Dating back to 1964, the Ford Mustang has been a big part of Jack Roush’s venture into racing.
The Mustang has practically paralleled Roush’s career in motorsports and now he will get the opportunity to take the iconic pony car to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2019.
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Roush’s love for the Mustang started in 1964 when he purchased one after graduating from Berea College in Kentucky. Shortly after, Roush went to work for the Ford Motor Company in the Dearborn assembly plant where he worked on quality problems with components that vendors were sending in.
“As I was graduating and I went down to the local Ford dealer, who had sold his allocation, and he communicated with a dealer in Cincinnati and a month after I went to work for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit I came back to Cincinnati and picked up my 64 and a half Mustang,” Roush said.
While at Ford, Roush became interested in motorsports and his pursuit to go fast. He took that enthusiasm and kicked off his racing career in drag racing.
“When I started racing, the Mustang power train was what I used in my Falcon and then very quickly I got into racing full bodied Mustangs, NHRA legal stock cars,” Roush said. “From that I went to Super Stock cars to Pro Stock cars.”
After a successful run in drag racing with a group known as “The Fastbacks” and then a partnership with Wayne Gapp, Roush turned to road racing.
“Starting in 1984, we raced Mustang road race cars,” Roush said. “We raced for 16 years; we raced the 24 Hours at Daytona 10 times and won all 10 times in our class. We won 48% of the races that we entered in those 16 years. The last year was celebrated with Tommy Kendall winning 10 out of 12 Trans-Am races.”
The 1995 Rolex 24 victory was a special one because Roush fielded a Mustang that became famous. The car celebrated Paul Newman’s movie “Nobody’s Fool” and Newman was one of the four drivers that included Mark Martin, Tommy Kendall, and Mike Brockman that piloted the car. The win was also special because it came as Newman was celebrating his 70th birthday.
Roush’s son, Jack Jr., has seen his share of success racing a Mustang in the Continental Tire Challenge. Last season, he scored two wins at Watkins Glen and Road America.
Roush also has a line of performance products for Mustangs. The business includes producing a collection of high performance Mustangs, which include the Jackhammer along with Stage 1 and 2 models.
Since the full-time roll out of the Mustang in the Xfinity Series in 2011, Roush Fenway Racing has won 25 races, three driver championships and one owners’ title with the pony car.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who claimed two of those championships, is looking forward to driving a Mustang in the Cup Series next season for Roush.
“Even if we didn’t win the rest of this year I was able to get a Fusion in Victory Lane, but I was really comfortable putting a Mustang in Victory Lane in the 2011 and 2012 seasons and winning championships,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “Anytime you can get in a Mustang it’s just that iconic feel, something that Ford has been proud of and winning races with for so many years. To see that come to the highest level in our sport is going to be fun.”
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