FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS ADVANCE
A new venue takes center stage this weekend as the Circuit of the Americas plays host to all three of NASCAR’s top touring series for the first time. A doubleheader highlights Saturday’s action with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series while Sunday features NASCAR Cup Series qualifying and race.
This Week’s Schedule:
Saturday, May 22 – NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, 1 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, May 22 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 4 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, May 23 – NASCAR Cup Series, 2:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
FORD’S ACTIVE ROAD COURSE CUP WINNERS
There are three current drivers who have one a NASCAR Cup Series race on a road course with Ford. The most recent winner was Ryan Blaney, who captured the inaugural event at the Charlotte Roval in 2018. Kevin Harvick, who goes into this weekend with 23 career Ford victories in just over four years, got his first with the Blue Oval in 2017 when he won at Sonoma. Joey Logano scored his Cup victory at Watkins Glen International in 2015, which completed a weekend sweep after he won the NASCAR XFINITY Series race one day earlier.
FORD LOOKING TO CONTINUE NXS INAUGURAL WIN STREAK
The last three times NASCAR has conducted a debut road course race in the NASCAR XFINITY Series a Ford has won. It started in 2018 when Chase Briscoe captured his first series victory in the inaugural event on the Charlotte Roval, and continued last year when Briscoe won the first race held on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Austin Cindric took the Daytona road course debut, which capped a personal streak of five wins in six races.
HARVICK, CINDRIC AND CUSTER PULLING DOUBLE DUTY
Kevin Harvick, Austin Cindric and Cole Custer will be competing in the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY Series races this weekend at Circuit of the Americas. Harvick has two career NXS road course victories (Montreal and Watkins Glen, 2007) to go with a pair of Cup triumphs (Watkins Glen, 2006 and Sonoma, 2017). Cindric will try to complete a NASCAR trifecta because a win in the Cup race would give him at least one road course victory in all three top series. He has four career NXS road course wins (Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio, 2019; Road America and Daytona, 2020) and one in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, 2017). Custer is still looking for his first road course victory in each series.
OTHER FORD ROAD COURSE WINNERS
Besides the drivers mentioned above, Ford has four other competitors who have won on a road course in either the NASCAR Cup or NASCAR XFINITY Series. Ryan Newman (Watkins Glen NXS, 2005); Brad Keselowski (Watkins Glen NXS with Ford, 2013); Chris Buescher (Mid-Ohio NXS with Ford, 2014); and Michael McDowell (Road America NXS, 2016).
FORD ROAD COURSE WINS IN THE MODERN ERA (1972-Present)
Circuit of the Americas will represent the sixth road course the NASCAR Cup Series has competed on in the modern era, joining Riverside International Raceway (1958-88), Watkins Glen International (1957-Present), Sonoma Raceway (1989-Present), Charlotte Motor Speedway (2018-Present) and Daytona International Speedway (2020-Present). Two more will join that list later this year when the circuit goes to Road America (July 4) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Aug. 15). Ford has produced a total of 19 combined wins at those facilities from 1972-Present. Mark Martin leads the way with four victories, including three straight years at Watkins Glen, while Ricky Rudd, Marcos Ambrose and Geoffrey Bodine have two each.
