Michael "Mike" Kranefuss (born July 3, 1938) is a German-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

former head of

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

's International Motorsports division for 12 years. After leaving Ford, he became a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

team owner.

Ford Motor Company

Kranefuss led

's worldwide racing efforts from 1980 to 1993 as their Director of Special Vehicle Operations. At that time, Ford was the only manufacturer to be involved in

World Rally Car A World Rally Car is a racing automobile built to the specific regulations set by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and designed for competition in the World Rally Championship (WRC). The cars were introduced in 1997 as a repl ...

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

, and

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., a Governing body, sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing T ...

. Kranefuss began working for Ford in 1968 as an assistant for Ford's German Competition Department. He became Ford's German manager 1972 when he developed on the

Ford Capri The Ford Capri is a fastback coupé built by Ford of Europe and designed by Philip T. Clark, who had been involved in the design of the Ford Mustang. It used the mechanical components from the Mk2 Ford Cortina and was intended as the European ...

. The Capri won two

European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World ...

s and he became Ford's European head in 1976. Ford joined the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

and won the 1979 championship with a Ford Escort. When he started, he resurrected Ford racing from a single

IMSA The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida, under the jurisdiction of the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States, ACCUS arm of the Féd ...

sports car. Kranefuss made the ill fated decision to supply engines to the upstart Indy Racing League for the 1996 season allowing the league to continue racing before their normally aspirated engines were ready for 1997 season. Had the IRL not had an engine supplier for 1996 the series would have never made it off the ground and the split that nearly destroyed American open wheel racing would not have happened.

NASCAR career

Kranefuss-Haas Racing debuted in 1994 at

Michigan International Speedway Michigan International Speedway (formerly named as the Michigan Speedway from 1997 to 2000) is a D-shaped oval superspeedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. It has hosted various major auto racing series throughout its existence, including NASCAR, Cham ...

with driver

Robby Gordon Robert Wesley Gordon (born January 2, 1969) is an American semi-retired auto racing driver. He has raced in NASCAR, Championship Auto Racing Teams, CART, the IndyCar Series, the Trans-Am Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA, Inter ...

, finishing 38th;

Geoff Brabham __NOTOC__ Geoffrey John Brabham (born 20 March 1952) is an Australian racing driver. Brabham spent the majority of his racing career in the United States. Racing career CART He raced successfully in CART early in his career, finishing 8th in ...

drove for the team in the inaugural

Brickyard 400 The Brickyard 400 is an annual NASCAR Cup Series points race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States. The inaugural race was held in 1994 and was the first race other than the Indianapolis 500 to be held at the ...

that year as well. Kranefuss's original full-time NASCAR driver was

John Andretti John Andrew Andretti (March 12, 1963January 30, 2020) was an American professional race car driver. He won individual races in CART, IMSA GTP, Rolex Sports Car Series, and NASCAR during his career. A member of the Andretti racing family, he was ...

, who drove the #37 Ford for the team in 1995 and most of 1996. In late 1996 Kranefuss's team and

Cale Yarborough William Caleb Yarborough (March 27, 1939 – December 31, 2023) was an American NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner, businessman, farmer, and rancher. He was the first driver in NASCAR history to win three consecutive championships, winn ...

's team essentially swapped drivers as

Jeremy Mayfield Jeremy Allen Mayfield (born May 27, 1969) is an American former stock car racing driver. He drove cars for the Sadler brothers, T.W. Taylor, Cale Yarborough, Michael Kranefuss, Roger Penske, Ray Evernham, Bill Davis, and Gene Haas. In 2009, he d ...

took over driving the #37 and Andretti started driving for Yarborough's #98 team. For 1998, Kranefuss merged his team with

Penske Racing Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Da ...

and the team changed their car number to #12 to more closely match Penske's flagship #2 car. Late in the 2001 season, Jeremy Mayfield was fired with eight rounds remaining in the year.

Mike Wallace Myron Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. Known for his investigative journalism, he interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade car ...

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's younger brother, was brought in to finish the season in the #12 car. At the end of the year, Penske bought out Kranefuss's interest in the #12 team and put Ryan Newman in the #12 car full-time for 2002. As an owner, Kranefuss won three victories – all under the Penske-Kranefuss banner and with Mayfield driving.

Car No. 12 history

The first No. 12 team for Penske was not always owned by the team. Originally the car was owned by Kranefuss. The team debuted in 1994 at Michigan as the #07 Ford driven by

. The car started and finished 38th after Gordon crashed on lap 70. After another start with

at the

, the team went full-time in 1995 with John Andretti, a second-year driver. The car became #37 and was sponsored by

Kmart Kmart ( ), formerly legally registered as Kmart Corporation, now operated by Transformco, is a department-store chain and online retailer in the United States and Territories of the United States, its territories. It operates four remaining Kma ...

and

Little Caesars Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. (doing business as Little Caesars) is an American multinational chain of Pizzeria, pizza restaurants that was formed in 1959. Little Caesars is the fourth largest pizza chain by total sales in the United States b ...

. Andretti won the pole at the

Mountain Dew Southern 500 A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

and finished 18th in the points. The team struggled in 1996. Before the season ended, Kranefuss decided change was needed, and replaced Andretti with the relatively unknown Jeremy Mayfield. The team improved to be 13th in the points in 1997, but it was obvious the team would not succeed if it only fielded one team. In 1998, Kranefuss announced his team would merge with Penske Racing, and would also change to the #12 with

Mobil Oil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after it and Mobil merged in 1999. A direct descenda ...

sponsoring the car. The move turned out to be a success, and Mayfield became the next big star. He won the pole at Texas, and at one point in the season, found himself in the points lead. At the Pocono 500 in June, he won his first Winston Cup series race. Mayfield's breakout year in Winston Cup ended with a 7th-place finish in the points. Mayfield struggled in 1999, as he did not win and dropped 4 spots in the points. In 2000, he won the Pocono 500 and California 500. Midway through the season, Kranefuss sold his share of the team to Penske. Mayfield then suffered a concussion while practicing for the Brickyard 400. He missed two races recuperating from his injury and finished 24th in points. Following 2000, Kranefuss was no longer associated with the Penske No. 12; he fielded a No. 84 Ford for

Shawna Robinson Shawna Robinson (born November 30, 1964) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. She was a competitor in all three of NASCAR's national touring series, as well as the ARCA Racing Series, ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series and the ISC ...

in 2001, but only qualified for one of four events attempted, at Michigan. Later, Kranefuss founded Falcon Cars with Ken Anderson in 2002, with the plan of entering a chassis into the

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...

in 2003. However, the car never ran and the company quickly folded.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kranefuss, Michael NASCAR team owners Living people 20th-century German businesspeople World Sportscar Championship drivers 1938 births