DETROIT -- Despite the decline in pickup sales triggered by $3-a-gallon gasoline, Ford Motor Co. isn't letting up the pressure on dealers to sell its F series this summer.

Besides healthy consumer cash rebates that currently range up to $4,007, Ford is offering some tempting inducements to dealerships that hit F-series sales targets in July. Those dealerships will be eligible to win allocation rights for one of 50 Shelby GT500 KRs to be distributed in a lottery.

The 540-hp KR is a special-edition Mustang slated to go on sale next spring. With just 1,000 planned - and more than 3,700 U.S. Ford dealerships as of Jan. 1 - the KRs will be hot commodities among dealers.

The KR lottery is part of a program Ford is calling "The Greatest of All Time … The Fight for F-series Leadership." Ford leaders have repeatedly vowed that the F series will remain the industry's top-selling pickup.

Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood declined to comment specifically on the July F-series objectives.

ENLARGE Ford is determined to keep the F series at the top of the pickup heap. An F-250 is shown.

"We're just going to fight for truck leadership, as evidenced by our big lead in June of more than 20,000 trucks over our nearest competitor," Sherwood said.

Ford sold 65,156 F-series pickups in June. The segment runner-up, the Chevrolet Silverado, came in at 44,955 units. Through the first half of 2007,

F-series sales totaled 355,438, an 11.2 percent decline. Its first-half lead on the Silverado is nearly 45,000 vehicles.

Ford also will reward dealerships hitting the July targets with special

F-series die cast models. Ford's sales regions also will compete for the chance to host a special concert on country music star Toby Keith's "Big Dog Daddy" tour.

Although Ford is trying to keep pickup sales strong, cars and crossovers are the emphasis of its third-quarter dealer bonus program.

That program assigns monthly sales objectives to dealerships and pays a bonus of $300 per vehicle for hitting the target. The bonus increases to $400 per vehicle if the dealership reaches 125 percent of the target amount.

Eligible nameplates for the third-quarter dealer bonus program are the Ford Five Hundred, Taurus, Fusion, Crown Victoria, Focus, Mustang, Explorer, Sport Trac, Escape, Expedition and Edge, plus the Mercury Montego, Sable, Milan, Mountaineer and Mariner.

You may e-mail Amy Wilson at awilson@crain.com