The man who unified Ford Performance and brought Stewart-Haas to Ford is heading back to production cars
Dave Pericak will leave his role as director of Ford Performance. He’s going back into the production vehicle side of the company.
Ford Performance works directly with the blue ovals in the NASCAR ranks. Though, it’s more than just NASCAR.
“We’re laser-focused on the championship,” Dave Pericak told motorsport.com. “We have a strategy in place and we’re working that strategy. I won’t even be slightly distracted until the end of this season.
“But why make the move now? When you look at what we said Ford Performance would be, it was going to be the place where we develop our people, our tools and our technologies — that’s at all levels, including my level.”
“Given that I’ve been here for three years, I’ve set the program up, we’ve been able to make it operate globally and we’ve had so many successes on the production side of things with all of the products we released — the 350, the Raptor, the RS. Or whether it’s our success in racing. We’re winning more now than we have ever before. We won Le Mans with the Ford GT.
Now, it’s time for me to go and take this global approach and bring it to the mainstream
Dave Pericak
“All the stuff we’ve been doing for the past three years has been pretty impressive, I think, personally, and I’m proud of it. Now, it’s time for me to go and take this global approach and bring it to the mainstream, where we can start affecting the way that we do production cars and trucks on a larger scale.”
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Stewart-Haas Racing to Ford
“Obviously, I’m very proud of bringing Stewart-Haas in and some of the additional changes we made to the teams that are going to further strengthen where we go in the future of NASCAR. I think we continue to get better and better,” Pericak told motorsport.com.
“This year was better than last. We’re still focussed on the championship this year and next year we’ve got more in play — and the next year more. So it’s just going to continue to build.”
What his new direction? Paricak is moving back into the production side of the Ford Motor Company. He will become the Engineering Director for Unibody. Mark Rushbrook will fill his position with Ford Performance.
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Links
Ford Performance | Team Penske | Stewart-Haas Racing | NASCAR
