NASCAR Cup Series

Edsel Ford has magic touch

Published Feb. 24, 2011 11:01 p.m. ET

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Was it a feeling? A positive premonition? Extrasensory perception? Who knows, but pegging the winning Daytona 500 car before this year’s race even started might have simply been genetics at work for Edsel Ford II, great grandson of Henry Ford himself.

Edsel, currently a Ford board member and racing aficionado, decided to spend the entire race in the Wood Brothers’ Racing pit box, even though Ford was sponsoring a total of 11 cars in the Daytona 500. The bet paid off. Driver Trevor Bayne won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to take the fabled Wood Brothers Racing team back to Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway. The last time they had been there? Here’s a hint: “Carrie” and “The Omen” were the top-grossing films and Peter Frampton was one of the biggest rock stars on the planet. That’s right, 1976. But like a doting parent who never gives up on a child, Edsel Ford stuck with the Wood Brothers — one of the oldest NASCAR teams — and nurtured them back to the winner’s circle.

But while Edsel had faith, he also had the words of his father, Henry Ford II, ringing in his ears. “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.”

If you want to know how a Daytona 500 win translates to big bucks for a car company, just go to the source. We at FOXSports.com decided to do just that. In a FOXSports.com/FOX Business exclusive, Edsel Ford says this kind of win is aspirational. When a car wins on the track, consumers look for a car that resembles it on the showroom floor. Ford Fusion sales were already up 20 percent year over year. Let’s see if this win juices sales even more. But perhaps it really just comes down to what driver Trevor Bayne said after the race about Ford: “They gave me a rocket ship to ride.”

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