. You'll really be able to tell something about it when the open version comes out.

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-- MATT KENSETH

"But it turned out that the plate engine came together a little bit better than the open engine. And you know how much I enjoy racing at Daytona and Talladega. I couldn't ask for a better place to roll it out."

Yates said Kenseth and Ragan's team owner, Jack Roush, made the decision on which drivers would debut the engine. Coming into this weekend's race at Martinsville, Kenseth is 13th and Ragan 28th in the points standings.

"I'm looking forward to running it, but I've never driven one yet, so I don't know," Kenseth said. "You'll really be able to tell something about it when the open version comes out. The plate engines are so specialized. They were pretty happy with the plate version of it when it first came out, it was a little better than what we had and probably closer on power to what Toyota and everybody else had.

"But with the open stuff, I think they've been struggling to find the power to make it better than what we're running today, but I think it's good to get it on the track, because there's a lot of different things that come with a motor that Toyota and GM have been for a long time, like that cable-driven fuel pump, so it's a good thing to run it this year so we'll have an idea about it before the Daytona 500."

Ragan said he liked the engine after running it in the Daytona test.

"It's going to be a blast to debut it," Ragan said, "though by no means are we saying that our old engines aren't up to par, but I think that the new engine is something that's going to be good, considering we're already pretty good at Daytona and Talladega, so even if we have just a little bit extra, I think we're going to be a contender."

"All of us are anxious to see it in competition for the first time," Brian Wolfe, director, Ford North America Motorsports said. "Those of us who have been involved in this project agree that one of the biggest hurdles we've faced in making this transition to the FR9 this year has been the fact the current Ford engine is still so competitive, along with the economics of obsolescing the inventory of the current engine and parts."

Despite Wolfe's optimistic outlook, the fact is at this point last season Ford teams had won eight races: Six by Carl Edwards and the first two races in the Chase by Greg Biffle. This season Ford has two victories, by Kenseth in the first two races of the season.

"This has been a tough year for us and our teams on the track, especially since we had such a strong 2008," Wolfe said. "The priority for everyone this year has been solving the on-track performance, which has slowed down the rollout of the FR9."

Every Ford driver that discussed the engine at Martinsville on Friday, where Ford's top team was eighth, with only two Fusions in the top 19, was enthusiastic about the new powerplant, and Yates echoed that in Ford's release on the debut.

"This puts us on a level playing field with the rest of the competition and it's something we're excited about working on," Yates said. "Right out of the box the engine is really impressive power-wise."

Yates said the engine was designed to aid its cooling, to marginally lower its center of gravity and improve its accessory systems.

"We feel like it's going to give us some advantages aerodynamically where, perhaps, we can tape the cars up more and run the engines hotter," Yates said. "The oiling system is designed for a racing engine. To this day, the current engine has done a great job for many years, but we've got to remember when I started 20 years ago the block was already in existence.

"So a lot of things have changed. The demands have changed. The RPM and the power levels have changed tremendously, and to have an opportunity to have something new and move forward makes this an exciting time to be part of Ford."