FORCE and DE DONCKER lead the weekend for FORD RACING with MUSTANG VICTORIES

* John Force, driver of the Castrol GTX Mustang, won Sunday’s Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals in Sonoma. Force is eighth in the standings.
* Eric De Doncker won the second race of the GT4 European Cup event weekend in Spa-Francorchamps , Belgium . De Doncker led the entire race, which ran on a wet track.
* Matt Kenseth was the top Ford Nextel Cup driver in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in Indianapolis. Kenseth finished 10 th and continues to sit third in the standings.
* Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards each grabbed top-five finishes in the Kroger 200 NASCAR Busch Series race, while Travis Kvapil and Rick Crawford placed in the top-five in the Craftsman Truck Series Power Stroke Diesel 200 presented by Ford.

DEARBORN, Mich.– It was a victorious weekend for Ford Mustang as John Force and Eric de Doncker both captured wins in NHRA Funny Car and GT4 European Cup competition. Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Travis Kvapil were the top Ford drivers in NASCAR competition this weekend in Indianapolis as Kenseth was 10 th in the Nextel Cup race, Biffle was second in the Busch Series race and Kvapil was third in the Craftsman Truck Series race.

On the way to his second win of the season, Force faced teammate and daughter Ashley in the first round, the second time he’s faced her this season.

“I want to thank Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, John Medlen, Jimmy Prock, Dean Antonelli, everybody who makes my ‘ol hot rod talk. In the final, you look at a young kid like Worsham with all his energy. I said, ‘Coil, I don’t have that much to give’ and he said the hardest race I had today was the race against Ashley.

“That was the toughest race. I thought about it and that was true. And that helped me reach back and find something for the final.”

While one race victory for the Mustang came in California, the other happened in Belgium, as de Doncker was able to secure his second victory in the past two event weekends. He led the entire length of the race.

“It was a fantastic race – I’m really happy,” said de Doncker. “The team did a really good job fixing the car after yesterday’s race. The only problem I had was my windscreen fogging up – the first lap was okay, but then it was a big problem. Once it stopped raining it was okay, and I pulled out a good gap to Buncombe. But then it started raining again; for the last three laps I couldn’t see anything - I missed two or three apexes, and I didn’t even see the checkered flag! My team had to tell me on the radio the race was over.”

Indianapolis was the site of the weekend’s NASCAR action. In the Nextel Cup race, Kenseth finished 10 th, but felt like his team could have done better.

“That was way better than we could do. We had probably a 25 th-place car and finished 10 th with it so, somehow, we were able to steal some spots and finish it.”

In the Busch race, Biffle finished second, and was just 1.009 seconds short of claiming victory. Biffle took over the lead in lap 103 and held off eventual winner Jason Leffler until the final three laps.

“It was a really good night,” said Biffle. “The car was really, really tough to drive. Probably the toughest car that I’ve ever driven at this race track, I don’t know why. To be honest with you, I don’t know why we did so well. Track position was a lot of it. I ran the thing in the fence three or four times on my own. Carl (Edwards) and I were racing really hard together and I kind of got in the fence a couple of times on the back stretch, which probably wasn’t good. It was a good night and I had a lot of fun.”

Edwards, who continues to lead the Busch standings, finished fourth in the race.

“I’ve just got to thank everybody at the Weather Channel and my guys, but Travis Kvapil, for sure. That was a fun race track. I wish we ran 500 laps around this place twice a month. This is about as good as it gets. Congratulations to Jason Leffler. We were just too loose. I had an awesome race thanks to Travis, but I got too re-starts and ended up fourth.”

The Craftsman Truck Series race was delayed at O’Reilly Raceway Park for over two hours because of rain. Earlier in the day, qualifying was cancelled and starting positions was decided by owner standings. Kvapil continued his recent success by taking third place.

“All in all, it wasn’t a bad night” said Kvapil. “I’m just a little disappointed. We really thought in practice we had a truck to win. We were about an adjustment off from being there. My guys did a great pit stop and got us out and first off pit road; which got us some bonus points there. In the long run we were just too loose, spinning the tires off the corner and it ultimately hurt me in traffic. I needed all of the race track to get through lapped traffic and it’s just hard to pass lapped guys when you don’t have the whole track to do that. That’s how they ran me back down. We were a little too free in the long run, but all and all, not a bad night for our K & N Ford.”

Crawford, who continues to be fifth in the points, was right behind Kvapil in fourth place in the No. 14 F-150.

“We never really had good track position; we got up to second at one time,” said Crawford. “The Roush-Yates engines finished third and fourth tonight; a good job by them. I just wish we were in victory lane with all of the International employees and the Ford Power Stroke Diesel plant right here in Indianapolis, but I think we put on a heck of a show for the fans tonight. We had great calls in the pit by crew chief Kevin Starland. We had a good set-up on the truck. We probably had a 10 th to 15 th place truck tonight, we made some changes in the pits and every time we came out we moved forward and that’s how you win a race.”

Next weekend the Nextel Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway, while both the Busch Series and Grand-Am Rolex Series head north to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal .