3 or 4 cars at Roush next year?

Trevor Bayne has secured a full-time drive in the 6 car with Roush Fenway Racing for the 2015 Sprint Cup season. Roush says that this does not necessarily mean that the team will run four cars. The contracts for Biffle and Edwards run out at the end of this year.

So how many cars do you think they'll run next year? I keep hearing rumors of Edwards going to Gibbs but I can't picture it. m I think Kenseth is upset that Roush and Ford tried so hard to keep Edwards last time his contract was up and resented Edwards getting top billing on the team. I don't think Kenseth would encourage Gibbs to sign Carl. I also have the feeling that Carl needs to feel like a superstar and would be uncomfortable working with Kyle Busch.

So I think Edwards stays with Roush. On the other hand, I don't think Biffle is any great shakes. Yeah, he's been top ten in points six of the last ten years, but has declined since his 2nd place finish in 2005. I'd swap Bayne for Biffle. Is Bayne any good? I don't really know. He isn't been lighting any fires in Nationwide but he's got a good following and is an attractive fresh face that may bring in sponsors.

I think Roush is in a bad place right now and if I were Carl Edwards, I'd want out. But there aren't many good teams looking for drivers and Ford will probably give Roush a boot in the butt and tell them to get their act together. There aren't any other teams that can build engines to compete with Hendrick so Ford has no choice but to stick with Roush.

Would be nice to see a Stranger walk up and Crank up a new race team.

It could be with Dodge or Ford or Chevy. Dont think TRD can handle another team..

The money is out there I just dont know the path it will take just yet... Do you???

Michael Shank Racing was successful for Ford in Grand-Am. They won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2012 with AJ Allmendinger. Tried to get an Indycar team going that same year but couldn't get an engine lease so they gave up. They're still running Fords in the TUDOR Series, maybe somebody will hand them a wad of cash to start a Cup team. I don't think Shank is really interested in stock cars, but you go where the money goes.

I don't think Dodge has the cash to come back to stock cars and I can't picture another manufacturer coming in. A couple of years ago, yeah. But not now. Chevy has the best teams and the best drivers. Toyota has great drivers and Gibbs is better than average, I think they'll stick around. Ford doesn't have a whole lot going for it and could bail out for Indycar if they don't get something boiling soon.

Not in Fords nature to bail out like that -- they may have wholesale change in teams but give up?? NEVER

They did in 1969. And they're pulling out of drag racing after this year.

However, they had their fingers in everything in 1969 - LeMans, Formula 1, NASCAR, Indycar, NHRA and probably others I'm missing. It was costing them a lot of money.

Honda is actually campaigning to lure Ford to Indycar to compete with them and Chevrolet. The 100th Indy 500 is in 2017 and Ford had a very successful run there from 1961 to 1987. I can't imagine them pulling out of NASCAR as long as Chevy is still there, but it's been 11 years since they won a manufacturer's championship and Chevy runs a lot of ads to remind people of that.

Shelby Racing and Bud Moore Engineering fielded 4 Ford factory supported Mustangs in 1969 Trans-Am competition.

Parnelli Jones and George Follmer in Bud Moore Engineering factory Ford Boss 302 Mustangs at Kent, Washington during 1969 SCCA TransAm season.

On paper, Ford pulled out in 1957 too, but we know that wasn't really true.

I don't know how I forgot about Trans-Am, but your mention helped jog my memory. They won the 1970 T/A championship with Bud Moore, so they had to have pulled out at the end of the 1970 season instead of 1969 as I had falsely remembered. And they were supporting NASCAR in '70 too, even planning the King Cobra to compete with the aerocars.I don't even know if they ever officially returned.

But anyway. After winning just about every race that could be won, they shocked everyone and pulled out of all racing. And Chrysler followed, which gave Chevy a reason to jump in with secret (at first) factory support. So while it seems like they would NEVER pull out of NASCAR, they might.

For many years, Bud Moore kept one of the three King Cobras (a yellow one) ever produced under a tarp in his Spartanburg shop. I'm sure Perry Allen Wood has seen it there on many occasions. It was always a source of pride for Bud to peel back the tarp and show the car to first time shop visitors.

In NASCAR's inaugural year, 1948, FORD won EVERY SINGLE ONE of the 52 Modified races staged. By the time I came along, the only Ford NASCAR Modified running in Virginia on a weekly basis in the mid-60s was the Junie Donlavey #90 driven by Sonny Hutchins.

The red King Cobra sold on eBay just last week for $600k. Doesn't seem like Bud had owned it in a while. The plain yellow one is in the b&W photo of Bud's shop. The one with the black hood was on a Motor Trend cover and according to another article , was bought by Steve Honnell from Holman & Moody in 1970. Honell also has a red Mercury Cyclone II with the same style body.

If it weren't for NASCAR car owner Bud Moore, there's a good chance that neither this car nor its sibling would be around for us to admire today. The car's design studio clays were destroyed, fiberglass mock-ups of the nose were tucked away at Holman & Moody's shop, and the two running street prototypes were relegated to use as Dearborn "gofer" cars. Moore spotted the King Cobras in 1971 while picking up several Mustangs for the upcoming SCCA season and, being a long-time Ford racer, used his influence to strike a deal on both cars. According to the original receipt, the pair set him back a mere $1200 (!). One car, dressed in bright yellow, was parked at his shop. The other, blue at the time, had a damaged nose which he replaced with regular Torino sheet metal and eventually sold to a local police officer. The car lived out its remaining life as a daily driver and was eventually put to rest in a scrap yard.

They say that legends don't die and, in the case of the blue King Cobra, that statement holds true. Some years later, Ford fanatics Steve Danielle and Dennis Roy were informed of an unusual Torino hull sitting in a South Carolina field. The car was reported to carry a '69-style data plate stamped X0-429-0058-3 as well as prototype stickers and Boss 429 shock towers. The combination was too interesting to pass up so the pair struck a deal and brought the Torino home. Restoration proved to be doubly difficult as they had to first figure out what exactly the car was and then find the ultra-rare pieces needed to complete it. Contacts in the Ford NASCAR world confirmed the car was formerly a King Cobra while other connections guided them towards to the original nose. Once the puzzle pieces were in place, efforts focused on the body. Sanding revealed a Vermillion base coat buried underneath several layers of paint, so the car was re-shot with that high-profile hue.

Thanks, Perry. Please tell Bud Happy Birthday from me, Joyce and our girls. They still fondly talk about living in Bud's lake house on Lake Bowen and feeding the ducks and squirrels.

Ford's got nobody to blame but themselves. A few years ago, they had the perfect opportunity to lock up Chase Elliott, given his dad's longtime ties with the blue oval. But instead, they allowed Mr. Hendrick to sign him, and now they will live to regret the way they did Bill in his later years. I think Carl is on his way out, and when he does Roush will be left with Stenhouse, Bayne, and Biffle- a far cry from the days when that team had Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, and even Jamie McMurray. If RPM decides to move to Chevy or Toyota, I'm afraid the Fords are going to be looking a lot like the Ford of the late 1970s-early 1980s: overmatched.