MIKE FORD - 04/13/1970
was a crew chief in NASCAR top series. Ford's racing career began in the late 1980s when he worked at SABCO Racing under the direction of Gary Nelson. Ford worked as a mechanic and jack man with driver Dale Jarrett and owner Robert Yates from 1996–1999. During that time, Jarrett never finished lower than third in points, won the 1999 Winston Cup championship, the 1996 Daytona 500, and scored victories in the Brickyard 400 in 1996 and 1999. In 2000, he worked as crew chief in the last year of Elliott’s tenure as an owner/driver. From 2001–2003, Ford worked as crew chief for Bill Elliott at Evernham Motorsports and won four races, including the 2002 Brickyard 400. Ford was crew chief for Dale Jarrett at Robert Yates Racing during the entire 2004 season and 11 races in 2005 season. Ford was hired as crew chief for Denny Hamlin and the Joe Gibbs Racing #11 team in 2005. Mike worked with Denny full-time in 2006 winning the Budweiser
Shootout, and sweeping both races at Pocono. As crew Chief of the #11 car Mike Ford won 17 races including eight wins in 2010 and finished second in the points. On Dec 6th, 2011 Joe Gibbs Racing released Ford. On April 30, 2012, he replaced Greg Erwin as crew chief for the #43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, driven by Aric Almirola, for the rest of the 2012 season. In September 2012, Richard Petty Motorsports announced changes to its crew lineup. Ford became the new crew chief for the #9 Ford, driven by Marcos Ambrose, while Ambrose's crew chief, Todd Parrott, would become the new crew chief for the #43 Ford. In October 2012, Richard Petty Motorsports announced that Ford was no longer with the organization and was replaced by Drew Blickensderfer at the #9 Ford. In December 2012, Ford was hired to act as competition director for BK Racing. For his career Ford was crew chief in 14 seasons. He had 21 wins; four with Bill Elliott, and the rest with Denny Hamlin. Along with heading up Elliott's Brickyard 400 win, he also led Hamlin to a win in the Southern 500 in 2010. From 2014-2016 he was crew chief part time in each of those season heading up the efforts of owner Tony Townley; Father of John Wes Townley and co-founder of the Zaxby's restaurant chain. Over that span they ran 32 events and posted one Top 5 finish. Ford returned to a crew chief role for the 2016 Daytona 500 with BKR, working as Robert Richardson, Jr.'s crew chief; to date his last start. In 2017, he was hired as the competition director for GMS Racings #23 team in the Xfinity Series. On April 10, 2018, it was announced that Ford had rejoined Ryan Sieg’s team in some sort of consultant role.
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