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New Ford Racing division establishes motorsports as key brand pillar
Posted by Talbot Payne on September 5, 2025
Since its inception, Ford Motor Co. has been fueled by racing. Henry Ford won the 1901 Sweepstakes race to secure investors for his fledgling company. Ford v Ferrari at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans became movie legend. And Mustang is one of the most recognized GT racers in the world.
So it’s only fitting that, on the 125th anniversary of Henry’s Sweepstakes feat, the company is reorganizing its Ford Performance operation as Ford Racing.
At a time when the Ford brand has organized the company around what it calls its icons — Bronco, Mustang, F-150 pickup — the new department is recognition that racing has made Ford an icon. Ford Racing will oversee the Dearborn automaker’s portfolio of race cars across 22 motorsports series that Ford competes in, including Formula One, NASCAR, IMSA Weathertech, GT3 racing, Mustang Challenge. While integrating learnings from these race cars into its production vehicles, attracting top-shelf engineers, and winning races, Ford Racing also intends to be a moneymaker for the Blue Oval.
Ford Racing logo. Ford, Ford
“It’s a unique moment for racing,” said Ford Racing General Manager Will Ford who, along with Global Director Mark Rushbrook, will run the new division. “We’re racing in more places than ever before, across every terrain imaginable, and maintaining an incredible lineup of performance products.”
In January, the new entity — a division under the Ford Blue internal combustion-engine unit — will kick off the 2026 racing season with logos and naming convention to signal a profit-driving enterprise enveloping racing programs, performance cars, customer experiences and merchandise. Will Ford likened the Blue Oval’s racing identity to Porsche, another brand whose track success has helped elevate its product offerings.
“Motorsport is really infused into everything (Porsche does) and everything they stand for as a brand. There are certainly other examples of great performance brands across our industry (like) Mercedes-AMG and what BMW has built,” said Ford, the great-great grandson of Henry Ford and who has been an architect of the new division since joining Ford Performance two years ago. “But we have a really unique message: our breadth of where we race and the products that those racing efforts influence our customers to buy. There’s no one else doing it across sports cars, pickup trucks and SUVs at such a global scale.”
Ford’s partnership with Red Bull Racing in F1 and NASCAR teams like Team Penske and RFK Racing are the headliners of Ford motorsport, but the brand’s off-road models have become a growing part of the mix in recent years.
At the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, CEO Jim Farley highlighted Ford’s off-road potential even as he announced Ford’s entry into Le Mans’ top prototype class for the first time since 1969.
At the 2025 Ford Performance Season Launch in Charlotte, N.C., Executive Chair Bill Ford (left) and Will Ford, general manager of Ford Performance (now Ford Racing), talk about the automaker’s racing plans. Behind them is the Ford Raptor T1+ Dakar Rally race car. Ford
“We want to sell Raptors and Broncos and then race the King of the Hammers,” said Farley referring to Ford’s truck/SUV lineup and the epic, off-road California event Ford has dominated. The Ford CEO said the goal is to “have people exited about the technology of their off-road vehicles — the same vehicles that we race at Baja and at Dakar (Saudi off-road race).”
Will Ford underlined the company’s commitment to off-road motorsports — competition that has grown in visibility as the buying public has increasingly turned to rugged, four-wheel-drive SUVs and pickups as daily drivers.
“Owning off-road is our mission,” he said. “That’s not to say we’re going to take our foot off the gas on Mustang and on-track performance, but we’ve developed something really special with Raptor. You can’t extract Baja from Raptor’s DNA. It’s perhaps the truest example of race to road.”
Ford Raptor T1 at Dakar Rally, Saudi Arabia. “Owning off-road is our mission,” Ford Racing General Manager Will Ford says. Robert Gray, Ford
Ford’s Raptor off-road badge now appears on everything from F-150s in the Baja 1000 in Mexico to the Bronco in Hammers all the way to the T1 prototype in the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.
The new division’s unveiling is intentionally timed with the 125th anniversary of Henry’s Sweepstakes victory as Ford embarks on a new century of motorsports. “This was the moment . . . (to create) an extension brand with a straightforward and visceral name to go along with it as we enter into this new phase,” Will Ford said.
Key to that new phase is profitability.
The Mustang Challenge is another prominent racing vehicle for Ford. Wes Duenkel, Ford
Where past Ford racing efforts have been aimed at specific achievements (winning Le Mans from 1966-1969 or in building bullet-fast electric EV Demonstrator rockets like the SuperTruck that has set Pikes Peak and Bathurst records), Ford Racing aims to build sustainable progress across race series.
“We’ve done a lot of lean-in — and lean-out — as a company. This is a full lean-in,” said Will Ford. “We’re committed to these series. This new organization that we formed underneath the Ford Racing banner is going to make sure that all that racing we’re committed to is continually utilized to make our production vehicles better.”
The company sees consistent success in motorsport aiding the deployment of productions models.
At the 2025 Ford Performance Season Launch in Charlotte, Red Bull Formula One boss Christian Horner (middle) talks with Ford CEO Jim Farley. Red Bull and Ford are teaming on the F1 drivetrain for the 2026 season. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
“Race-to-road and road-to-race is our primary mission,” he said. “The name change is not the primary story here. It’s a reflection of the future that we’re headed down in the motorsport and performance world.”
Key to that business model is the Mustang sportscar, which fronts race series from NASCAR to international GT3 racing to the Mustang Challenge. The series offer solid revenue as Ford provides cars and engineering support to customer teams globally.
Ford Racing General Manager Will Ford: “Passion needs to be infused into every product that we put on the road” Bob Chapman, Ford
As with Mustang, Bronco, and F-150 icons, Ford Racing aims to elevate the Blue Oval to more than a household appliance-maker.
“Passion needs to be infused into every product that we put on the road, and passion doesn’t doesn’t come to life any more strongly than here in Ford Racing,” said Will Ford. “The thrill is a huge part of our brand DNA. With this rebrand, Ford Racing plays a more prominent role in the master brand, more than any variation of our name has in the past.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.