Five Finalists Announced In Ford Customer Service Division's NASCAR Design Contest For JDRF

DEARBORN, Mich., September 10, 2010 – Five finalists have been chosen from the 60 designs submitted this summer by JDRF children with type 1 diabetes, as part of a charity contest to design the paint scheme for the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion driven by Bill Elliott.

On-line voting ended on Friday, September 3, and the top five donation-earning designs are in front of a panel of Ford and Wood Brothers Racing judges for final selection. The winning design will be featured on No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion during the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 14-16.

“All of the designs this year were very well done and any of the top five designs will look great on the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion. We have a tough decision in front of us,” said Brett Wheatley, Director of Marketing, Ford Customer Service Division. “The goal of the NASCAR Design Contest was to help raise awareness for JDRF. We accomplished our goal because our generous race fans donated more than $30,000 to support a worthy cause.”

The winning designer will be invited to the Bank of America 500 in Concord, NC, with his or her parents for an official unveiling of their paint scheme, spend time with the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team and see their design run during at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

For the past two years JDRF children have helped design the paint scheme featured on the NHRA Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang Nitro Funny Car, driven by Bob Tasca III. This year, in honor of the Wood Brothers celebrating 60 years of racing Ford products in NASCAR, FCSD has decided to bring the successful contest over to the legendary race team.

This year’s NASCAR Design contest raised $33,391, and in three years, the FCSD efforts have raised more than $157,000 for JDRF.

Top Five Designers Liam Flanagan, age 8, raised $7,186, Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter Carson Luther, age 8, raised $5,341, St. Louis Chapter James Krist, age 11, raised $4,035, Omaha-Council Bluffs Chapter Peyton Polivick, age 9, raised $4,029, Kentuckiana Chapter Irene Mallano, age 8, raised $3,342, New York Chapter

To view all the 2010 JDRF designed cars, visit www.jdrf.org/ford.